Why a Marriage Between Idaho and Rural Oregon Isn’t Far-Fetched

These aren’t ordinary times.  I’ve been listening for months as callers tell me the marriage between rural Oregon and Idaho won’t ever happen.  It’s just too complex.  Legislators in Salem don’t want to let taxable people fade away.  They don’t want to lose representation in the United States House of Representatives.  Anyhow, they can outvote the unruly Republicans in the eastern portion of the state.

Idaho doesn’t want new counties where recreational marijuana is legal.  Idaho would prefer rural Idaho become a separate state and then add two Republican Senators in Washington.  The Treasure Valley would reject the idea because it would mean a loss of regional political power.

So, yes.  I recognize the slim and none argument.  There wasn’t much call for the division of Virginia in 1858.  There were some differences between the rural northwest and the plantations of the River Valleys to the east.  Just like you see today in places like New York State.  In the big city some residents look down on the people Upstate. I know.  I went to college in Western New York State and I heard it constantly from the carpet baggers who came from the Big Apple and Long Island.  Secession talk has been common there for decades and nothing really happens outside of café and diner grousing.

The Virginia of 1858 was a vastly different place within five years.  The populated portion of the state had walked away from the Union.  The rough and tough people from the sticks were granted statehood by the federal government.

The country is in a foul mood.  Everybody knows it and there isn’t much compromise.  Some of us sometimes believe it would be easier to seek a divorce than reconcile.

I know this much, within 5 years there’ll be a lot of unexpected twists and turns of history.