The United States had grown to the largest economic power in the world by 1890 with a government largely funded by tariffs.

To be fair, the United States had a larger population and a vastly larger country/amount of natural resources than their European peers.
In 1890, the US population stood at roughly 63m while the UK had 33m, France had 38m and the German Reich had 49m.

Having almost an entire continent to themselves is the predominant reason why the US became the leading economy (and military power) in the world, rather than some differences in tariff policy. The tariffs didn't get in the way of the rise of the US, but I don't think it would be honest to argue they were what made the country rich. (I know you didn't explicitly make that argument, just wanted to reiterate.)

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 8 2025 08:29am

The dripping envy that leftists have for beautiful women will never stop being funny

They're freaking out so much over Texas gerrymandering because they have nothing to counter it - they've already gerrymandered every single one of their states.

Now the rest of the red states are gearing up to gerrymander, this combined with a new census eliminating illegals means democrats will never again hold any power

California and NY are gerrymandering right now to counter whatever Texas does. Republicans are fighting them because it's a real threat

I don't support left or right gerrymandering. This is legal election fraud that hurts both sides.

If this escalates, it's bad for America

They could get some 3-4 more seats from New York if they can ram through an all-out gerrymander. The last time they tried that, they were so sloppy and brazen that the map got struck down by the highest state court, in spite of said court having a liberal majority. But still, if they play their cards right this time around, they could get it done. Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts are maxed out for them.

In California, they already have a sneaky, lowkey gerrymander. The state is so big and so blue that they could get even more seats out of it with a more ruthless gerrymander, but they have an independent redistricting commission in place which is unlikely to go along with any kind of "frankenstein map".

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 8 2025 03:32pm

CA and NY can gerrymander what little they do have left to gerrymander, but by doing so they are causing even more red states to gerrymander such as FL. I wouldn't say its fraud, but it is dirty - much like the nuclear option to eliminate the legislative filibuster which was heroically thwarted by Manchin and Sinema.

It's a bad play because they don't have to cards - blue states stand to gain 10 seats or less from a gerrymander war while red states stand to gain 30 or more seats.

Overall bad for an idealistic form of the country where a soft civil war doesn't exist, but that's divorced from reality. The reality is that unless the Democrats are destroyed now, the war is only prolonged. It's important to understand that the Democrats are the aggressors in this war

They can get a few more seats but nothing compared to the potential gain of red states if they follow suit and gerrymander themselves

Massachusetts to me is just absolutely atrocious. Zero republican seats while they get 40% of the vote