# D.C. Votes in Favor of Statehood **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 9, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282 "2016-11-09T21:50:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/1 "2016-11-09T21:50:20Z")
> **[D.C. Votes Overwhelmingly To Become 51st State](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/09/501412360/d-c-votes-overwhelmingly-to-become-51st-state)** > > District of Columbia voters passed the referendum Tuesday with nearly 80 percent in favor. Congress, which will ultimately decide the fate of the federal district, is not expected to approve it. Do you think this will be approved by Congress? If so, wouldn’t the likely result mean a tied Senate? ---
**Author:** ![TheSeaOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed655f/32.png) [@TheSeaOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSeaOtter)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/2 "2016-11-09T21:52:27Z")
The Republican-controlled Congress is never in a million years going to approve statehood (and the corresponding congressional seats) to heavily Democratic D.C. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/3 "2016-11-09T21:52:48Z")
> [@CoastalMaineiac](#): > > [D.C. Votes Overwhelmingly To Become 51st State : The Two-Way : NPR](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/09/501412360/d-c-votes-overwhelmingly-to-become-51st-state) > > Do you think this will be approved by Congress? If so, wouldn’t the likely result mean a tied Senate? Congress will not approve it. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/4 "2016-11-10T00:33:35Z")
Congress won’t even consider thinking about holding a vote on the matter. It’s that dead. The petition will be filed in a shredder. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/5 "2016-11-10T02:03:26Z")
If they want representation that badly, then keep the reduced “federal district” as DC and give the rest back to Maryland. Wasn’t there a plan to give DC a voting Representative, and give one more to Utah to balance things out (at least until reapportionment took effect in 2022)? Whatever happened to that? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/6 "2016-11-10T04:39:10Z")
The federal government cannot be a state. This is kinda like white people wondering why there isn’t White Entertainment Television. Because every channel is already! That’s how Congress is. DC is represented by every Congressman, or nearly so, because they all frickin’ live there and abandon their districts, and a large portion of them plan to stay! The results speak for themselves. During the recession, while the rest of the country grew poorer, DC continued to grow more prosperous. If DC wants to be a state, fine. Remove the federal government and relocate it to Boonville, MO ,which is more centrally located anyway, and make that small city of 10,000 the new federal district. I think we know why DC residents would not accept that deal. So that’s how it works. You can either be the seat of government, or you can have representation. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/7 "2016-11-10T05:26:47Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Wasn’t there a plan to give DC a voting Representative, and give one more to Utah to balance things out (at least until reapportionment took effect in 2022)? Whatever happened to that? It never went anywhere (it was filibustered the first time it had a chance of passing, and had a poison pill gun amendment added to it the second time), but there’s a good chance it was unconstitutional anyways. “The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States.” Our system is statehood or slavery. They have to change the rules or fit into them, and statehood is the only realistic way to do the latter. (Retrocession would also give the people a vote, but neither DC nor Maryland seem interested in that at all.) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/8 "2016-11-10T07:50:27Z")
Changing the flag would be a PITA. One city doesn’t qualify as a new state. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/9 "2016-11-10T08:06:41Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Changing the flag would be a PITA. > > One city doesn’t qualify as a new state. If #CalExit were to happen, we wouldn’t have to change the flag at all. And if you’re worried about them being too small, I propose we give the new state of DC a few of the northern VA counties as well. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/10 "2016-11-10T08:08:14Z")
