# Does Maryland Really Need To Approve Retrocession? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 19, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-maryland-really-need-to-approve-retrocession/400819 "2007-04-19T18:22:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2007, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-maryland-really-need-to-approve-retrocession/400819/61 "2007-04-23T00:51:13Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] Congress could grant statehood to DC by law.Do you support statehood for the District of Columbia? [/QUOTE] I suppose so if it follow the exact procedures established in the Constitution. It should be no more and no less. It personally sounds to me to be a screwy way to establish estate but I can’t complain if things are followed to the letter. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-maryland-really-need-to-approve-retrocession/400819/62 "2007-04-23T01:16:25Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] I suppose so if it follow the exact procedures established in the Constitution. [/QUOTE] There are no procedures established in the Constitution for the admission of states. The Constitution grants Congress complete control except in a case involving the territory of another state. (I still say West Virginia is not a state. 🙂 ) Congress could, quite constitutionally and legally, admit the District of Columbia as a state if it so chose. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2007, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-maryland-really-need-to-approve-retrocession/400819/63 "2007-04-23T04:17:04Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] His term expired. DC has two of them, Paul Strauss and Michael Brown. [/QUOTE] [Johnny Carson]I did not know that.[/JC] Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2007, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-maryland-really-need-to-approve-retrocession/400819/64 "2007-04-24T02:51:14Z")
[QUOTE=Ravenman] We folks in DC do not have any voting representative in Congress. At the very least, I think Americans should agree that all citizens of our country should all have someone in Congress to represent the views of their constituents. The status quo does not guarantee that. [/QUOTE] And this is what DC residents don’t seem to understand. We really don’t care. It was set aside oh, around 200 years ago to fix an actual problem, which has not actually gone away. It’s just been hidden. I’m assuming its status as a non-state precinct set aside for the national government was not news to you from a long time ago. If you don’t like it, _move_. This isn’t a case of being taxed because you’re a colony - you made the decision to live in a special area of the USA specifically set aside for a different purpose - to act as the seat of national government free from state interference. And frankly, Washingtonians have covered themselves in so much shame on the city level I wouldn’t trust your voters with an empty pinata. I’ve long been very confused by the people who hit themselves with a hammer repeatedly and then demand I give them a softer hammer. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2007, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-maryland-really-need-to-approve-retrocession/400819/65 "2007-04-24T03:24:14Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit] And this is what DC residents don’t seem to understand. We really don’t care. [/quote] No, we understand that completely. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Americans, in general, are pretty parochial. That most folks don’t care about 600,000 second-class citizens in their own capital city isn’t poorly understood, it is PERFECTLY understood. > [@](#): > > If you don’t like it, _move_. You’re not understanding the basis of the problem. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the political boundaries of Washington, DC, there is something wrong with the principle of maintaining laws depriving American citizens of representation in their own government for reasons that have long lost their validity, if indeed there was any validity to the reason in the first place. To that end, I challenge anyone to name one other democratic country anywhere in the world that says that the people of the capital city shouldn’t be represented in the national government. Surely if the reasons for this policy are valid, some other country would enact a similar policy, right? > [@](#): > > And frankly, Washingtonians have covered themselves in so much shame on the city level I wouldn’t trust your voters with an empty pinata. I’m not a huge fan of all the politicians elected here, either. However, if you want to base representation in the national government on the desirability of the outcomes of the political process, would you support revoking the voting rights of people in the corrupt localities in Louisiana, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Chicago, and elsewhere? If this is in a valid reason for denying representation, do you support revoking representatives from Jersey City and Detroit and telling those Americans to move elsewhere if they want to be full participants in the rights that the Constitution gives to every other American citizen who doesn’t live where they do? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-maryland-really-need-to-approve-retrocession/400819.md?page=3)