Yeah, if you took away the government, Georgetown University, George Washington University, the Catholic University of America, a lively NGO community, a handful of military bases, five golf courses, a buttload of museums, the theater scene, a lot of parks, some quite good restaurants, it would really be a wasteland here. 
And none of that land is taxable.
Except for Puerto Rico, and Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas.
The District of Columbia was set up for a very good reason. In the country’s early days, Congress had quite of bit of trouble with the city governments. Mayors, police chiefs, and other local muckity-mucks would try to influence legislation by harassing members of Congress. Congress couldn’t do anything about this, because they don’t have any direct authority over the city of Philadelphia (or wherever). Thus, when the Constitution was written, the Founding Fathers wrote in a provision for a federal district, where the local leaders answer directly to Congress, and can be fired by Congress if they overstep their authority.
Did I just read someone in Knoxville, TN make the statement that there’s nothing really going on in DC?! Wow.
As others have pointed out, DC meets every constitutional requirement for statehood eligibility. Someone, of course, always has to be the smallest, poorest or least populous. I don’t see anyone suggesting that Rhode Island, Mississippi or Wyoming should get statehood revoked for those reasons…
Of course DC started out as parts of Maryland and Virginia (and is now I believe just composed of the Maryland portion), and there is precedent for some states being carved out of the territory of others. One proposition I’ve never heard seriously proposed to allow DC citizens full voting rights would be giving the District back to Maryland, which would change the balance of powers and economies of both places. Unfortuantely I don’t think the powers that be in any jurisdiction have figured out a way to take advantage of that so I don’y expect it to go anywhere…
Not for a few decades now. The actual “state” legislature is the City Council, although Congress has the right to veto Council-passed legislation (grumble grumble). I’m not convinced that a Constitutional Amendment is required to grant D.C. statehood, although it’s a matter of some debate. However, D.C. isn’t going to be a state anytime soon. For one thing, statehood would add two Democrats to the Senate and one to the House; given the current narrow G.O.P. majorites, it’s not in the cards. Furthermore, most members of Congress who know anything at all about the District are those who represent the surrounding bedroom communities. The second D.C. achieves statehood, those members will no longer have power to block the commuter tax the District so sorely needs.
I note on preview that about a dozen folks have posted since I started writing this. C’est la vie.
–Cliffy
I’m sure the fast pace of an economic powerhouse like Knoxville is to blame for your confusion. Or perhaps it’s the many cultural opportunities that you find there, the astonishing array of racial and ethnic diversity, or the hundreds of fine restaurants. Or, perhaps, you’re speaking out of your ass. I wouldn’t venture to guess.
–Cliffy
What makes you think they’d be Democrats instead of Republicans? Not trying to be snarky at all, I just wonder why you said it like that.
Yes and yes. But the borders of the District have been fixed for 160 years now.
There is occasional talk of retrocession of the District to Maryland, some of it quite serious, but I don’t think it’s feasible, nor do I think the political will is there. The District has been its own entity for living memory; while some voting-rights partisans might be willing to accept a proportional share in Maryland’s vote (it’s better than what they’ve got now, certainly), I think most everyone would rather D.C. be a state than be a sliver of one.
Oh, to return to the OP – you’re correct that your friend wasn’t born is a state, but she certainly was born in the States. That’s a diminutive name for the country as a whole, which encompasses the District.
–Cliffy
Have you seen the voting statistics for the DC population over the past half-century?
Sure, i guess it’s possible that statehood might cause just about every voter in DC to suddenly flip their party preference, but it seems rather unlikely.
In local elections and Presidential elections since the 23rd Amendment was passed, D.C. has tended to vote Democratic by heavy margins.
And in point of fact, it’s true that the Constitution doesn’t mandate that the national capital be in a special district separate from the states, it only allows Congress the right to do so if it chooses (which it did).
It’s been my feeling for some time that it might be appropriate to create a new state out of D.C., NoVa, and the Maryland suburbs – subject of course to the consent of the two state legislatures. There are far more things uniting the three areas than dividing them.
I just went over the stats for presidential elections since 1964 at this site.
In that period, the lowest percentage attained in DC by any Democratic candidate for President was Jimmy Carter in 1980, with 76% of the vote. In most cases the Democrat got over 80%, and on a couple of occasions approached 90%.
Columbia is usually depicted as a woman, as in the logo of Columbia Pictures.
'Cuz everybody in the District’s a Democrat, or near enough. There are two Republicans on the City Council (well there were), one of which would be a Democrat on the national scene and the other of which isn’t a Republican anymore because he finally got sick of the national party’s stance on gay rights. Oh, and by law there has to be at least one anyway. Everybody else in elected position is a Democrat and in most cases the only race that matters is the Democratic primary – you win that, you’re nearly certain of victory in the general.
–Cliffy
So, what are you saying? That the District votes overwhelmingly Democrat???
I got ya. Thank you, I had no idea it was so heavy a margin year in and year out.
While it may make sense in terms of how people view themselves and their location, and associations socially, Poly, I frankly cannot imagine the Federal gov’t changing the way things operate in D.C. I do wonder if the daily machinations of our government might be seriously hamstrung if they all had to abide by a set of State laws and regulations.
As it is, they pretty much call the shots. ( agh. pardon the pun. ) I’m not saying this is a bad thing, the national government is a huge lumbering leviathan of a machine. It is served well existing where it does, even if the D. of C. is kind of an odd place to live if you are a regular Joe or Josephine.
A sliver of one? Like… a… “city?”
That’s what it’d be in that event, the largest city in a state, like other “slivers” such as NYC, L.A., Chicago, Houston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston … we all seem to be able to live with that OK.
The question is would Maryland be OK with that (one can imagine folks in Baltimore and Annapolis being less than thrilled), and would the leadership of the Democratic Party in DC be OK with having a bunch of seats in the state legislature and a most of a congressperson instead of two US Senators and a whole congressional district.
Wouldn’t the population of DC be enough to bump Maryland’s congressional delegation up by one Representative? Is someone here good at political number-crunching?
And if that representative existed, she would be the remarkable public servant Eleanor Holmes Norton. I’m for anything that would actually get that woman a real voting seat.
Like moving her to a state with voting Congressional representation and letting her run for a non-safe seat?
There’s no way Virginia would ever let NoVA go. It would mean the loss of a huge, huge chunk of the state’s high tech and defense industries, some of the wealthiest areas in the state, plus a good chunk of tourist dollars. Losing it would have huge effects on the state’s budget and economy.
My guesstimate is “probably.” A lot would depend on the 2010 Census and how fast the growing states continue to grow, as well as what’s happening demographically in the rest of Maryland. But it’s not large enough to be a whole congressional district on it’s own (662,000+ people currently vs. the DC pop 572,000) and would need some Maryland suburb (whiter, richer and comparatively more conservative) if the new congressional district were created. I imagine the Maryland Republican Party would pitch a fit over having some of that area gerrymandered into ne or two DC-dominated districts, even if that area of the state has a Democratic rep currently (the 8th District is Chis Van Hollen, a Dem). Dependant upon who has control of the state legislature in 2012 or so you’d likely be talking about 2 gerrymandered Democratic districts for a decade.
If you’re sitting in Democratic Party in DC & you look at that scenario versus getting 2 US Senators and one congressional district concaminant with DC boundaries (even though not large enough to be its own district in any other state - much like Wyoming) that you have total control over, one can see why the party there would opt for statehood over rejoining Maryland.