Will Washington, D.C. Become The 51st State?
Election day in November 2016 will be the day Americans vote for their new president. But many don't know that it in Washington, DC, a ballot referendum will determine whether most of the federal district will be allowed to gain statehood. But… why isn't the District of Columbia already a state, what exactly is it, and could it be the 51st state? Well, Washington, DC is unique. Although the district is not a state, and does not see representation in Congress, its residents pay the sixth highest individual income tax rate in the US. For many, it is ironic that the home of the US government suffers from the very issue that led to its founding: “taxation without representation”. So why did this happen? Well, it originated out of necessity.
In 1783, in the last months of the Revolutionary War, soldiers in Philadelphia who had been recruited to fight the British were not being paid. In retaliation, they stormed the Congress building, and when the founding fathers asked the governor of Pennsylvania for help, they were refused. This event served two purposes: First, it forced the relocation of the nation's capital.But second, the framers wrote into the Constitution a clause which would avoid the possibility of Congress having to depend on a state for protection. Instead, Article One, Section Eight, Clause 17 outlines that a district be established for the seat of government, and that district be wholly presided on by Congress itself, with no interference from the state of Maryland. But the unintended consequence was that while all states have elected representatives in Washington, DC, the district itself has no representation in the U.S. Senate, and within the House of Representatives, DC members cannot vote.
In fact, DC's only federal influence is in the Presidential election, where it has 3 electoral votes, which is tied for fewest votes in the United States. We spoke with one of DC's so-called “shadow senators”, Michael D. Brown. These senators are elected by the District to promote its statehood within Congress, although they do not hold a seat. Senator Brown explained the plan for creating a new state without losing the capital: The plan for statehood for DC would be to shrink the size of the nation's capital down to what we call the federal service area. And that would be the new capital and the surrounding area would be a state.
Brown and others like DC's own Mayor Muriel Bowser support this version of statehood, but others say that the plan would not work, and would ultimately harm DC residents. But DC residents themselves seem to like the idea, with 67 percent supporting statehood in 2015, according to the Washington Post. We've had Hillary Clinton say that she'll fight for statehood, DC statehood if she's elected. Obama said “I'm for it”. Bernie Sanders was the cosponsor of the statehood legislation that we not have in Congress, we have a statehood bill in both the houses. So it's like the stars are aligning for us, we have a lot of support from the democratic party. One of our problems is a lack of support from the republican party. Those who oppose the matter tend to do so for one major reason.
Washington, DC is primarily democrat leaning, and allowing it into the Senate would, by many accounts, guarantee two more democrats in office. Other arguments focus on a repeat of the 1783 Philadelphia crisis, or simply the difficulty in integrating a new state into the US. They say it's the way of the founding fathers, the founding fathers wanted it. Well yeah, the founding fathers didn't want women to vote, they didn't want African Americans to vote, they didn't want veterans under the age of 21 to vote. They weren't a very inclusive lot. Whether Washington, DC becomes its own state, will be left to the voters, and even that isn't guaranteed. If passed, the referendum is intended to pressure Congress into holding a vote on DC statehood. Even with nearly 70% support; after decades of efforts to promote statehood, with little success, full democracy may still be out of reach for DC residents.
In 1783, in the last months of the Revolutionary War, soldiers in Philadelphia who had been recruited to fight the British were not being paid. In retaliation, they stormed the Congress building, and when the founding fathers asked the governor of Pennsylvania for help, they were refused. This event served two purposes: First, it forced the relocation of the nation's capital.But second, the framers wrote into the Constitution a clause which would avoid the possibility of Congress having to depend on a state for protection. Instead, Article One, Section Eight, Clause 17 outlines that a district be established for the seat of government, and that district be wholly presided on by Congress itself, with no interference from the state of Maryland. But the unintended consequence was that while all states have elected representatives in Washington, DC, the district itself has no representation in the U.S. Senate, and within the House of Representatives, DC members cannot vote.
In fact, DC's only federal influence is in the Presidential election, where it has 3 electoral votes, which is tied for fewest votes in the United States. We spoke with one of DC's so-called “shadow senators”, Michael D. Brown. These senators are elected by the District to promote its statehood within Congress, although they do not hold a seat. Senator Brown explained the plan for creating a new state without losing the capital: The plan for statehood for DC would be to shrink the size of the nation's capital down to what we call the federal service area. And that would be the new capital and the surrounding area would be a state.
Brown and others like DC's own Mayor Muriel Bowser support this version of statehood, but others say that the plan would not work, and would ultimately harm DC residents. But DC residents themselves seem to like the idea, with 67 percent supporting statehood in 2015, according to the Washington Post. We've had Hillary Clinton say that she'll fight for statehood, DC statehood if she's elected. Obama said “I'm for it”. Bernie Sanders was the cosponsor of the statehood legislation that we not have in Congress, we have a statehood bill in both the houses. So it's like the stars are aligning for us, we have a lot of support from the democratic party. One of our problems is a lack of support from the republican party. Those who oppose the matter tend to do so for one major reason.
Washington, DC is primarily democrat leaning, and allowing it into the Senate would, by many accounts, guarantee two more democrats in office. Other arguments focus on a repeat of the 1783 Philadelphia crisis, or simply the difficulty in integrating a new state into the US. They say it's the way of the founding fathers, the founding fathers wanted it. Well yeah, the founding fathers didn't want women to vote, they didn't want African Americans to vote, they didn't want veterans under the age of 21 to vote. They weren't a very inclusive lot. Whether Washington, DC becomes its own state, will be left to the voters, and even that isn't guaranteed. If passed, the referendum is intended to pressure Congress into holding a vote on DC statehood. Even with nearly 70% support; after decades of efforts to promote statehood, with little success, full democracy may still be out of reach for DC residents.
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