Another thing is that not everyone's vote counts equal in the US.
It's supposed to be that way. The popular vote is balanced against the wishes of the various STATES. That's why there is a Electoral College. It's also why we have a both a US Senate and a US House of Representatives, to balance the power of the wishes of the various States against the wishes of the People. The US is not a populist Democracy or a Federal Republic, it is a Union of what were, as of in 1776, independent, POLITICAL, States. The United States. Get it??? That's why the framers of the US Constitution designed our political system as they did.
This is where the US terminology differs from that used in the rest of the world.
"United" to most of us, refers to something like the "United Kingdom", where the constituent States have had their sovereignty submerged into that of the "Union".
What you are describing is what most people outside the USA would call a "Federation", not very different from that of Australia, the Federal Republic of Germany, Canada, amongst others, where the States retain substantial legislative powers.
(One significant difference is your Executive Presidents--- many other Federations have either a Monarch, or a President neither of which have any real power)
There are definite "trade-offs" in setting up such a country, as the States need to see definite benefits in belonging.
For instance, New Zealand came close to being an Australian State, but the trade-offs were not sufficiently beneficial, whilst Western Australia came very close to declining the invitation, but the vote "got over the line" due to two things:-An influx of Gold miners from the other States, along with the promise of a Railway linking WA to the Eastern States.