Hey - this gives me an idea . . .
California State Senator Jeff Stone (R-Confederacy) has proposed adding two more GOP seats to the United States Senate by splitting off 13 mostly-red (and white) counties from the rest of the Golden State to form a new state, which he proposes calling "South California," or, for short, "The South."
Stone's Confederate State of South California would manage to detour around that un-Amurkn Enclave of Brown People and Libruls, Los Angeles County, and include only the reddest of the red parts of California.
"Los Angeles is purposely excluded because they have the same liberal policies [diarist's translation: brown-skinned people and gays] that Sacramento does. The last thing I want to do is create a state that's a carbon copy of what we have now,'' Stone said.
While the idea does have its party poopers -
"If you want to live in a Republican state with very conservative right-wing laws, then there's a place called Arizona," [Gov. Jerry Brown's] spokesman Gil Duran said.
- still, some of the immediate benefits of the New South are obvious, as pointed out by Andrew Malcolm of the LA Times blog:
Of its 13 existing counties, 11 have consistently voted Republican.So, unemployment would be low and the golf courses well-manicured.
That's a terrific idea. In fact, here's how we can go one better:
I propose that we flood the U.S. Senate with Democrats by creating a new state out of every Democratic precinct in Los Angeles County. We could have the State of West Encino, the State of Los Feliz/Hillhurst, the State of Santa Monica (it's already The People's Republic, right?), the State of San Fernando, the State of East Van Nuys (as well as West, North and South Van Nuys), the State of Malibu, the State of Montecito Heights, the State of Compton, the State of Atwater Village - well, you get the idea.
Besides the two Senate seats we'd be guaranteed for each new state (and, really, isn't it about time Democrats reaped the rewards of that silly Constitutional math, right?), we'd pick up a passel of House seats, since every state would be guaranteed at least one representative.
And frankly, why stop at Los Angeles County? I'm gonna guess New York is going to want to get into the act (they always do), so State of Bed-Stuy, here we come!!
State of Austin, anyone?