Swing swarm

There is a massive pessimism in America about our future. It's something both the left and right agree on: the country is going downhill. The major pain point in all of this is the vote. All votes are not considered equal.

A vote in California, New York, and Washington is not worth much in federal politics. Each state has representatives proportional to population but the Senate only has two members for each state and the Senate has a vice lock on anything the House tries to do. However, voting is dire in "swing states." Those states likely to flip in one direction or the other can make or break power balances. These votes are the ones that matter most. Let's make more states swing.

We can view this as an optimization problem. We have an exceeding majority of blue states with much larger populations but their votes don't have much weight. So let's move to the places where they will have the most weight.

For example, Mitch McConnell is the leader of the Republican party in the Senate and is up for re-election in 2026. How many people would it take to move there, claim residency, register to vote, and vote to oust him?

Establishing residency in a state takes less than a year and Senate elections are happening every two years. This means the most dedicated citizen can participate in up to three critical Senate elections over six years. In aggregate and if we took this seriously, we could have this country cleaned up in a matter of six years.

The passion and tenacity to see this through would inspire more people to vote on both sides. The difference is America is actually a modern first-world country by the numbers. Republicans can throw themselves into an absolute tizzy and try to undermine the votes but densely populated blue states are on lock. They won't be able to flip us but we can flip them.

Every party spends and receives billions of dollars campaigning. Imagine taking a fraction of that money and spending it to temporarily house dedicated voters. Why throw money down the drain trying to convince people to maybe vote? Not everyone cares about politics, but for those who do, their vote should be made to matter. Supporting people so that they vote for you is what politicians already should be doing and our Supreme Court did rule in Citizens United that money is free speech, so this all seems above board to me.

Is this sustainable in the long term? Playing a perfect game here, we'd need to make it a full ten years. Just enough time to run the census and gerrymander every state into a heavily blue biased win machine. Keep in mind this means not just voting in the federal elections while you happen to be in the state, but for governors, state, and city. A blue flush.

That is where the real fun begins: constitutional amendments. With all states painted blue we can make some really quick work of all those overrule-able Supreme Court decisions. Immortalize all the good rights the previous courts had underpinned for decades. Then there's no one left who can try to strip away those rights.

The issue right now is the political bottom of this country is too low. The Trump presidency and Supreme Court decisions have made it clear that blue states can no longer avoid dragging the rest of the country along kicking and screaming to the modern age. For too long we've let the divide get wider and wider and we need change and we need it fast.

We won't get everyone to agree on the issues. That's perfectly alright. The disagreeing minority is what freedom of speech is meant to protect. And certainly the left is not without its faults. However, the large majority of people do agree on moderate policies and those are held back by people at the extremes. We can't be held back anymore.

And so, if you're wondering what you can do to restore America and build a country you want to live in, this is the answer: move to red states and vote!

Thank you for reading.