In his non stop mission to prove that he’s a hack that really just used gun control to springboard himself into Liberal celebrity status, David Hogg Tweeted this.
Washington D.C. needs actual congressional representation.
— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) August 5, 2018
First of all, I don’t give a shit about the lack of Congressional representation for DC residents. That’s part of living in DC. You want Congressional representation, move to Maryland or Virginia and commute. It’s not that far.
There is a good and compelling reason for DC not to have statehood.
The Federal Government would be at the mercy of a state.
The State of Columbia would have a National Guard unit that reported to the Governor of Columbia and would permanently surround the Federal Government.
There would be Columbia State Police and law enforcement that took orders from the state goverment of Columbia. There would be municipal workers that took orders from the state government.
The State of Columbia could at any moment shut down the Federal Government by way of exercising state authority over the resources of the state.
How would the Federal Government make sure it wasn’t abused by the State of Columbia? Pork. Lots of pork.
People would run for state government campaigning on how much money they could extract from Federal coffers by extorting Congressmen. Want the road outside of the Congressional offices repaved? The state needs money. Want bums not living in the doorways of the million dollar town homes Congressmen live in while Congress is in session? The state needs money.
Without statehood, all of those resources report directly to the Federal goverment. It’s still corrupt but far less so.
That’s the reason the US Capital was never placed in a state to begin with, our Founding Fathers knew putting the Federal Government at the mercy of a single state was a bad idea.
I have a better idea.
By law, the ONLY person that can claim DC residency is the President of the United States.
All the homes and apartments in DC should be taken by eminent domain and turned into temporary residence for Federal employees.
Everybody else has to move out of DC.
It would be a lot simpler than passing a Constitutional amendment to make DC a state.
It would also go a long way at bursting the DC bubble.
If I have to choose the lesser of two evils, displacing 700,000 people from their homes is not as bad as letting 700,000 people hold the Federal Government hostage.
An easier solution than actually moving those people is just to move their representation. They would become citizens of Maryland (or Virginia, it does not really matter) and vote in their federal elections. But the governing of DC, both land and services, would stay under the control of the federal government. Local elections would stay just as they are with no change.
This give the people of D.C. representation under a state, but the local district itself is still federal. Problem solved. In effect the resident is “in” a state, but the land they live on is not.
Hell, if the federal government wanted (and the affected states agreed) they could even set up wards within DC that were represented by different states. Want to live in DC but be a resident of California? Well, California agreed to “sponsor” a ward, so you just have to move to that district and vola, you are a California resident for the purposes of the census and federal representation, but a resident of D.C. for local matters.
Goddamit no! The last thing we need in virginia is more big city liberals! Move them all to Maryland I’m fine with that.
I d say saw it off and push it out to sea, but it will prob drift my way….
Put a motor on it and point it at England.
Originally DC was a square. Then a piece was given back to Virginia. The obvious answer is to give the rest — except for a few Federal buildings — back to Maryland. That could be done by law; no Constitutional amendment needed. The only trouble is that the Amendment giving 3 electors to DC would become obsolete at that point and should be eliminated
Don’t forget Embassy Row