Which US states have a Kansas City, and why are there multiple Kansas Cities?
Kansas and Missouri. But Kansas City, Kansas, or KCK is often overshadowed by Kansas City, Missouri, or KCMO due to the fact that it’s more than three times larger and has the majority of attractions that “Kansas City” is known for. Sure, KCK has the Kansas Speedway and Sporting KC, but KCMO has the Power and Light District, the Sprint Center, the World War 1 Museum, Westport, the Country Club Plaza, the Royals and the Chiefs, and Bryan Busby.So there are two Kansas Cities, but why is the Kansas City most people think of the one that’s in Missouri? Well strangely, Kansas City, Missouri existed first. First known as The City of Kansas, it was incorporated on February 22, 1853. Its residents named it after the Kansa, a Native American tribe that the residents of Kansas also named their state after later on. Keep in mind that Kansas didn’t exist yet in 1853. The next year, it became a territory and it didn’t become a state until 1861.It wasn’t until October 1872 that a few smaller towns all together to officially form Kansas City, Kansas. Of course, this was after Kansas City, Missouri’s population had skyrocketed. Before the Civil War, KCMO had less than 5,000 people. A decade later, it was approaching 35,000. The folks in KCK wanted to piggyback on the success of KCMO and essentially confuse visitors into thinking THEY were the real Kansas City.I should mention that before this, Kansas politicians made several attempts to annex KCMO and the surrounding area into Kansas. The Kansas City Times editorial board wrote, “Kansas City, Mo, is the legitimate outgrowth of the state of Kansas. In everything but a line on the map she is essentially a city of Kansas.” Unfortunately for Kansas, Missourians didn’t want to lose KCMO because you know, KCMO is awesome, so they fought back. Since then, the two cities and their suburbs have thrived in their own ways, but KCK has always been overshadowed by KCMO.
What would happen if the USA were divided into 2,460 states with the geographical area of Rhode Island?
We’d have to rejigger the House of Representatives completely. The current cap of 435 members would have to go, and with a likely minimum of 1 representative per state, we’d see huge spikes in representation in the RI-sized regions around major cities like New York City and Los Angeles.The Senate would be downright unworkable, with a nominal 4,920 members.However, these problems would be slightly ameliorated by the fact that not all of those seats would be filled. As of the last census, large chunks of the west as well as sizable parts of Alaska have no residents (see an interesting map here). There could be a number of states with no people at all. And I don’t doubt that some of the very lightly inhabited regions indicated there might have so few residents that they couldn’t muster someone willing to serve as a representative.Those low-population-density areas also may run into serious problems of internal governance. We’re looking at nearly 2,500 different state governments, each with its own variations on criminal law, educational system, and so on. And a lot of the less densely populated ones, without a state government to which it might appeal for funds, might have trouble maintaining those. The rural-urban divide might grow very stark indeed.
If every eligible voter in the US voted, would the country lean more Democrat or Republican?
Practically speaking, the homogeneity of Republican voters makes them easier to mobilize, and Republican-leaning independents often respond to those messages also.But leaving aside the mobilization argument, there are more registered Democrats than Republicans in the US. The last numbers I saw for this are 43/39 as percentage of the electorate a few years ago, and I haven’t seen reliable recent numbers.But we have areas where increased political density doesn’t matter all that much in terms of state and national elections. In many purportedly purple states, gerrymandering of districts and demographic concentration have diluted the range of political power within any given area. The US is a representational democracy, which means that in many areas an 80% win gives the identical result as a 50%+1 win. California has 40 million people, 2/3 of which are Democrats, represented by 2 Senators, and Wyoming has 1 million people, 3/4 of which are Republicans, represented also by 2 Senators.The balance is made up by a staggering number of unpredictable independent voters. I would guess the Democrats would have a slight edge, but there are a great many independents who would vote Anti-Democratic rather than Pro-Republican because that is a perceived vote against government, which is why they are Independent in the first place. So insert your shruggie emoticon here.