Monday, March 22, 2021

This is the last full week in March, so let’s get to it. The topic of conversation burning up Twitter today is the question of statehood for Washington, D.C. This would give the country 51 states and the 700,000 citizens of D.C. proper representation in Congress as well as a little more autonomy in how the government treats it. We haven’t added a state since Hawaii in 1959 and this will be a unique situation. Therefore, I figured it’d be a good idea to know what we’re talking about as this seems to be the next battleground for the Democratic Congress and the question of the filibuster.

While it’s taken on greater importance of late, D.C. statehood has been a sticking point for years. Indeed, the latest motion to do so was introduced by the city’s nonvoting delegate Elenor Holmes Norton some thirty years ago. It’s always been dismissed but this year might be the city’s year, as the Biden Administration has voiced its support for statehood.

 For the most part, making a new state isn’t all that tough. Under the Constitution (Article IV, Section 3) Congress has the power to create new states with a few caveats. For example, if Mississippi and Alabama want to form one state, it’d have to be agreed on by both states’ legislatures first. If Alaska wanted to split in two just to spite Texas, it’d likewise have to pass in the legislature and the U.S. Congress’ only job would be to okay it.

 Usually, however, there’s been a process to follow but that’s been mostly ceremonial. For example, when we made Hawaii a state both Houses of Congress voted in the Hawaiian Admissions Act, which was then signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower. This was what’s called an “enabling act” and set out the various parameters of statehood. The good people of Hawaii voted to accept the bill and, viola, it became the 50th state of the United States on August 21, 1959.

That all being said, some experts say D.C. might have a tougher row to hoe due to the same Constitution that gives Congress the power to make states. Specifically, Article 1, Section 8 gives Congress control over the parts of the city that are involved in the running of the nation (the Capitol, the White House, etc.) and the Twenty-Third Amendment that gives the people of D.C. the ability to vote for presidential electors. If D.C. became a state, that little part of it that’s federal land would have outsized power and most likely the 23rd Amendment would have to be repealed, they say.

Last June, a bill was introduced to the House to make D.C. a state that addressed the problem of the federal buildings. It’d reduce that all to a two-mile area of just federal buildings called the “National Capital Service Area.” It passed 232-180 and a similar movement enjoys almost overwhelming support today. Furthermore, a vote held in 2016 among the citizens of D.C. saw over 86% of the population were into the idea of becoming a state. For the record, it’d be called Washington, Douglas Commonwealth.

 Of course, not everyone is on board. Most notably, Republicans are against the idea in a big way. Georgia knuckle-dragger Jody Hice told the House that a newly state-ified D.C. would be the only state without a car dealership, and since the dumb bastard didn’t look it up beforehand, that wasn’t so. There’s a Telsa dealership not two miles from the Capitol. Pencil-necked fascist Tom Cotton told the D.C. population what sort of contempt he held for them by saying since they didn’t produce anything but lobbyists, they didn’t deserve to be a state. Someplace like Wyoming was more deserving despite its smaller population because it was “more blue-collar.” Man, fuck Tom Cotton.

 If they were being honest, the GOP’s only argument against statehood is their fear that Washington, D.C., would give the Senate two reliably Democratic Senators and, thus, upset the balance that keeps them in the game. Naturally, one asks if the Republicans couldn’t work to appeal to the good people of D.C. to get them to vote the way they want to. Apparently, though, Cotton and his cronies see the cities population as an insurmountable hurdle. D.C. is almost half African American and less than 45% White. Why the Republicans can’t appeal to not-white people and see it as an impossibility, I have no idea.

 So there’s that there, then. I’m not taking bets myself, but them that know say either way it will be a tough row to hoe. This also opens up questions about making territories like Puerto Rico and Guam states, some Republicans also hate like poison. This also plays into the filibuster fight, as the GOP would most certainly filibuster a statehood vote. Again, that it doesn’t occur to them that there’s a reason over 700,000 citizens don’t like them doesn’t seem to take root.

 In other news, we had another shooting. Less than a week after Atlanta, some asshole in Boulder, Colorado, decided he had the right to decide who lives and who dies, and shot up a grocery where folks were getting their COVID vaccines. Six people, including a cop, were killed while the shooter was taken in injured but alive.

As of right now, we know nothing about the victims, just that they’re dead when all they wanted to do was either get their shot or maybe buy some potatoes. And we know nothing about the shooter except that he thought he should have the right to say who lives and who dies for some dumbass reason, and it’s always a dumbass reason, and there’s nothing we can do to stop this from happening.

 But, hey, ain’t that America.