'MegaKota' Petition Seeks To Shrink US Back To 49 States
If Dillon Stewart has his way, there could be only 49 states — that’s if he’s serious with his online petition asking President Trump to merge North Dakota and South Dakota into a single state called “MegaKota.” Most people commenting on the petition think it’s silliness in the extreme, but some people say it’s an idea that would, ahem, truly make America great again.
He wrote on change.org that it would “be pretty cool to have a state called MegaKota” — and thousands apparently agree with him. He launched the petition with a goal of 25,000 signatures and it heading toward the finish line with more than 16,600 signatures by Monday evening.
Stewart, who lives in Fargo, North Dakota, left open the possibility that the United States could still have to states and “we won’t have to change our flag” if Puerto Rico could be recognized as an official state. Right now, it’s a self-governing commonwealth with representation in Congress.
The Dakotas have a combined population of about 1.62 million — South Dakota is the more populous of the two with 877,790 people, according to 2018 U.S. Census estimates. Each state has a single at-large congressional district. If the two states were combined, they would actually lose two senators.
Michael Cavey, who commented on the MegaKota petition, thinks that’s just fine, even if it ignores the Constitution. (A bit of history here: The delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 agreed to equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives under what is called the “Great Compromise” or the “Connecticut Compromise.”)
“These states with such low population density shouldn’t have four combined US Senators when states with exponentially higher density have just two,” Cavey reasoned. “All men are created equal and this better levels the playing field.”
But Cavey wasn’t alone. Others also said they don’t think the two states should have four U.S. senators combined.
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“As individual states, they give too much political power to a very small number of people,” Glenn Gawinowicz commented. “Not what democracy intended.”
Added Ken Swindle: “The Dakotas are wildly over represented in the Senate. There are not enough people in North Dakota for it to be a State. If it doesn’t join with South Dakota, it should be returned to territory status.”
Some people who signed the petition had fun with their answers. Zach Tatum said MegaKota “sounds like a Transformer and I like that movie, so let’s do it.”
“People say our country is a joke, so why not have fun with it?” Michael Crowley wrote.
“Why does Dakota get TWO states?” Oliver Slauson wanted to know. “That’s not fair!”
And some comments were just plain brutal.
Sam Craft said combining the two states would give them “a much needed dose of self-esteem”; Alisha Stigall said it would “make the Dakotas interesting again,” and Zach Lamb said “both states are super boring and might become less boring if they unite as one.”
“I want to visit Megakota and I want 49 states,” Sam Brown added. “Because I am a fan of chaos.”
“Dakota was originally supposed to be one state but horses at the time were too lazy to go all the way to the capital,” Andy Schuler wrote.
And then there was this comment from Dylan Smith, who spoke to the problems of Generation Z:
“Truthfully, having two states merge into one would make things less confusing, especially for those of younger age just learning the names of the states and where they are located.”
Several people noted that what’s good for the Dakotas is good for the Carolinas and the Virginias, too.
People also had a lot to say about MegaKota on Twitter.
Journalist David H. Montgomery said the petition is “self-evidently silly — not to mention disrespectful to the state’s namesake, the very real Dakota people.”
But as the author of a a 3,000-word piece on “barely more serious proposals to have South Dakota secede from the Union,” Montgomery reported that he’s “all for taking silly things … unreasonably seriously.”
However, he said he would prefer giving a merged state the more respectful name of “Dakota.” A merged state would be the fourth-largest in the country by land mass, but only the 40th-largest state by population.
Currently, South Dakota and North Dakota rank 46 and 47th in population, ahead of Alaska, the District of Columbia, Vermont and Wyoming.
Photo: One of the most notable landmarks in the Dakotas is Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. An online petition asks — probably not seriusly — that North Dakota and South Dakota be combined. Lorraine Swanson/Patch