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DC should be a state

 
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real-human



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PostPosted: Sat Apr 24, 2021 1:22 pm    Post subject: DC should be a state Reply with quote

why not let them be a state if they want to? We allowed many other states to joint the original 13. Is it because right wingers cannot count above 50 still?


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-democrat-stands-defiant-after-drawing-heat-for-blasting-tom-cottons-racist-trash-speech/ar-BB1g0qJ9?ocid=msedgntp


House Democrat stands defiant after drawing heat for blasting Tom Cotton's "racist trash" speech




Quote:
The Democratic-led House passed a bill this week that would designate Washington, D.C. as the 51st in the union, but not before Republicans trotted out a litany of less than good faith arguments against the idea.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise argued against it based on D.C.'s crime rate, claiming the district "can't perform basic governmental duties like protecting its residents from criminals," but failing to mention that his home state, Louisana, has had one of the nation's highest rates for over three decades. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said in a presser that D.C. "wouldn't even qualify as a singular Congressional district." Of course, D.C. has a larger population than both Wyoming and Vermont.

Speaking of Wyoming, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton argued the sparsely populated state has "three times as many workers in mining, logging and construction, and 10 times as many workers in manufacturing. In other words, Wyoming is a well-rounded, working-class state."

But freshman Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., condemned such baseless objections to representation for the residents of Washington, D.C., as "racist trash" during a speech on the House floor this week.

"I had no idea there were so many syllables in the word 'white,'" Jones said of Cotton's argument, accusing Republicans of "racist insinuations that somehow the people of Washington, D.C. are incapable or even unworthy of our democracy."


"One of my House Republican colleagues said that D.C. couldn't be a state because the district doesn't have a landfill," Jones said. "My goodness, with all the racist trash my colleagues have brought to the debate, I can see why they're worried about having a place to put it."

Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland then demanded that Mondaire's "racist trash" comment be stricken from the record. But Mondaire did not back down.


"Establishing the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth as the 51st state will make our Union stronger and more just," the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said in a statement this week. "Washington, D.C. has a robust economy, a rich culture, and a diverse population of Americans from all walks of life who are entitled to full and equal participation in our democracy."

The bill, H.R. 51, which the White House said puts D.C. in "equal footing with the other states," would assign 700,000 residents their own elected officials. Currently, D.C. has three electors, but it has no elected representation aside from a non-voting House Delegate –– a distinction made clearly in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.

"For far too long, the more than 700,000 people of Washington, D.C. have been deprived of full representation in the U.S. Congress," the OMB continued. "This taxation without representation and denial of self-governance is an affront to the democratic values on which our Nation was founded."

According to The Hill, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that President Biden backs D.C. statehood. In order for the bill to be signed into law, Democrats will have to execute a constitutional amendment, which, faced with an obstructionist Republican Party, is no small feat. At least 10 GOP senators would have to break rank in order for Democrats to secure the 60-vote margin needed to move the process forward. Last year, the House passed H.R. 51 roundly, but it died in the Republican-majority Senate. Amid intense pressure from progressives to revive the effort this year, mainstream Democrats are forging ahead with the bill.

Republicans have just about unilaterally demurred D.C. statehood, presumably because it would enfranchise a historically blue district. D.C. has backed every Democratic presidential candidate since 1961, when the Twenty-third Amendment to the Constitution was adopted, which allotted D.C. three electors.

Last month, for example, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said in a Congressional hearing that "D.C. statehood is a key part of the radical leftist agenda to reshape America, along with the Green New Deal, defunding the police and packing the U.S. Supreme Court."

Twenty-two GOP state attorneys general penned a missive to President Biden earlier this month, expressing staunch opposition to the idea for both constitutional and policy-related reasons. "For over two centuries," they wrote, "the District's residents have all willingly lived there."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., argued in a Tuesday interview that D.C. statehood amounts to nothing more than a partisan power-grab by Democrats, who are trying "to be able to get what [they] want all the time."

"These folks are not interested in compromise," he claimed. "They're interested in passing all of their bills to remake America in spite of the mandate that they did not get last year, as rapidly as possible. And the filibuster is what prevents that. So it looks like we're down to two brave Democrats -- Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, preserving the institution."






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real-human



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PostPosted: Mon May 24, 2021 2:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dozens-of-constitutional-scholars-tell-congress-it-has-power-to-make-dc-a-state/ar-AAKklrs


Dozens of constitutional scholars tell Congress it has power to make D.C. a state


Quote:
WASHINGTON — Dozens of constitutional experts are sending a letter telling congressional leaders they have the authority to make the nation's capital the 51st state.

a group of people posing for a picture© Provided by NBC News
"As scholars of the United States Constitution, we write to correct claims that the D.C. Admission Act is vulnerable to a constitutional challenge in the courts," write the 39 signatories, who include Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law, Erwin Chemerinsky of UC Berkeley Law, Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia and Leah Litman of the University of Michigan Law School.


They argue that there is "no constitutional barrier" to the District's "entering the Union through a congressional proclamation, pursuant to the Constitution's Admissions Clause, just like the 37 other states that have been admitted since the Constitution was adopted."

The letter is a new entry into the heated battle over whether Congress can — and should — make this city of about 700,000 residents a state, with equal representation on Capitol Hill. It is likely to fuel the debate over legal questions that have left proponents struggling to find a path to get the legislation on the desk of President Joe Biden, who has endorsed statehood.

The Democratic-controlled House last month passed the D.C. Admission Act, which would create a 51st state with one House representative and two senators; it would be known as Washington, Douglass Commonwealth — named after the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

To address the constitutional requirement for a "seat of the Government of the United States," it would turn the District into a small sliver of land including the White House, the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall.

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real-human



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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 10:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/black-voters-matter-hosts-dc-rally-in-support-of-statehood/ar-AALtHW2


Black Voters Matter hosts DC rally in support of statehood


Quote:
GOP lawmaker won't come to CNN, so Jim Acosta went to him. See what happened
Trump appointees kept ousted EPA employees on the government payroll…

National advocacy group Black Voters Matter gathered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday with other organizations to rally in support of making the nation's capital the newest U.S. state.

a large tall tower with a clock at the top of United States Capitol: The U.S. Capitol is seen on June 23© Greg Nash The U.S. Capitol is seen on June 23
The rally, held on the National Mall in front of the Capitol building, also included representatives from the D.C. chapter of the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Action Fund and dozens of other activist groups.


The event marked the conclusion of Black Voters Matter's eight-day Freedom Ride for Voting Rights from Louisiana to D.C. to honor "the tradition of the original Freedom Rides" as "more than 40 states consider legislation to restrict voting rights, which would have a disproportionate impact on Black communities," according to the group's website.

Among the group's goals is also to make D.C. the 51st state in the union, with proponents arguing that not having voting representation in Congress for the nation's capital is racist, due to the District's historically Black population.

D.C. does have a single non-voting delegate in the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), who said during Saturday's event that she represents roughly "700,000 Americans who pay the highest federal taxes per capita in the United States, but have no final vote on the House floor and have no senators whatsoever."

"Black voters matter in November," she continued as she received cheers from the audience. "Help us get out the vote to make Black voters matter so that we can keep the House, keep the Senate."

The push to have D.C. residents represented in Congress comes as Democrats look to hold on to their already slim majorities in both chambers, with concerns that a Republican majority in either the House or the Senate could lead to obstructions on elements of President Biden's policy agenda.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), another staunch advocate for D.C. statehood, said at Saturday's rally that "D.C. statehood is a voting rights issue."

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