Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues.
It is disappointing, though not surprising, that the bill to grant Washington a voting respresentative ran into difficulties on the House floor this week, just as it was unfortunate but entirely predictable that the White House, so careless with the Constitution in other situations, cast itself as the document’s determined defender and threatened to veto the bill should its allies in Congress succumb to the District’s arguments. We should all be well aware by now that we have not been successful in creating a moral mandate for voting rights. As it stands, our case depends on the benevolence of the ruling party and the luck of coalition politics.
In light of all that, the District shouldn’t pussyfoot around, hoping to sneak its way to eventual representation. What we want should be clear to both our supporters and our opponents every step of the way. We deserve to have our say in both the House and the Senate, and we deserve the opportunity to choose statehood as a potential path to those goals. I hope the current bill becomes law, but if it doesn’t we should move to have Congress grant us a binding referendum on statehood.
Since the founding of Washington over 200 years ago, its population has grown from statistically negligible to being on a par with a handful of fully represented states, while the business of government has expanded into our neighboring fully represented jurisdictions to become a regional affair. But despite the fact the government is no longer strictly coterminous with the Federal City and despite our population’s growth and coincident increase in demographic and economic diversity, we continue to be treated as a second-class citizens, unable to govern ourselves. The very foolish Representative from Texas, Louie Gohmert, noted this week that every representative has an interest in governing Washington. This is sadly true; every two-bit pol from a thousand miles away has an opportunity to subject us to his or her own personal proclivities, and we aren’t even granted the opportunity to vote as one among hundreds against their harebrained schemes. Having the legislature here is an additional argument for District voting rights, not against it.
And while the District has grown to become a jurisdiction not (but for the lack of a voting delegation) unlike our neighbors, we also have an identity apart from Virginia and Maryland, even from the suburbs just outside our District line. For over two centuries this city has been separate, following its own historical and cultural path. While many of us cannot claim to remember much of this past directly, we feel its impact in the institutions of our public life here, in the way things are done and discussed and lived. We are not Maryland, and we don’t want to vote with Maryland, and I would bet money that Maryland is not particularly interested in voting with us. To solve our voting rights crisis by ignoring our will and the will of our neighbor is to misunderstand the entire point and goal of this struggle.
There are no good reasons for denying us representation or a chance to choose statehood for ourselves. There are only compelling bad ones, and that has been sufficient, so far, to keep us from getting our fair say. To fix this we must place ourselves firmly on the right side of history and make it clear to Congress and to the rest of America that all we want is the same opportunity the other states have had–to decide our place in the union for ourselves. We must also make it obvious to Congress and to the rest of America that there is a state and a population here worth recognizing and respecting. This week, it became clear that even small and improvisational efforts can be worthwhile. By taking the initiative to make a few phone calls and send some emails, DCist readers got the attention of the Post and certainly gave a couple of representatives reason to believe that their actions on voting rights have consequences. There will be more chances like that ahead, and we all have to take full advantage of them. There is probably no more pernicious force arrayed against us than the popular idea that D.C. is a small and boring company town. We have to change that. Participation in the voting rights march planned for April 16th is sorely needed. Continued pressure, via phone calls and emails, is as well.
The weight of history is not an easy thing to overcome. Still, decisions or changes that seemed contentious to contemporaries often look strangely plain in hindsight. It seems likely that one day folks will wonder why anyone ever thought it reasonable that the District should not have the same Congressional rights as the states or a chance to determine for itself how and with whom its citizens should vote. It is only a matter of time until it becomes clear to members of both parties that Washington’s current status isn’t right or tenable, and then change will come.
Picture taken by erin m.
