Why should DC citizens be given the right to vote? We pay the same taxes you do. Our sons and daughters bleed on the same battlefields as yours do. The precarious nature of the early federal government and the dominance and jealousies of the states that prevailed when the District was created have gone the way of powdered wigs and knee britches. Taxation without representation was unfair to the colonies more than 230 years ago and it's unfair still today on American soil.People who don't watch the sad saga of D.C. voting rights closely get all excited when the Democrats are in power because they think the Dems are the natural allies of District residents and will surely move to give Washingtonians their birthright and let them elect a member of Congress.
But that's not how it works, and House Democrats showed once again last week what they really think of the District. In a move calculated to make it appear as if the Dems really do care about D.C. voting rights, the House voted to let the non-voting delegate from D.C. cast a vote anytime it doesn't matter. That is, the delegate will be permitted to vote on amendments to bills--if and only if the margin of victory in the vote is large enough so that the D.C. vote would not alter the outcome. In other words, if and only if the D.C. vote is utterly meaningless.
As symbolic gestures go, this one would be harmless enough if it didn't also make it vastly more difficult for any real voting rights reform to come out of the House. But it does.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
DC Voting Rights Watch
Marc Fisher in his column Raw Fisher explains the raw deal DC residents got with Congress' utterly meaningless move to allow DC's delegate to vote on amendments. Quote of note:
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2 comments:
Let's not be naive here. If DC citizens want to vote, their elected officials should be lobbying heavy and hard to be reinstated as part of Maryland - the state this federal district was originally carved from.
As part of Maryland - again - the citizens of DC would have a voting representative in Congress (DC's population is about the size of a congressional district anyways) and two Senators.
DC deserves to be its own state about as much as New York City does. And, had to douse everyone with a big dose of reaslism here, but Republicans will never go along with giving DC statehood...
If what you want is truly a vote, that's the simplest way. Now all you have to do is talk the Democrats who run the People's Republic of Maryland into letting you back in....
I strongly oppose the idea of making DC a state, but agree with you about the "taxation without representation" bit. I'd be more comfortable with just amending the Constitution to give their delegates voting rights in similiar fashion as the 23rd Amendment allowed residents to vote in presidential elections.
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