States? Who needs 'em? WaPo opinion piece offers up solution to America's problems

Sarah D. | 6:11 PM on November 15, 2016

States. STATES. Ha ha ha ha ha!

— ?It's?Almost ⛄️Christmas? (@jtLOL) November 15, 2016

So many post-election hot takes, it’s hard to keep up. But we’d be remiss if we failed to show this one some special attention:

Opinion: "States are a relic of the past. It’s time to get rid of them." https://t.co/lPfH8EOwx9

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 15, 2016

Oh, this oughtta be good.

Lawrence R. Samuel writes:

But times have changed, and we need to rethink the notion of the “United States of America.” Our states are no longer culturally diverse regions with their own respective identities; rather, they are artificially constructed geographic entities that certainly would not be formed today. Borderlines between states are especially nonsensical. Pensacola, Fla., is a lot more like Mobile, Ala., than Miami. Upstate New Yorkers are less than happy about being in the same tax pool as Manhattanites.

…

A federation of states was a wonderful idea in the late 18th century, but represents an unnecessary and costly burden in the early 21st. Two layers of government — federal and local — offers a cleaner, more sensible and much more affordable system than our current one, a notion not unlike cutting out the middle layer of an overly bureaucratic, inefficient company. Eliminating this middle layer would save the American people billions of dollars a year, the kind of money that could go a long way toward paying down our national debt or preparing for our looming crises in Social Security and health care.

…

State affinities will likely never completely disappear, and there is no reason that the University of Florida or the New York Jets could not keep their names (even if the latter plays their games in New Jersey). But it’s time we start thinking of ourselves as one people — Americans — who live in real, local communities rather than as 50 kinds of people living in imaginary regions.