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Switzerland yeah I get it, but the USA has a lot of straight line borders, which looks like a carve up not the borders built by cultural identity.
I guess in one sense The Union depends on the states having an equal footing in some capacity (even if there are more cows than people in some states). At the same time there is surely a better way to represent both the people and the States’ rights.
Alf0nse-
which looks like a carve up not the borders built by cultural identity.
Sure, that is exactly what happened. That doesn't mean those borders are less legitimate nowadays though. Also, 'surely a better way' isn't saying much, what way exactly? In a country as federal as the US (or Switzerland for that matter), the states, such as they are, are perceived to be important entities. I have not yet heard of a 'better' way myself, but feel free to suggest one.
SwissChap
Ahaha. Yeah no, the complete opposite is true. The political subdivision in Switzerland is the result of centuries of history and in no way arbitrary. There's been literal terrorism over whether one part (Jura) was supposed to belong to the Kanton Bern or not - people take this very very seriously.
The US has a bit less history behind it, but it's still completely divorced from reality to claim that state lines are completely arbitrary now. They may have been once upon a time, but that was a long time ago and people definitely do identify with states now.
To elaborate on that, I've grown pretty tired of the 'philosophers' going 'no borders' etc. Well that's cool and it would be nice and everything, but it's just not what's actually going on. "It's all arbitrary man". Yeah so is the decimal system, but it's what we use so let's just move on.