>Ditto for the electoral college not being purely on population: what reason for Flyover states to be in a union whose coastal populations can impose their own interests over yours? Texas in particular is not obliged to put up with that sort of malarkey.

This notion that all the population is on the coasts is, of course, nonsense. Texas is one of the most populous states. So's Illinois. They're both in what you keep referring to as "flyover country." (I'm not sure I've ever used that term.)

Tamar