That brings up a good point. DC actually encompasses a good part of Virginia. I think that if you did make DC a state, all the DC metro areas should be part of that state. ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/11 "2016-11-10T08:18:33Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The federal government cannot be a state. This is kinda like white people wondering why there isn’t White Entertainment Television. Because every channel is already! That’s how Congress is. DC is represented by every Congressman, or nearly so, because they all frickin’ live there and abandon their districts, and a large portion of them plan to stay! The results speak for themselves. During the recession, while the rest of the country grew poorer, DC continued to grow more prosperous. > > If DC wants to be a state, fine. Remove the federal government and relocate it to Boonville, MO ,which is more centrally located anyway, and make that small city of 10,000 the new federal district. I think we know why DC residents would not accept that deal. So that’s how it works. You can either be the seat of government, or you can have representation. While the Capitol or the White House can’t be a state, depriving DC of statehood is a form of disenfranchisement because there are people whose permanent dwellings are not in a government building, but not in any state or territory but the District. That being said, it could be doubtful Congress approves DC statehood, but if the Trump is serious about winning an election after losing the popular vote (GW Bush was the only one to do that; Quincy Adams, Ben Harrison, and Rutherford Hayes all lost re-election) and he thinks he can add blacks to the GOP, then he might surprise everyone and come out for it. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/12 "2016-11-10T08:19:43Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I think that if you did make DC a state, all the DC metro areas should be part of that state. I’m not sure if that would make it toxic to both parties or help it thread the needle somehow. Virginia Republicans would love it but Maryland Democrats would probably not. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/13 "2016-11-10T08:38:19Z")
It does get around the problem of horsetrading representation the way they want to do with Utah and DC. It creates a deep blue state and returns Virginia to its deep red status. Seems like a more organic way to balance things out if that’s what they want to do. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/14 "2016-11-10T10:06:50Z")
DC will never have any kind of representation in Congress as long as it is perceived as a “black” city. Invariably, in any of these discussions, someone mentions that "this is the city that re-elected Marion Barry, the subtext being that you can’t trust these people with the vote. There also is a lot of misunderstanding of why DC doesn’t have the vote, there doesn’t seem to be any writings from the time that explain the thinking of the way the Constitution was written on this topic. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/15 "2016-11-10T11:07:00Z")
Actually, there was. The idea was that no state should have the federal capital as it would be more powerful than the other states. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/16 "2016-11-10T11:27:29Z")
I think there was a good case for a largish federal district 200 years ago. There were real questions as to the ability of the federal government to act within a state’s boundaries against its wishes. But _McCulloch v. Maryland_ and two centuries of growing federal power have changed a lot. The federal government is now universally recognized (except for Bundy-type cranks) as having the authority to police its own property and enforce federal laws within the boundaries of a state. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/17 "2016-11-10T11:44:10Z")
For those that say it can either be a state or it can be a seat of government-Does any other country have a seat of government where the residents are as segregated from representation? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/18 "2016-11-10T11:55:49Z")
Why doesn’t the arguments against giving the inhabitants of DC voting rights for congress apply to every state capital in the union? Why isn’t anyone working to create little districts of Columbia around Albany, Bismark, Sacramento, and so on? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/19 "2016-11-10T12:34:33Z")
If all of the lawmakers in a state permanently moved to the state capitol and completely abandoned their old homes, then we’d have a good argument for denying the state capitol representation. But that’s primarily a DC phenomenon. DC is already represented: by 535 representatives who are looking out primarily for the interests of where they live and where they plan to stay in many cases. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282/20 "2016-11-10T12:43:45Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > If all of the lawmakers in a state permanently moved to the state capitol and completely abandoned their old homes, then we’d have a good argument for denying the state capitol representation. But that’s primarily a DC phenomenon. DC is already represented: by 535 representatives who are looking out primarily for the interests of where they live and where they plan to stay in many cases. Sounds like an excellent reason to accept DC statehood. With 535 representatives, who’s in control, and who is responsible for failures? You say that they’re all looking out primarily for the interests of where the live, but through the filter of political viewpoints, what those interests are and the best way to go about them is going to change. If you’re in DC, you don’t get to pick which competing viewpoint(s) lead the way. You don’t get to reject, publicly, someone that’s failed. You don’t get to reward, publicly, someone that’s succeeded. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-c-votes-in-favor-of-statehood/771282.md?page=2)