My letter to the Fresno Bee

Why I support the Draper proposal to break up California

In short, Fresno is the poorest because Fresno is neglected within a sea of 38 million people with only two Senators. Central government, in Washington DC, takes 15% of our taxes is managed by 60 Senators from 30 small states. These middle America states with 3-8 million people are barely knowledgeable or interested about Fresno. Most of us cannot even name these ruling states. But they own the Senate. We are an entity that is traded, behind the scenes in the parlors of Washington DC. We get a train because Chicago wants one. Suddenly No Child Left Behind just shows up, and California education is in turmoil. All of these cases, we are not there, we are a chip in someone's game.
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Let may change the subject subject here to the Constitutionality issue of Texas and their eight new Senators. I think Texans should consider two options, create senate districts and share the current legislature and governorship. The second one would be to elect all ten Senators at large.  The first will pass Constitutional muster. The second if iffy. There is an implied containment in a 'state'; its citizens must be able to act cohesively as a plebiscite, and elections at large have a hard time meeting that condition. It may be especially onerous if a plebiscite is convened among 1/8 a fraction in a heterogeneous population. But Texas could test it anyway.