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Of course, practically speaking, it's never going to happen. The only way two states can merge under the Constitution is via consent of the legislatures of both states.
There’d also be absolutely zero benefit to any of the New England states if they merged. They’d lose autonomy and power in Congress with nothing in return.
The GOP governors of MA and VT are very moderate, and would be considered Democrats if they ran in a different part of the country. Susan Collins, a GOP senator from ME, would be in the same boat..
Isn't what people consider themselves that's important? And Susan Collins, LOL! After her tap dance with Kavanaugh? She votes with Trump 83% of the time, the same as John McCain and more than Rand Paul. https://fivethirtyeight.com/politics/
Quote:
Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS
There’d also be absolutely zero benefit to any of the New England states if they merged. They’d lose autonomy and power in Congress with nothing in return.
Think of that the next time you easterners get on Wyoming' s case for having too many electoral votes.
Think of that the next time you easterners get on Wyoming' s case for having too many electoral votes.
Is that an eastern complaint, really? Someone in California or Texas is just as screwed in terms of electoral votes per capita as someone from Florida and New York. Meanwhile, Vermonters benefit from votes per capita as much as folks from Wyoming do.
I guess it’s that the states in the west tend to be less densely populated, and that’s why it comes across as an eastern complaint.
Is that an eastern complaint, really? Someone in California or Texas is just as screwed in terms of electoral votes per capita as someone from Florida and New York. Meanwhile, Vermonters benefit from votes per capita as much as folks from Wyoming do.
I guess it’s that the states in the west tend to be less densely populated, and that’s why it comes across as an eastern complaint.
Maybe it's just my eastern relatives, I don't know. I have seen Californians complain about Wyo too. I'm saying, if the concern is that the NE states would lose autonomy, that's similar to the situation in Wyoming.
Four of the six New England states (MA/NH/RI/CT) made up nearly a third of the original colonies that formed the US. Many seminal events in the history of this nation occurred in the region. It has always has an outsized influence on the USA.
Four of the six New England states (MA/NH/RI/CT) made up nearly a third of the original colonies that formed the US. Many seminal events in the history of this nation occurred in the region. It has always has an outsized influence on the USA.
I am a big local history buff and when reading about the Revolution in New York State, I would come across a General and I would look him up. One thing that amazed me is how many homes of the New England generals during the American Revolutionary War have been preserved.
Some New England generals and how they helped New York
John Stark of New Hampshire (Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils) - Battle of Bennington, among others.
Israel Putnam of Connecticut - Hudson Highland command, Putnam County in the Hudson Highlands is named after him. Also served in the Lake George area during the French and Indian war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genera...l_Putnam_House (the house is in Massachusetts where Old Put was born)
Nathaniel Greene of Rhode Island - one of Washington's best generals, Greene County in the Catskills is named after him.
John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts - Glover's fishermen from Marblehead helped to save Washington and Continental Army from certain destruction by evacuating them from Long Island after the disaster of the Battle of Brooklyn. America's own little Dunkirk.
New England is a region but within that region it is varied.
Maine barely resembles Connecticut. Vermont isn't like New Hampshire. Rhode Island is different from Massachusetts.
Massachusetts is socially conservative and otherwise more liberal. What people have already said--we cringe over public displays of wealth, we generally keep to ourselves, we don't care one bit what anyone's religion is. We used to be Protestant and rural with very strict rules for living until around 1900 when waves of immigrants came to work in the mills. From then on we've been heavily Catholic and a little bit divided by all the ethnic groups and their customs.
Massachusetts does have an upper echelon of very highly educated rich people who can be political hypocrites. Their say one thing but do something else. They may give lip service to helping the poor, but they wouldn't tolerate having a poor person living next door to them. These people usually work in some ivory tower university and are out of touch with the real world.
The rest of us are a hodge podge. Descendants of the original settlers from the 1600s, descendants of the C.1900 immigrants, descendants of people who came in the 1700s and the 1800s, often to be farmers, and transplants. You can't really tell us apart except maybe by our last names--French Canadian, German, Polish, English, Irish, Italian. There will be redneck types who don't even know that their ancestors came over on the Mayflower. We're all mixed in and the differences are apparent from one state to another.
New England is a region but within that region it is varied.
Maine barely resembles Connecticut. Vermont isn't like New Hampshire. Rhode Island is different from Massachusetts.
Massachusetts is socially conservative and otherwise more liberal. What people have already said--we cringe over public displays of wealth, we generally keep to ourselves, we don't care one bit what anyone's religion is. We used to be Protestant and rural with very strict rules for living until around 1900 when waves of immigrants came to work in the mills. From then on we've been heavily Catholic and a little bit divided by all the ethnic groups and their customs.
Massachusetts does have an upper echelon of very highly educated rich people who can be political hypocrites. Their say one thing but do something else. They may give lip service to helping the poor, but they wouldn't tolerate having a poor person living next door to them. These people usually work in some ivory tower university and are out of touch with the real world.
The rest of us are a hodge podge. Descendants of the original settlers from the 1600s, descendants of the C.1900 immigrants, descendants of people who came in the 1700s and the 1800s, often to be farmers, and transplants. You can't really tell us apart except maybe by our last names--French Canadian, German, Polish, English, Irish, Italian. There will be redneck types who don't even know that their ancestors came over on the Mayflower. We're all mixed in and the differences are apparent from one state to another.
Born in MA but I can no longer use the editorial we. Still, even decades after leaving the state, I fully agree with the bolded statements.
Ostentatious displays of money (often income, not wealth) are considered TACKY to the max.
Being nosy is offensive.
And religion (or lack thereof) is a very personal choice.
Living in the west, there are plenty of transplants, and it is still easy for me to tell the relatively few who are from MA!
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