On Sundays, DCist publishes opinion pieces about life in D.C. The views expressed below are solely those of the author.

I have lived on Capitol Hill since 1992, and the only thing that I do not like about living in this city is my so-called voting rights. I wish that the government would take them back.

The lines of the federal district were drawn in 1791, but the people who lived here continued to vote for congressional representatives, either in Maryland or Virginia, depending on which side of the Potomac their home was located. The voting rights problem started when the U.S. Congress finally arrived in Washington in 1801. It passed a law declaring that all residents of the District of Columbia were not citizens of any state, creating a representational No Man’s Land. If D.C. residents are not part of Maryland, then they are by default the responsibility of the federal government.

Most attempts to allow the District to elect a city government have been disastrous. The first D.C. government, elected in 1871, was a corrupt failure, and the city was soon taken over by commissioners appointed by the President of the United States. Does this sound familiar? Always willing to repeat history, the Congress established Home Rule again in 1974. The fact is that Congress has always been unwilling to relinquish control over the city, even when the D.C. government has not been a scandal. If we actually controlled our own fate, we would probably have a total ban on guns, legalized marijuana for medical use, and no death penalty, federal or otherwise. We are not allowed to pass such laws because of the opposition of representatives elected by the citizens of other states.