When we set out to look at far-right extremism in Upstate New York, we had a few basic questions. First, we wanted to know the status of the far-right movement here. What do people believe in? What groups and militias have been active? We found that all...
Yes but if the representatives aren’t representing their populace accurately, then what is a citizen to do? Vote, obviously, but in the meantime?
The unfortunate truth is that largely the state of New York may as well just be the province of New York City, plus a few additional hangers-on that don’t really matter beyond a couple percentage points here or there. And those folks out hanging on, upstate, aren’t feeling very represented. Because New York City is, essentially, all that matters in the state economically.
I don’t know how to solve this in a way that makes sense. I believe that every person is entitled to representation that matches their needs. But when you have a single representative attempting (if they even do that) to represent both the big city and the rural interests at the same time, there are going to be some incompatible requests. And the city wins those, always, because it’s the economic driver of the state.
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The reps are based on geography. They have districts. They’re supposed to represent those people. The Senate less so, since that’s two people for the whole state, but that’s a problem for any state that’s not fairly homogenous.
I don’t really have a good solution that doesn’t make some heavy changes to the us government. But within the current constraints, I think cities frankly matter more.
Side note: I’ve been reading about how people’s minds change. It turns out that when someone encounters a fact or statement that challenges their group status, like “cities matter [and the suburbs don’t]” above, the brain typically reacts similarly to how it responds to a physical threat. Pretty much no one responds to that kind of thing with a cool rational head. The brain desperately looks for security, even if it has to fall back on “no, fuck you.” I do it, too. Makes debate hard.