Let's debate DC statehood

Great Debates
1

Washingtonians pay federal taxes but have no representation in Congress (they do have 3 votes in the Electoral College, though). They have only such self-government as Congress sees fit to allow them. Some want to resolve this by admitting DC to the Union as a state (usually to be called “New Columbia,” though I don’t see why “New,” since there is no old Columbia unless you count that planned community in Maryland). See the website of the DC
Statehood Green Party: DC StateHood Green Party

My thoughts on this: Washington is too small to be a viable state by itself. Too many of the people who work there don’t live there – they commute from the suburban counties. It seems unfair to tax them in the new state without letting them vote there. If we admit it as a state, we should admit the whole Washington metropolitan area – including, from Maryland, Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and Charles County; from Virginia, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, Falls Church City, Arlington County, and Alexandria City. This would be a great plan if the Virginia and Maryland legislatures could be persuaded to give up all that historic territory (and tax base). Every local government could continue on as before, including Washington City (which now would have exactly the same degree of home rule as any other major American city). The new state government would be in charge of metropolitan concerns, like running the Metro and possibly expanding it, and growth management.

What’s more, a metropolitan, multi-county state of New Columbia might serve as the model for the creation of other city-state governments. We really need political consolidation of all our metro areas, for regional government and planning (and for a common tax base, so the well-off suburbanites have to chip in a bit to fix the problems of the inner city – which they would, then, also have a voice in governing, and vice-versa). And we’ve grown to the point where our very largest metro areas (i.e., Greater Washington and every metro area of equal or greater population) should be states in their own right. Imagine a new state of New York encompassing the Five Boroughs and the neighboring counties of New Jersey and Connecticut, plus Long Island and Westchester. (The remainder of New York State could be renamed the State of “Hudson.”) Greater New York is really all one community and the problems of one part affect the others; a new state government could address all those problems on a regional basis. Meanwhile, the state governments of NJ, CT, etc., now are freed of dealing with those urban problems and can concentrate on the very different problems of governing a mostly rural and suburban state. We could also make states of Greater Chicago, L.A., San Diego, and San Francisco, just for starters.

Of course, the New Columbia I’m describing would not necessarily be a “black” state. Washington and Prince George’s County are the only jurisdictions in the metro area with a black majority. That means the mayors and city council members of the City of Washington, New Columbia, would still be mostly black – but the state’s senators would not necessarily be black. Would that render the whole exercise pointless, as far as the DC-statehood advocates are concerned? Is a guarantee of two black senators in perpetuity what they’re really fighting for?

Another solution would be to just give the whole city to Maryland (assuming they can be persuaded to take it). (There is precedent for that: The District of Columbia used to include Arlington and Alexandria, but they were ceded back to Virginia in 1846.) Then Washingtonians would have exactly the same degree of home rule as Baltimore has, plus representation in Annapolis, plus representation in the House of Representatives, plus a voice in electing Maryland’s governor and senators. In short, they would have the exact same political deal as residents of every other major city in America. Nothing special.

Here’s another thought: A state of Columbia, whether it included only Washington or all its suburban counties, would have a higher proportion of “political nation” people – politicians, bureaucrats, think-tank analysts, policy wonks, activists, lobbyists, journalists, lawyers – in its population than any other state in the Union. They would represent a good share of the voting base, and now they would have a whole new set of career paths to pursue, in (or related to dealing with) the state government of New Columbia. That might bode very, very well for the sophistication and efficiency of that state government, or very, very ill. It would be interesting to see which. :smiley:

A state of New Columbia would also be the only state in the Union that has a direct economic interest in a bigger federal bureaucracy in Washington – for obvious reasons. It’s sometimes been said that Washington is in the unique position of prospering whenever the rest of the country is suffering, because that’s when more jobs are created and more money spent in DC to fix the problem.

2

There is not a chance in the world that that part would ever happen. VA is going to give up some of the richest counties in the world? I wouldn’t wind living in your proposed Columbia, but there would have to be some colossal concessions on Columbia’s part. Also, I think you underestimate the difficulty of redrawing state lines, not that I have any idea of it myself.

Problem is, the main concern of DC is supposed to be running the rest of the country, not having so much land it has to devote a lot of effort to running that all by itself. Correct my if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the whole point?

Who on earth would want to live in Hudson? New Yorkers have pride in New York. And again, we have the problem of redrawing state lines. I doubt many of those who live in New Jersey would oppose it, given what I’ve heard from those who live there, but you’re proposing an increasingly grandiose scheme here.

