You said, referring to a professor in Austin — He did say we could split into 5 separate states and 5X our power in Congress.
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I have seen that statement repeated many time. And I’m not sure how valid that ability is — in our current day government. But, it is true that this ability was originally given. As to whether it’s still viable today, is another question.
I don’t think anything was affected by the Civil War, in regards to this particular question.
But, in regards to multiplying our power by 5 times... I’m not convinced of that one. With the House of Representatives, it wouldn’t seem to make too much difference as that is allocated according to population. So, it just gets divided up (not multiplied) by such a division.
However, with the Senate, there may be a slight element of truth there. But, there is an “offsetting factor” in that each “new state” would be looking out for its own interests and not the interests of the other four states. So, I don’t see a benefit overall.
The best benefit Texas can have is to stay all together, in one piece and use the “combined strength” that it has...