DO YOU SUPPORT DC STATEHOOD

[surskitty]

AS MANY OF YOU SHOULD BE AWARE, Washington DC is technically not a state. It is its own separate supposedly self-governing province with ~non-voting~ representatives in Congress! Oh, and DC residents can vote for president since the mid-1960s. How's that for democracy.

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State

You know, DC has a population greater than that of Wyoming, and if you count the entire DC metropolitan area, the population jumps from 600k to 5476k. Of course, that includes a sizable amount of Maryland and northern Virginia, but given how many people in that area work in DC ....

Aaaaas I posted here: It makes a hell of a lot of a difference between if it's DC handling this or if Congress is dictating what DC does again.

And yes, that is a really, really important question; the budget that passed recently? The one where they're like AT LEAST THEY DIDN'T DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD? Yeaaaah, that included a rider preventing DC from using its own city tax dollars on abortion and Republicans were pushing to stop some programs that would help prevent the spread of HIV. The Republican Party is against allowing DC to continue spending its own goddamn money on needle-exchange programs to try to do something about its really fucking high HIV rate. I wish I was making this shit up. Everywhere else? If the federal government stops funding something, at least the states can fund it; it's sure as hell not ideal, particularly when it's something as basic as Planned Parenthood, but it can happen. DC takes in its city tax dollars, but Congress still can go FUCK YOU YOU ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED TO SPEND YOUR OWN MONEY WHERE YOU PLEASE. (For those of you who have not seen me rant about DC's lack of statehood and various reasons the default DC license plate is Taxation Without Representation, DC has tried multiple times to do things like, say, legalise medicinal marijuana (and if you are against medicinal marijuana I have Words for you; it does a very good job of handling a lot of chronic pain conditions) and Congress has declared that they can't hold a referendum to actually get it passed. Back when DC was trying to get marriage equality, it was a very real concern that fuckheads in Congress would intervene. Have I mentioned that DC gets no voting representation in Congress? Gods fucking damn, why the hell isn't DC a state. Oh, wait, I know! It's because it's an area that would never vote conservative ever!)


Your thoughts? Things I should rant about? Some reason for DC to not be a state that doesn't relate to conservatives not approving of guaranteed liberal votes?

 

[surskitty]

HEY, WARGLE. WHY THE NO VOTE?

 

[Wargle]

Oh what how you see what I vote that's not right.

Honestly, I think DC Is a little small area-wise for statehood,.

And when it was first brought up for National Capital, they didn't want one state having it, so they made a seperate district for. I think this is still better.

 

[Flora]

And when it was first brought up for National Capital, they didn't want one state having it, so they made a seperate district for. I think this is still better.

But they also didn't realize that people would live there other than government workers. Obviously that ended up not happening.

Honestly, in my opinion, it's not fair for them to pay taxes and the like without having the ability to, you know, decide for themselves how they want their money spent.

 

[surskitty]

Oh what how you see what I vote that's not right.

Honestly, I think DC Is a little small area-wise for statehood,.

And when it was first brought up for National Capital, they didn't want one state having it, so they made a seperate district for. I think this is still better.

http://forums.dragonflycave.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=465 It's a public poll.

Why does the area matter? Particularly since if you annex the bits of Maryland and Virginia that are more or less DC anyway, you'd end up with an area five times the size of Rhode Island. Land area's a problem in regards to property tax, but DC's small enough that its infrastructure doesn't really need the support from that.

So what do you propose to do about the whole non-voting representative thing, or the fact that if Congress decides to refuse to allow DC to conduct a referendum to ... for example, legalise medicinal marijuana, it is entirely capable of doing so? Or the fact that in the recent budget, DC was banned from using its own city tax dollars to help pay for abortions? Or that after Ronald Reagan died, some representative from ... I'd like to say Mississippi; I'm not in the mood to look this up ... tried to pass a bill to rename 14th street in DC to Ronald Reagan Boulevard and there's absolutely nothing no one in DC can do about it?

There are reasons the DC license plate slogan is "Taxation Without Representation".

 

[hopeandjoy]

DC and Alaska have almost the same population count. Population is not a problem.

The problem is, the Republicans don't want a Democratic Congressperson and two Democratic Senators.

 

[Aobaru]

By all means, DC should be a state. Along with Puerto Rico. :D I think 'taxation without representation' works well here.

 

[Catch-22]

But they also didn't realize that people would live there other than government workers. Obviously that ended up not happening.

Honestly, in my opinion, it's not fair for them to pay taxes and the like without having the ability to, you know, decide for themselves how they want their money spent.

"No taxation without representation" - wasn't that a fairly large part of the reason why we seceded in the first place?

I'm for DC being a state. I realize it's small but we have tiny states like Rhode Island and large, underpopulated ones like [essentially the entire northwest], so why not?

 

[opaltiger]

The problem is, the Republicans don't want a Democratic Congressperson and two Democratic Senators.

Pretty much. There is no reasonable argument against it being a state, but it will never become one so long as it remains 95% Democrat.

 

[Wargle]

But then we would have to redesign the US Flag and it wouldn't look as good with 51 or 52.

And my nostalgia say 50>51

 

[surskitty]

But then we would have to redesign the US Flag and it wouldn't look as good with 51 or 52.

And my nostalgia say 50>51

Congratufuckinglations. That is a great reason for living in the US capital to mean your vote is only ever actually remotely useful in the presidential election.

 

[1. Luftballon]

would it really be so terrible to just stuff DC in with maryland or virginia?

 

[surskitty]

would it really be so terrible to just stuff DC in with maryland or virginia?

DC politics don't actually line up remotely well with either. Stuffing it in with Maryland'd work better, but not by much.

 

[Ryan the Terrible]

I say yes because why not?

 

[PK]

DC has the worst street layout in the goddamn world

but other than that yeah it should be a state

 

[hopeandjoy]

DC has the worst street layout in the goddamn world

You never know when those British/Canadians are coming back. It could be any day now. They're still bitter about the revolution/War of 1812.

 

[Abwayax]

Here's what I think.

Give it back to Maryland and carve out a smaller national capital with no permanent residents. Sort of like what this bill tried to do

 

[Pwnemon]

I usually don't pop in here because i end up making a fool of myself but I couldn't resist here.

First, I like Adrian Malacodia's suggestion a lot. They may be more liberal than MD, but not by all that much, and I can't see it making much of difference, except on stuff like the gay marriage law.

And as to Tailsy (surskitty?) saying

Gods fucking damn, why the hell isn't DC a state. Oh, wait, I know! It's because it's an area that would never vote conservative ever!

forgive me if i'm wrong, but it takes nothing more than a majority vote from congress to accept a state, does it?

 

[hopeandjoy]

In order to become a state, first, the territory petitions Congress for admittance into the Union. A bill is then put forward that follows the normal process for creating a law.

And then you are a State.

 

[surskitty]

I kinda think that idea's stupid :B

And as to Tailsy (surskitty?) saying
forgive me if i'm wrong, but it takes nothing more than a majority vote from congress to accept a state, does it?

Yes, and exactly how likely is it that anyone Republican is going to vote in favour of DC statehood when it means one guaranteed democrat in the House and two in the Senate?