We know. After the D.C. quarter debacle, we’re getting the message — voting rights is just too controversial an issue for the American public.

According to the Post, the owners of the Washington Nationals feel that an electronic billboard listing the amount of federal taxes paid by District residents that the D.C. Council wants to place in the new ballpark is too “political” and “controversial” for baseball fans. As you may recall, late last year the Council debated placing two signs — one on the Wilson Building and one in the stadium — to draw attention to D.C. residents’ continued payment of federal taxes while lacking voting representation in Congress. Thankfully, Council Chair Vincent Gray isn’t backing down:

“They wanted to know if we could put it somewhere else,” council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said.

“No” was his response, he said, adding that the point of putting a sign at the stadium is that it is a high-visibility site.

Legally, though, the Nats can point to the stadium lease, which allows them absolute control over the signage within the stadium (just another item in the long list of ways former Mayor Anthony Williams totally caved during negotiations with MLB.) The fact that the city coughed up $611 million to build the team a beautiful new park doesn’t appear to mean much to the owners, as the whole hosting the Dream Foundation Dream Gala at National Harbor fiasco also illustrates.

Should the Nationals end up winning in this fight, it would be insulting to pretty much everyone. For District residents, we’re once again being told that our very principled request to gain voting representation is too “political” and “controversial,” as if we were demanding that the sign call for President Bush’s impeachment. And for baseball fans, well, the Nats are pretty much saying that you guys are too weak-stomached to handle something as threatening as a sign with blinking lights on it. God forbid that your children might learn something about American democracy, right?