3

Not at all. The federal government is an organization. Washington is a city. A city of millions, and millions more live in the suburban Metro area. Most of them – even the waiters and the store clerks – work at jobs that would not exist if Washington were not the national capital, but that doesn’t mean that government is their main business in life. The state government of New Columbia would be entirely separate from the federal government of the United States, and it could get all the state employees (and certainly all the politicians!) it needs without significantly competing with the federal government in the local job market.

4

Depending on whose Statistics you believe, Montgomery County is 25-40% of Maryland’s tax base, PG County is a “net” contributor to the State coffers too. It is simply inconceivable that Annapolis would let them go under any foreseeable circumstances.

In the Spirit of the question though, one that assumes anything goes Constitution-wise:
I think it is true that circa 570,000 residents in D.C are being taxed without federal representation. I would give them a choice:
A. Pay no federal taxes
or **
B.** Elect a voting representative to the House … but no Senator.

D.C. could revisit the determination by plebiscite in, say, every 3 presidential elections, simple majority rules.

5

My compromise solution:

D.C. gets a representative and votes for Maryland senators.

Not that the G.O.P. will ever let this happen.

6

OP sounds good to me.

7

It’s worth pointing out that the DC Statehood Party, who have given this matter a lot of thought, has no designs on the surrounding jurisdictions for the borders of their proposed New State. And the people in the surrounding jurisdictions don’t want to live in a new DC-dominated state; we’re thrilled with being citizens of Virginia and Maryland.

While I see the rationale for statehood, I’m against the idea. Here’s why:

–Historically, the bulk of DC’s population was people who moved there from elsewhere to sup at the trough of the Federal Government. Every city has a main, driving industry and for DC, that’s it. Nobody needs to live in DC. Anyone who feels unfairly burdened at the prospect of paying federal taxes without congressional representation need only move five miles in virtually any direction. It’s not difficult to do. I did.

–DC’s racial imbalance is not a quirk if demographic happenstanace; White Washingtonians were deliberately driven out of the city by the less wholesome elements of the Civil Rights Movement leadership, as personified by Marion Barry, in the late 60s/early 70s. This solidified their political power within the city, while driving the tax base out into the suburbs. The perpetrators of this crime want to evade its consequences by increasing the payment they receive from the Federal government, and by levying a commuter tax on the victims of this vile scheme. Although the commuter tax is not an additional tax on commuters, it is a bite out of their existing State tax bill. As a matter of principle, commuters from the suburbs have reacted by saying “Over my dead body.”

If DC seriously wants to pursue statehood, they’ll have to develop a tax base that’s not dependent on the paychecks of government employees, attract industry to within the city limits, and do something to lure the white commuters they expelled from the District back–which would cost the Black leadership their jobs. Like Cuba, the District is held back by its unfathomable love for a charismatic (but ultimately harmful) leader. And like Cuba, the healing won’t begin until that leader dies.

8

If the Capitol were a city in a state, then that state could pass laws and levy taxes that affected only the Capitol. It could, theoretically, use such legislation to jerk the Capitol around and extort preferential treatment from the federal government.

The danger of that was the reason the Founding Fathers made Washington an extra-state entity, explicitly, Constitutionally under the thumb of Congress.

I believe that was smart thinking, and I’ve never seen an argument for DC statehood that even seems aware of it.

I do think DC’s delegate to the House should get a vote, though.

9

Since the Constitution gave Congress the authority to designate an area to be the seat of government (they settled on its current location, obviously) I always thought that Congress should work out a deal to cede all the residential and commercial areas of D.C to Maryland and redraw the lines of the District to include only the Capitol Building, the White House, and the Supreme Court.

10

Oh great, here we go again.

Can you tell us what your criteria are for determining where people need to live?

11

I’ve always thought that this is the appropriate solution. Make the Mall, and a couple of blocks around it, the District. Make the rest the city of Columbia, Maryland. Rename the existing Columbia, MD (an overly-planned suburb of Fort Meade) to Plasticville, MD.

12

I’d love to know if you subject other fundamental rights to suspension depending on one’s location. Would you be okay with declaring Washington, DC, a non-free speech zone and telling people that they can go protest in Arlington or Hyattsville, if they like? After all, nobody NEEDS to protest in DC.

What about ending the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination in high-crime cities, like South Central LA? After all, nobody NEEDS to be in those dangerous places.

Let’s say we take away Florida’s 27 electoral votes. They’ve demonstrated that they can’t run a fair election, so we’ll throw 'em a bone and let them keep their Senators and Congressmen, but no voting for President. If Floridians don’t like it, they can move to Georgia. Does that sound fair to you?

