51st state

A U.S. 51 star flag has been designed in case of a 51st state actually joining the United States. The flag has been used as a symbol by supporters of statehood in various areas.

51st state, in American political discourse, is a phrase that refers to territories considered candidates for addition to the fifty states already part of the Union. While sometimes used in a serious political context, it is often used humorously (and humorlessly) to refer to Canada as a whole, despite the country's 10 provinces and 3 territories. Before 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii joined the U.S., the term "the 49th state" was used. Less often, "51st State" refers to countries which are, or are perceived to be, under U.S. control or influence. For example, the 1986 single "Infected" by The The contains a repeated refrain that "this [the UK] is the 51st State/ of the USA."

The term is used in Canada and other countries to signify negative U.S. influence viewed as excessive. In Europe and Australia, people who believe their local and/or national culture has become too Americanized sometimes use the term "51st state" in critical reference to their respective countries. The pejorative term 51st stater usually refers to non-U.S. residents who emulate mannerisms and culture of an American, or a non-American politician who is a supporter of the United States, especially its foreign policy, to an excessive degree.

Potential candidates

Under Article IV, Section Three of the United States Constitution, which outlines the relationship between the states, the Congress has the power to admit new states to the union. The states are required to give "full faith and credit" to the acts of each other's legislatures and courts, which is generally held to include the recognition of legal contracts, marriages, and criminal judgments. The states are guaranteed military and civil defense by the federal government, which is also obligated by Article IV, Section Four, to "guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government". New states are admitted into the Union by the precedents and procedures established by the Northwest Ordinance. Following the precedent established by the Enabling Act of 1802, an Enabling Act must be passed by Congress as a prerequisite to admission. The act authorizes the people of a territory to frame a constitution, and lays down the requirements that must be met prior to consideration for statehood. It is worth noting that the history of efforts to promote into statehood Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia, (as well has the history of the now long-ago successful acceptance into statehood of the former territories of Hawaii and Alaska) have shown that political enthusiasm of Congress, or of the states, to admit a territory of limited population that is or was a Federal territory into statehood has been subdued for more than a half of a century.

District of Columbia

File:Dctaxationsample small.jpg

"Taxation without representation", printed on D.C. license plates in protest.

Main article: D.C. Statehood

The District of Columbia is widely recognized to be, along with Puerto Rico, one of the most likely candidates for statehood in the near future; one being a federal district and the other a Commonwealth. Of the potential candidates, citizens of the District of Columbia tend to be most supportive of statehood, yet this would likely require amendment of the United States Constitution. D.C. residents who support this movement sometimes use the Revolutionary War protest motto "Taxation without representation", denoting their lack of Congressional representation; the phrase is now printed on newly issued D.C. license plates (although a driver may choose to have the D.C. website address instead). President Bill Clinton's presidential limousine had the "Taxation without representation" license plate late in his term, while President George W. Bush had the vehicle's plates changed shortly after beginning his term in office.

This position was carried by the D.C. Statehood Party, a minor party; it has since merged with the local Green Party affiliate to form the D.C. Statehood Green Party. The nearest this movement ever came to success was in 1978, when Congress passed the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment. Two years later in 1980, local citizens passed an initiative calling for a constitutional convention for a new state. In 1982, voters ratified the constitution of the state, which was to be called New Columbia. The drive for statehood stalled in 1985, however, when the D.C. Voting Rights Amendment failed because not enough states ratified the amendment within the seven-year span specified.

Another proposed option would be to have Maryland, from which the current land was ceded, retake the District of Columbia, as Virginia has already done for its part. This would give D.C. residents the benefit of statehood while precluding the creation of a 51st state.

Puerto Rico

51 star U.S. flag used by the New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico in the event of Puerto Rican statehood.

See also: commonwealth (U.S. insular area) and Politics of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican statehood referenda have been consistently, though narrowly, unsuccessful. In each referendum, statehood supporters are matched almost equally by supporters of maintaining the status quo (the balance of the votes being cast by supporters of full independence), although support for statehood has risen in each successive popular referendum. However, the delicate issues of the island's predominant Hispanic culture and the use of Spanish hampers its chances in entering a country with a large English-speaking majority. If Puerto Rico were a state, it would rank 27th in population, and have six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Its population in the 2000 census was 3,927,776. (Kentucky ranked 26th, with 4,206,074, and Oregon ranked 27th, with 3,700,758.)

