Lots of countries have states, provinces, departments, and the like each with some degree of local government, but relatively few of them give them so much powe

Lots of countries have states, provinces, departments, and the like each with some degree of local government, but relatively few of them give them so much power at the national level as the US does in its Senate. I would have thought after the Civil War more work would have been done to get people to identify with the US more than with their particular state. If that was done, it doesn't matter how big or small your state is -- the important thing is your vote is the same as everybody else's in the nation.