Capital city is treated like a colony, a distant territory
By moving just a few miles 16 years ago, I restored my constitutional right to representation in Congress. I did nothing noble to have my full citizenship recognized. I didn’t cross any international border. I simply relocated across the invisible boundary defined by a street called Western Avenue, from the District of Columbia to Maryland.
In fact, if you drive along Western Avenue, you will discern no difference whatsoever between one side of the street and the other. But only those on the Maryland side get to vote for a member of the House of Representatives and two U. S. senators.
The United States is alone among the democracies in flatly denying basic political rights to the people who live in its capital city. Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon — I could go on — all play a vibrant role in the national politics of their respective nations, and are represented in full. Washington is treated like a colony, a distant territory, a political inconvenience.
The absurdity of all this was noted at a hearing on Monday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform by Wade Henderson, interim president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and
Human Rights and a lifelong Washingtonian. “D.C. residents should not have to abandon our homes and move elsewhere to secure the rights of citizens enjoyed by others,” Henderson declared.
Yet opposition to ending this injustice by adding the District of Columbia as the 51st state drives some members of Congress to truly wondrous levels of nonsense.
“D.C.,” said Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., “would be the only state, the only state, without an airport, without a car dealership, without a capital city, without a landfill.”
Wow! Just imagine the patriots of 1776 chanting: “No representation without car dealerships and a landfill!” Later, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., offered a friendly amendment to Hice’s comment, saying, “The only dealership there now is a Tesla dealership, which is I think a high-end car.” That settles it, right?
Except that there are multiple car dealerships in D.C., as Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., later pointed out. Hice backed off that particular claim, but not his position. “If there’s a car dealership in D.C., I apologize for being wrong — I have no idea where it is,” he said. Thus the careful, well-reasoned basis for blocking full democracy for more than 700,000 people.
And if you think that is not a large enough population to entitle D.C. to two senators, then you would have to take senators away from both Wyoming and Vermont, which have smaller populations still.
But Republicans are ready to argue that the people of Wyoming are “wellrounded” compared with D.C. residents. This entitles Wyoming folks to rights D.C. folks shouldn’t have. Republicans will do whatever it takes and — as you can see — say just about anything to deprive Washington of statehood and thus maintain their overrepresentation in the Senate.
The most innovative response to the retrocession idea came from the editorial board of the Baltimore Sun last month. “Why not merge the nation’s least populous states or territories when they are contiguous?” the editorial asked, proposing a merger between Wyoming, the 50th state in population, with South Dakota, the 45th (if you include D.C.). “Call it South Dakoming,” the Sun wrote, “or, better yet, Wyokota.”
Don’t worry, Wyokotans. You will get to keep your four senators. But pondering having your representation in the Senate cut in half might make you a trifle more sympathetic to Washingtonians.