See also: List of U.S. states by population

Other/former U.S. territories

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A hypothetical merging of several former and current Pacific US territories into a single state.

Other less likely contenders are Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, both of which are unincorporated organized territories of the United States, the Northern Mariana Islands, which is a commonwealth like Puerto Rico, and American Samoa, an unorganized, unincorporated territory. Some proposals call for the Virgin Islands to be admitted with Puerto Rico as one state (often known as the proposed "Commonwealth of Prusvi", for Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands), and for the amalgamation of U.S territories or former territories in the Pacific Ocean, in the manner of the "Greater Hawaii" concept of the 1960s. Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands would be admitted as one state, along with Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands. Such a state would have a population of 440,943 (slightly lower than Wyoming's population) and an area of 908.65 square miles (slightly smaller than Rhode Island). American Samoa could possibly be part of such a state, or even become a county of Hawaii if American Samoa no longer wished to be a territory.

Some sectors of Filipino society advocate annexation of the Philippines into the U.S., but this time as up to three states: Luzón, the Visayas, and Mindanao. This lacks support because of the distance from the U.S. mainland.

From current U.S. states

Main article: List of U.S. state secession proposals

It is constitutionally possible for new states to be formed by reorganizing current states with the permission of their legislatures.

• The State of Maine was part of Massachusetts
• The state of West Virginia was formed during the Civil War by counties in northwestern Virginia that had remained loyal to the United States.
• One proposal has been for New York City to secede from New York State (See New York City secession), which has been reciprocated by a call for Upstate New York to secede (See Upstate New York's Statehood Movement). Some have even considered having Long Island become its own state.
• A similar circumstance has been proposed with the secession of Chicago from Illinois since over a half of the population of Illinois resides in the metropolitan area. A variation of this was called Chiwaukee, which would be the strip of land from Milwaukee down to Gary, Indiana.
• Historically, it was possible that the counties of southern Oregon and northern California might have seceded from their respective states to form a new "State of Jefferson". Jefferson would have been the 49th state, making Alaska and Hawaii the 50th and 51st when they became states in 1959.
• Also there have been brief calls for a 51st state named the State of Lincoln in 1996, 1999, and 2005. The state would be made of Eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle.
• During the late 1700s, portions of North Carolina and Tennessee joined to form an alleged "State of Franklin" and while "lawmakers" were elected to its alleged "Legislature," Congress never admitted the "State of Franklin" into the Union.
• Similar junctions have attempted to take place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which some wish to secede (sometimes along with adjoining counties of northern Wisconsin) in order to make a state called "Superior".

Use of "51st State" internationally

Because of their cultural similarities and close alliances with the United States, it is said in jest that some countries are the 51st state. In other countries, movements with various degrees of support and seriousness have proposed U.S. statehood.

Guyana

There is an organization dedicated to the integration of Guyana with the United States, GuyanaUSA [1]. Their claim is based on the basis that Guyana has strong connections with the United States, by terms of people (100,000 people have joint Guyanese-American citizenship and 350,000 Guyanese live in U.S., half as many as remain in Guyana).

Taiwan

When the San Francisco Peace Treaty and Treaty of Taipei were agreed, the World War II Allies were given the internationally agreed responsibility of administration of the former Formosa. The ongoing debates and disagreements in regard to the legal and political status of Taiwan remains, with some commentators believing it to be an independent or quasi-independent state that seeks more international recognition from members of the United Nations, functioning under the Formosa government. A recent poll conducted in Taiwan showed that 15% of the people, when asked about where the future of Taiwan lay, believed that it should try to become the 51st state of the United States of America. Neither the San Francisco Peace Treaty nor the Treaty of Taipei specified who should exercise sovereignty over Taiwan after the Allied Forces had relinquished control. The People's Republic of China was not a signatory to either treaty.

Afghanistan and Iraq

Because of the amount of American Military involvement in Iraq some have labeled Iraq as the 51st state. One argument in favor of this position is that it was American intervention that established the first freely-elected Iraqi parliament since the rise to power of Saddam Hussein. This position is often forwarded by those who consider the Iraqi government to be a puppet of the U.S. This accusation also stems from the allegation that Iraqi security forces are incapable of operating effectively without U.S support. This argument could, however, be made about many nations, particularly those in Africa that require international peacekeepers, forces, and support to sustain themselves.

Similar observations are often made regarding Afghanistan, although U.S. activity is not as pronounced there, given the more extensively international nature of the peacekeeping forces there, and that the entire country is promoted as impoverished in contrast to the United States which is promoted as a developed nation.

