"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal
I see the signs for DC Vote all over the place.
Is there a compelling reason why residents of the District shouldn’t have congressional representation?
For those of a more radical bent there’s also the DC Statehood Party (which merged with the Greens).
You can also get yourself the (quite popular) “Taxation without Representation” license plate.
They can get everything they want if Congress gives the District of Columbia back to Maryland, right?
Well, no. That wouldn’t give them everything they want. Not what they really want. And that’s why you will never see anyone demanding that.
This is not about fair federal representation for the people of DC. This is all about race and party in the US Senate.
Giving DC back to Maryland would add just one black Democratic seat (at a guess) to the House. Not enough.
So they want DC to be the only city in the country with its own two senators and a congressman. A virtually all-black, all-Democrat city with its own two senators and a congressman.
Progressives want to abolish the US Senate or at least radically reform it to get national equality of per capita representation in that body.
But then progressives have a long list of changes they want to make to the Constitution in the interests of fairness and democracy.
Democrats, on the other hand, are just looking for a new black-and-blue state to balance the sparsely populated white-and-red states of the West like Wyoming and Montana that are giving the Republicans such a great run in office in – ahem – DC.
Phooey.
Well, I don’t know about all that, but I’d settle for a congressman. And maybe letting DC residents vote in Maryland Senate races. I’m not sure what the implications for the national capitol would be if DC was given back to MD, but, hey, why not?
Because people have political motivations that means a large U.S. city should have no real say in how it is governed? That seems a little silly to me.
The people in western Maryland would absolutely throw a fit about D.C. being given back to the state. They’ve got a hard enough time getting the people in Baltimore not to spend all the state’s resources there. Throw in another power center and Garrett County will defect to West Virginia, not that that would be such a bad thing.
For Lee.
You don’t know about all that?
Have you ever seen anybody in DC waving a sign pleading, “Give us back to Maryland so we can vote and have representation like everybody else in the country”?
Has Jesse Jackson mounted a big campaign among the Dems, agitating for them to get the federal Congress to give DC back to Maryland so the people of the district can get undisenfranchised?
Nah.
ForJoshie.
I didn’t say they should have no say. I said give the District back to Maryland. They would have as much say as anybody else in Maryland. But not more than anybody else, anywhere.
Or (for Andy) give the District to VA.
Or, for that matter, give it to Massachusetts. Make a blue state bluer. And contiguity be hanged. Hey, ever hear of Upper Michigan?
A Thinking Reed 
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