Rural Citizens Consider Seceding from Blue State Over Representation Concerns
When this great nation was first conceived by the founding fathers, there was a pervasive and unwavering belief that all Americans should be fairly represented. In fact, this is the exact sentiment that sent the first Americans to Boston Harbor, to toss English tea into the water and declare that there would be no taxation without representation.
It is this sentiment that has many rural citizens in states like New York and California angry. They live in vast swaths of conservative country that are ruled, at the state and county level, by the vastly Democratic populations of nearby metropolises.
In the Empire State, the issue is leading to talks of secession.
Multiple towns in Erie County, New York, are slowly exploring options to secede, saying the county is overly represented by Buffalo and does not reflect their interests.
Marilla Town Supervisor Earl Gingerich Jr. told Fox News Digital on Sunday that the idea has been festering for years but gathered steam during the pandemic.
“Us in the rural areas feel like we don’t have equal representation through our country legislature and the county executive,” Gingerich said. “Our demographics are different than the urban and bigger suburbs.”
The idea has been gaining steam.
Fox News has reached out to other city leaders considering the move. Councilman Don Butcher of Wales said any move had to be done with residents’ best interests in mind.
Speaking in his own capacity, Butcher said the idea has “merit.”
“Right now, we are a rural town at the mercy of the tyranny of the majority of the urban center of the city of Buffalo,” Butcher said. “We have very little voice in what happens in Erie County.”
The concept was still very much in its infancy, but gaining momentum of late.