Canada

In Canada, "the 51st state" (or sometimes "the Maple Leaf state") is an emotional trigger phrase generally used in such a way as to imply that if a certain political course is taken, Canada's destiny will be to become "the 51st state".

Becoming "the 51st state" is usually raised either as a potential consequence of adopting policies that propose greater integration or cooperation with the United States (such as Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in 1988, or the current debate over the creation of a common defense perimeter), or as a potential consequence of not adopting proposals intended to resolve the issue of Quebec sovereignty (such as the Charlottetown Accord in 1992, or the Clarity Act in 1999.)

The phrase is usually used in local political debates, in polemic writing or in private conversations. It is rarely used by politicians themselves in a public context, although at certain times in Canadian history political parties have used other similarly loaded imagery. For example, in the 1988 federal election, the anti-Free Trade Liberals ran an ad in which Tory strategists, upon the adoption of the agreement, slowly erased the Canada-U.S. border from a desktop map of North America. Within days, however, the Tories responded with an ad which featured the border being drawn back on, as an announcer intoned "Here's where we draw the line." It should also be noted that the 1988 Free Trade Agreement was implemented, followed by the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993, and the Charlottetown Accord failed, although to date none of these events have resulted in Canadian annexation by the United States as was alleged during the respective debates.

A few fringe groups in Canada have actively campaigned in favor of Canadian annexation by the United States, although they have not attracted much mainstream attention. See Annexationist movements of Canada and Alberta Separatism.

In the United States, use of the term "the 51st state" when applied to Canada can serve as either a positive or negative reference, depending on the context. In some circumstances, the term is used from a U.S. perspective to highlight the similarities and close relationship between Canada and the United States. However, the term is most often taken as an insult.

Although Canada has 10 provinces and three territories, the expression remains "51^st state" in both the Canadian and American contexts.

Alberta

See also: Alberta separatism and Jesusland map

Alberta is sometimes referred to as "Canada's Texas"; the two are somewhat similar in terms of social values (both being socially conservative, although Alberta far less so) and economic base (Alberta is the center of Canada's petroleum industry). A number of Albertans have expressed dissatisfaction at Canada's policies towards the province, particularly with regards to national energy policy and equalization payments. Some Albertans accuse Canada of stealing money from the province's vast oil reserves to distribute to the rest of the country. An August 2005 poll published by the Western Standard stated that 42% of respondents felt that Alberta should explore its options outside of Canada [2]. These include separating from Canada by itself, separating from Canada along with other western provinces or joining the United States of America.

Israel

A number of websites assert or joke that Israel is the 51st state due to the annual funding it receives from the United States. Commentator Richard Reeves has also used this trope. [3] This is an issue fraught with political and social implications, sometimes involving questions of anti-zionism, and is to some minds central to the conflicts surrounding the Middle-East.

There is also a "Two Stars for Peace" proposal by Martine Rothblatt whereby Israel and Palestine become the 51st and 52nd states.

The TV series The Simpsons in one 2006 episode "Future-Drama" mentioned "Saudi-Israelia" as the 51st state eight years in the future.

United Kingdom

The relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom has led some British commentators to suggest that their country has become the de facto 51st state. Some have seriously suggested that the UK should join the U.S. (such as this example), as it would thus become one of the wealthiest and most populous states in the Union – and therefore the most politically influential, though almost no one in the U.K. or the U.S. see this as ever likely to occur. However, either if it were to happen, the United Kingdom would have to become a republic, or the United States would have to amend its constitution, in which Article IV, Section 4 begins, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government".

In cultural terms, various American television programs are becoming increasingly popular, as are films, fashion and literature. Economically, supermarkets and fast food retailers are seen as having been imported from the U.S. to the detriment of old small businesses among the elderly, but is seen as a convenience among the general populous. The film The 51st State (renamed Formula 51 for its U.S. release) explores the supposed migration of American criminality to the UK, particularly drug trafficking and gangs. Politically, the decline of the British Empire and the growth of American influence is seen by many as inextricably linked, with the loss of the UK's colonies and naval dominance being the price of American help during World War II; few believed the UK was cozying up to a new imperial power in an attempt to retain some influence in world affairs.

