Photo by andertho

Yesterday was surely a day of celebration for those of us who have been fighting for D.C. voting rights. The mere fact that the Senate voted to approve the D.C. House Voting Rights Act is a huge step in what has long been a consistently frustrating battle for equal rights for the District of Columbia.

But to be honest, I’ve had trouble mustering up much more than token excitement over this development. The Senate’s approval didn’t come without strings, in the form of an amendment gutting the District’s gun laws. Now, this kind of amendment is nothing new and didn’t come as a big surprise. It’s also got a good chance of getting scrubbed out as the legislation moves through conference committee. But the fact that a measure to enfranchise 600,000 American citizens still can’t make it through Congress without someone trying to attach noxious conditions to it proves that legislators just don’t get it.

This bill isn’t just about having a voting representative in the House. It’s about the residents of the District enjoying rights that every other American never has to question. And those rights are not ours because government chooses to grant them to us — they are ours for the simple fact that we are human. That yesterday District residents were told they would have to settle for a trade-off between token representation and home rule is embarrassing. It once again reminded us that Congress doesn’t see us as equal to the residents of the 50 states. In the midst of the horsetrading happening around the Senate’s debate this week, it often felt like the discussion was no longer even about District residents and the rights that they have long been denied.