Time for More Stars: Promoting U.S. Territories (and other regions) to Statehood
Statehood has become a hot button issue after the previous administration spent as much time as possible only catering to a certain population of Americans and wildly ignoring the minorities. In the midst of the white supremacist administration came new chants for underrepresented places under the United States banner to finally stop being territories and instead officially become part of the union, officially garner the representation that its citizens deserve. Whether its Guam or Puerto Rico, there are pockets of the U.S.A. that have been neglected for far too long and should have senators and house members to represent their desires and beliefs in the White House.
Not only would statehood bolster representation and give ALL Americans ALL their rights and privileges, but it would ultimately help the United States in a variety of ways; from global presence to even the economy. But statehood should not just be granted to territories, but we have locations within the continental United States that should break off and become its own state to better represent its territory. Of course, these places should be presented with the option as opposed to just automatically being granted statehood, but if the vote is in favor of statehood, it should be granted immediately. Here are my picks for what places should be a U.S. state by the end of this decade.
1) Washington D.C.
One of the largest and most diverse cities in the entire country is essentially in representative purgatory, since it has no actual representation in the House and the Senate and has less rights than all 50 states despite still paying federal taxes. This is a dated concept that should finally be eradicated, as we can easily separate the inner workings of the White House territory from the rest of the city, which is a growing, progressive, and extremely popular community. It is one of the most-visited cities in the country, makes the nation lots of money through taxes, and therefore deserves its separate statehood. Its population is already larger than a couple states and with its rate of growth could end up having more people than its nearby neighbor Delaware. The city that is literally the nation’s capital deserves its own statehood status, this is a no-brainer---especially after the chaos that emerged on January 6th.
2) Puerto Rico
This is a touchy subject for me personally because of the United States’ historically brutal mistreatment of the island within the last century-plus. I believe Puerto Rico deserves full independence and a complete pardon of its debt, and even THEN that wouldn’t even things. But if Puerto Rico does vote for statehood, does vote to actually join the States, then it should be approved immediately so that the island can gain federal access to help, so it can actually declare bankruptcy, and so it can receive the crucial funds to fix….well everything. If it were a state it would be ranked in the 27th-32nd range, which puts it between Kentucky and Mississippi. It would diversify the House and Senate easily because of its dominantly Latin population, and would provide the island with much-needed representation so they can seek out their ways to recover from what has been decades of disasters in weather, economy, politics, infrastructure, and extreme capitalism sucking that island dry. Deserves everything and more, but statehood would be a step in the right direction.
3) The Virgin Islands
Adding to the diversification of the United States political atmosphere would be another Caribbean state joining the House and Senate officially. With a population of 105,000 and mostly consisting of Black Americans, this would be an excellent addition to the United States, and a potentially excellent destination for Black Americans and other minorities in the future seeking new locales (let’s be honest, there are parts of this country that has seriously become unsafe for minorities). Becoming a state would also help them financially, and stabilize them even more in the world of tourism and maybe even other factors like agriculture and trade.
4) The Mariana Islands (Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa)
Similar to Hawaii’s structure, we can group up all these Pacific/Polynesian islands and combine it to one major U.S. state that would give full and proper representation to 200,000-plus American citizens that is also chock full of varied demographics that is rarely ever properly represented in the United States Capitol. Guam technically is part of the Mariana Islands, so adding that island along with the American Samoa (which has the highest rate of military enlistment in the entire country) would be a proper course of action to ensure that both parties are satisfied with two senate members as opposed to 4-6 senators coming out of the South Pacific. It has also been argued that adding these islands as states ensures that the United States maintains its focus on the Pacific near and far as China continues to try to push competitors away from Asia completely. But most important is that we need to make sure there are voices in the Senate seeking out the best interests of the faraway islands.
5) Navajo Nation
Easily the largest Native American reservation in the country in terms of population and land size, Navajo Nation is situated in three different states. Although its population of 170,000 might be considered too small to consider a separation from Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, this territory is larger than multiple states combined and therefore needs additional federal help in case of times of disarray---like this recent pandemic. The history of the Native Americans has been a very, very sad one, and the least we can do is give the largest portion of Native land its own status as a state, and allow the area to send members to Congress and the White House for proper representation so we can better treat the historically-disenfranchised people and better preserve their culture and ways of life.
6) New York City/Long Island
In my personal opinion, the most populated, most crucial, most important, and most culturally diverse city in the entire country should be able to split from the rest of the state and become its own separate entity, and then we can add Long Island to this brand-new state. According to the population statistics, potentially over 10 million people would be represented in this breakaway from the rest of New York State, which would automatically make it one of the most-populated states in the country, being way up there with Florida and Texas if the entire metropolitan area becomes included. A city as important as New York City should have stronger representation in the White House, as the city center has twice the population of Los Angeles, and four times the population of Chicago. The needs of this city in particular is wildly different from what the state of New York usually focuses on, and that’s why it needs to become the second city-state after Washington D.C.
We’ve had 50 states for a long time, but there have been extreme shifts and increases in populations, in demographics, and in the way the country functions. We have zero excuse to continue operating as a country while we have millions with zero or improper representation. Adding states would not only diversify this nation, but would grant actual rights to many Americans missing them, and would improve the representation coming from the White House overall.
Time to change the flag, because its time to add states to the union.
P.S. Honorable Mention belongs to South Florida, as this state should be split on the I-4 corridor and allow the area from Orlando down to Key West to operate on a different government than the one coming out of Tallahassee, which for decades has done a horrible job governing the more important and financially successful cities in the peninsula.