From the First State to the Last State: The State of Sussex

So some disgruntled Republicans in northeastern Colorado, displeased with the recent election results that elected Democrats, have gotten a ballot question on the ballot in one local northeastern Colorado county about whether that local county, along with several other northeastern Colorado counties, should seccede from the State of Colorado. This notion has inspired our local wingnuts downstate to dream of a State of Sussex.

First, it should be pointed out that the procedural hurdles for the sore losers to form a State of Sussex are quite high. First, Sussex would need to garner the approval of the Delaware General Assembly and the Governor, through the form of a bill passing both houses and being signed by the Governor that tells Sussex County to go do something with itself.

That will never happen. Such a bill would only pass the GA if and only if the very same Republicans wanting to secede somehow garnered majority control of the legislature and the Governorship. And if they won control of the General Assembly and the Governor’s Mansion, their chief complaint that is their reason for seceding (i.e. that they are not in power after having lost an election) goes away.

But let’s say that somehow happens. Delaware would then have to petition Congress to create a new state. And both Houses of Congress would have to pass the same bill allowing Delaware to divide itself into two states, and such a bill would have to be signed into law by the President.

And here is where politics come into play, and these political considerations apply for really situation anywhere in the country where disgruntled conservatives are angry that they are not getting their way even after they lost the election and cannot be patient enough to wait until the next election to oust their “horrible” state government.

If Sussex, or Northern Colorado or Eastern Washington or what have you, is a state, it gets two Senators and one Representative, and those three will presumably be Republicans. Unless there is a deal that either admits the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico as a state, the Dems in the Senate will not allow the GOP to get two new Senators for nothing. And before you blame the Democrats for that, recall that the only real reason that DC is not a state right now is because Republicans have held it up because they do not want the Dems to garner two new Democratic Senators.

So dream on, downstaters. Perhaps you can focus on more constructive things, like modernizing your party to appeal to a majority of the people in the ENTIRE state of Delaware.