The presence of U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and other military & intelligence facilities on British soil from World War II to the present day, especially the large buildup during the Cold War, is taken as clear evidence of American influence, the UK is of great importance to the U.S. Air Force given its strategic position in the world. History speculates that if America had not helped the British, the Second World War would have turned out very differently for both nations, it was then that the special bond between the two nations was born.

Some critics on the political right expressed concern at the possible loss of sovereignty, and the apparent lack of reciprocity in the relationship — while the UK supported America in the Korean War, America did not support the UK during the Suez Crisis. Critics on the left were particularly exercised by Britain following America's lead in dealing with communist countries. The UK's rhetorical support for the U.S. during the Vietnam War led to some protests, although it made no official military commitments. Though once again the U.S. this time under Ronald Reagan, secretly assisted the British government of Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War against Argentina, in the process pushing the limits of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance treaty. (However, direct actions against Argentina would not have been in violation of the treaty as Argentina was the aggressor in the conflict. Also, the US had commitments of its own to the UK through the North Atlantic Treaty.) The UK continued to be America's strongest ally after the end of the Cold War, reestablished during the Reagan-Thatcher era and once again re-awakened by Tony Blair's strong support of George W. Bush in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, most noticeably through their relaxed friendly manner when in each other's company. The UKUSA Community was formed to counter terrorism and to share intelligence.

There is also increased discussion of the UK pulling out of the EU and joining the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA), further suggesting Britain's closer relations with the USA. Many British commentators, however, feel that Gordon Brown, the soon-to-be Prime Minister, wishes to withdraw British support for Iraq and that he would not be influenced by the U.S. as Tony Blair has been.

Australia

Due to Australia's propinquity to America's foreign policy, Australia is sometimes mentioned as the 51st state; this term is only commonly used in Australia itself. Since World War II, Australia has participated in most of the major wars that the USA has embarked on, including the Korean War, Vietnam War and the 2003 Iraq War despite local opposition.

Sicily

The Party of Reconstruction in Sicily, which claimed 40,000 members in 1944, campaigned for Sicily to be admitted as a U.S. state. (It would have been the 49th state, preceding Alaska and Hawaii.) This party was one of several Sicilian separatist movements active after the downfall of Italian fascism.

Use of "51st State" in other organizational contexts

Frequently, organizations (NGOs, etc.) based primarily in the United States have smaller branches elsewhere. These branches may often be referred to as the group's "51st State".

• The Democratic National Committee recognizes each state for electoral purposes; however it also gives Democrats Abroad electoral votes to represent the ca. 7 million U.S. Americans abroad. In the context of the DNC, Democrats Abroad is often considered the "51st State".

Use of "51st State" in popular culture

• The satirical superhero comic Nextwave ends the series with the lead characters taking control of a flying research base, known as State 51.
• The 51st State is a movie starring Samuel L Jackson and Robert Carlyle, set in Liverpool, England. The film makes fun of U.S.-UK relations.
• In The Simpsons, Saudi-Israelia (presumably a combination of Saudi Arabia and Israel) is mentioned as the 51st state in the episode "Future-Drama".
• The album The Ghost of Cain by New Model Army features a track called "51st State"
• The song "Heartland", on the album Infected, by the English band The The, ends with the refrain "This is the 51st state of the U.S.A."
• 51st State - A novel by Peter Preston published in 1998, in which the United Kingdom leaves the European Union and becomes the 51st state of the USA. ISBN 0-670-88326-3
• In George Michael's animated music video "Shoot the Dog", British Prime Minister Tony Blair, mocked throughout the video as being Bush's subservient pet, drives the British Isles like a motorboat across the Atlantic to the eastern seaboard of the United States and anchors them next to Washington, DC - a visual representation of George Michael's opinion that the United Kingdom has all but lost its sovereignty since Tony Blair has been in power.
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation second season episode "The Royale", a 52 Star flag is shown on a piece of debris. The episode did not make clear where the 51st and 52nd States were, only that they joined in the 21st Century.
• The FUGS song "CIA Man" (from the Refuse to Be Burnt Out album) includes in its lyrics: "Who can get a budget that's so great? Who will be the fifty-first (51st) state? Who's got the secretest service, the one that makes the other Service nervous.... CIA Man."
• The graphic novel Watchmen, written by Alan Moore, is set in a different reality, where the United States won the Vietnam war and annexed Vietnam, that became the 51st State.

See also

• Manifest Destiny
• Proposals for new Australian States
• Proposals for new Canadian provinces and territories

External links

• The 51st Star?. Discussion of the 51st state on Daily Kos