re: #12 NO SMOCKING GUN!

If the Democrats win at least 50 Senate seats and the WH in 2020, among the things they should do is, first, dump the filibuster, because otherwise over the following two years all that will get done is two reconciliation bills with all the limits placed on those. Second, admit D.C. and P.R. (and I would argue the US Pacific Islands as well) as states, and seat 4-6 new Senators and some Representatives immediately, and increase the number of Representatives, by hundreds, preferably. This would reduce the excess power of whites in both Congress and the Electoral College and make it extremely hard if not impossible for the GOP to regain power as a fascist party. But I’m afraid that the Democratic Senators will cling to the filibuster like a security blanky, and most of our pressing needs will continue not to be addressed.

The statehood question is really interesting.

DC would be complicated because you’d likely have to repeal the 23rd Amendment in the process, unless we’re doing away with the electoral college in the process.

Puerto Rico makes sense, assuming Puerto Ricans want statehood (the last few referendums have been inconclusive, I think). I’d say if Puerto Rico is made a state, it should incorporate the Virgin Islands since they are fairly close, geographically. But there’s probably some culture/legal issues/differences that might have to be sorted out in that process. Puerto Rico has a population of 3.1m and the Virgin Islands is at about 104k.

As for the remaining territories, they are very small, Guam is the largest at 166k, which is 410k fewer than Wyoming. And geographically, they’re all so dispersed I’m not sure it’d make sense to make them one state.