A Letter to Sen. Mitch McConnell
Sen. McConnell,
On Tuesday the Senate is set to take up legislation that would grant the District a voting seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. And though the measure passed the House and enjoys wide support in the Senate and among the American people, you've threatened to use procedural road-blocks to prevent it from coming to a vote. Please don't.
Sen. McConnell, in opposing a measure that would grant the District's 600,000 residents a sliver of the rights that other taxpaying Americans enjoy, you're not only marching headfirst against correcting a historical injustice, you're doing so while ignoring the history of the very state you represent. As you surely know, in 1785 residents of Virginia's Kentucky County began lobbying the state legislature for statehood, demanding a "free and independent state." In 1792, the Commonwealth of Kentucky came to be. But more than just a relatively meaningless legal status, the term "commonwealth" was meant to symbolize a governing philosophy, according to the Kentucky Department for Library and Archives:
To be a commonwealth meant that all power was vested in and derived from a equally free and independent people rather than a hierarchical and/or feudal system under a king. The basis for a commonwealth's success required each citizen to be an active participant in government, practitioners of civic virtue and socially responsible. The government essentially was to serve the people, rather than having the people serve the government.
We imagine you're well aware of the "hierarchical and/or feudal system" under which District residents live and labor. Beyond not having a voting representative in the House, the District's local initiatives and budget are subject to Congressional approval, allowing just about any member of Congress to impose their will on the city's people. The examples are numerous and bipartisan. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) doesn't like the taxi cab zone system, so he introduced an amendment forcing the city to do something about it this year. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) is a big fan of the federal flat tax, so he tried to test it out in the District. Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Tex.) really loves Ronald Reagan, so he tried to rename our 16th Street "Ronald Reagan Boulevard." Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Ind.) and Sen. Larry Craig (R-Id.) aren't big fans of our gun laws, and they made it an annual project to do away with them by Congressional fiat. There are other examples -- needle-sharing programs, medicinal marijuana, charter schools -- but we think you get the idea.
The District isn't looking for a handout, much less a bridge to nowhere. We're looking to be treated the same way every other American citizen is treated. Is the current proposal constitutional? Maybe, maybe not. Interestingly, though, a number of prominent conservative legal minds seem to think it is. But that's not really the point -- there just simply isn't a way that the framers of the Constitution intended to permanently disenfranchise 600,000 people without giving Congress the means to provide a remedy. And that's exactly what the legislation seeks to do. Is this a backdoor way for the District to get statehood? Absolutely not. That's a separate question, and one that will surely be raised in due time. This isn't about politics, and it isn't about Democrats cementing a generation-long majority in Congress by giving us a representative and two senators. It's about principles.
Sen. McConnell, it has been over 200 years since the District's residents have been allowed the democratic rights enjoyed by all Americans. The measure before the Senate is but one step towards correcting that injustice. Given your consistent support for the fight for democratic freedoms in Iraq and Burma, we would expect that the same passion would extend to the residents of the very city that is your second home. You may hate the idea of one more Democrat in the House, but no one ever argued that liberty is doled out based on party affiliation. Ultimately, your objections shouldn't rise to the level of threatening a filibuster. Feel free to vote against the legislation, but at least let it get to a vote. After all, had the Virginia state legislature waited 200 some-odd years to consider Kentucky's request for independence, well, you might not have a state to represent in the Senate.
Regards,
DCist