That is, of course, all nonsense. Either people have rights – such as to elected representation – or they don’t. If you’re a Jeffersonian, you’d believe that these rights come from a higher power. What is the logic of taking away enjoyment of those rights simply because of where one chooses to live? It is bizarre, undemocratic, arbitrary, and unfair.

Just give DC’s delegate the vote. I’ll be more than happy with that.

13

As other posters have stated, neither VA nor MD will give up their richest counties. Remember also that many of the residents of PG County, Montgomery County, and No Va fled DC and have no desire to live under a shared government with DC residents.

DC’s black majority is probably on the wane. With the middle and upper middle class blacks moving to the burbs, the influx of Latino immigrants, and the return of young white students and professionals, DC’s black majority may not last a generation.

[B]–DC’s racial imbalance is not a quirk if demographic happenstanace; White Washingtonians were deliberately driven out of the city by the less wholesome elements of the Civil Rights Movement leadership, as personified by Marion Barry, in the late 60s/early 70s. This solidified their political power within the city, while driving the tax base out into the suburbs. The perpetrators of this crime want to evade its consequences by increasing the payment they receive from the Federal government, and by levying a commuter tax on the victims of this vile scheme. Although the commuter tax is not an additional tax on commuters, it is a bite out of their existing State tax bill. As a matter of principle, commuters from the suburbs have reacted by saying “Over my dead body.”**

This is completely wrong. DC became a black majority city when working class and middle class whites fled in response to the end of public school segregation. Upper middle class whites remained quite happily in Northwest. They had the money and connections to keep their schools and neighborhoods white, and to demand preferential treatment from the DC government.

Many other cities around the country became majority black at the same time, for the same reasons, flight from integration and the end of government-backed (implicitly or explicitly) favoritism towards whites.

When you call the ethnic succession in DC politics a “crime,” you’re veering off into tinfoil hat territory. It’s a pathetic attempt to make irrational fears about loss of white privillege seem like reasonable concerns.

As I noted above, DC will probably return to being a white majority city in the not too distant future. Southeast is full of magnificent old houses with stunning views of downtown, and is served by a good subway system. Non white immigrants are beginning to take advantage of these opportunities, and as the black population declines, more and more whites will come in. Eventually, DC will be white majority again, and at that point, DC will get statehood.

14

But it wouldn’t be “DC-dominated.” The City of Washington would (presumably) be the state capital, but the bulk of voting power would be in the suburban counties. The population of Washington proper is only 563,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia). The population of the Baltimore-Washington Metro Area is 7.6 million (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_metropolitan_areas); in a state made out of just the southern half of that, the residents of the surrounding counties would still massively outnumber and outvote the Washingtonians.

BTW: I once heard that when pro-statehood Jesse Jackson was presented with the alternative solution of retrocession of Washington to Maryland, he called the proposal “apartheid.” Which always perplexed me. What the fuck was he talking about? Can anyone here shed light on his thinking?

15

No need to rename anything – just make it the city of Washington, Maryland.

16

It’s the best way to insure that the new congressional seats stay white :rolleyes:

17

Not at all. New HOR districts would be created within Washington, MD, and they would probably elect blacks to the seats. Maryland would also acquire 563,000 new voters – mostly black – to influence its choice of senators.

Jackson’s remark always struck me as rather mean and petty – and revealing. He calls the idea of retrocession to Maryland “apartheid” because, unlike DC statehood, it would not guarantee that henceforth DC would be represented by two black senators (and Jackson very likely to be one of them).

18

I find it highly doubtful (as most others seem to) that MD and VA would ever cede the surrounding counties to DC to form a state. Some financial and logistical reasons have been listed above, but keep in mind also: in some cases these counties contain huge chunks of state infrastructure. Take the example of Prince George’s County, home of UM College Park (University of MD’s main campus). Even assuming MD could be persuaded to give up the county, where’s the money going to come from to rebuild and relocate the entire university? And who’s going to deal with the outcry?

I’m not sure whether or not issues like this exist in the VA counties, but I can’t imagine there wouldn’t be some sort of similar problem.

19

In light of the above discussions, I guess retrocession to Maryland would be the solution with the fewest political obstacles. But does anybody know how the Maryland state government would feel about that? It would be quite an honor to have the national capital within their borders, and there’s a lot of rich Washingtonians to tax, but do they want to take on Washington’s urban problems?

20

THERE IS NO RIGHT WITHOUT A CORRESPONDING LEGAL REMEDY.

The Constitution does not give residents of DC the right to voting representation in Congress. There is a valid historical reason for the situation, and you may well argue that wisdom dictates we now change this rule, but you cannot argue that “rights” are being denied, because those rights DO NOT EXIST.

If they do – take them. Exercise them. Go ahead. I dare ya.

  • Rick