Over the summer, a group of counties in northeastern Colorado began a movement to break away from the state of Colorado and form the 51st state in the Union. Spearheaded by Weld County, citizens and officials on the Eastern Plains are tired of liberals moving to the greater Denver area from out of state and making a once solidly red Colorado a purple leaning-blue state. Disagreement over state politics is no justification to break away and form a new state.

The concerns are real, don’t get me wrong. With Democratic governor Hickenlooper in office and Democratic control of both the state House and Senate since the 2012 elections, citizens in the conservative northeastern portion of the state feel that their views are being ignored in Denver. The movement itself began at the end of the spring legislative session, which featured both unpopular gun control legislation and energy legislation that raised rural electricity prices for farmers and ranchers by requiring more energy to come from renewable sources.

The requirements to form a new state from an existing U.S. state mandate approval from both the state legislature in question and the U.S. Congress. There is very little chance of this happening, given that the Colorado legislature and the Congress have little interest in a new state. But it is not unprecedented.

Indeed, Maine broke away from Massachusetts and Kentucky from Virginia. But the most recent successful breakaway was West Virginia from Virginia during the Civil War. There have also been many failed attempts: Southern California in 1859, Northern California and parts of Oregon in 1941 and Long Island from New York many times. Perhaps the most similar to today was the case of West Kansas trying to break away in the early 1990s, as it was fueled by the same rural-urban divide. The movement ended with concessions from the state government.

This is precisely what needs to happen in the Northern Colorado case. The state legislature needs to realize it has a duty to represent all Coloradans while also respecting the principle of democracy that a majority vote is still paramount.

But the answer is not to break away. America would be the land of 150 states, not 50 states, if counties in every state could break away when they disagreed with current state politics. It simply doesn’t make sense to create a new state with a population far less than that of Wyoming, currently the least populated state.

The solution lies in respecting differences in the diverse state Colorado has become, not in the 51st state.