This perverted interpretation allows big cities to dominate whole states politically even though much/most of the state is contrarily aligned to the city. The Constitution’s guarantee of “a republican form of government” ought to be interpreted as state legislatures being structured in parallel to the federal structure, i.e., a bicameral legislature with one house being based on equal population and the other based on land area. This would balance (the key element of the US Constitution, balance) the interests of urban vs. rural so that neither could dominate. What we have now are city states not too different from ancient times - an all-powerful urban center which completely dominating the surrounding countryside.
Next week I hope to look behind the curtain of the 14th Amendment regarding scotus’ equal protection abuse. The dissenting opinions by Frankfurter and Harlan in the early 1960s are as good as those written by Clarence Thomas.