It was only a week ago that I commented about our skewed system of political representation, in which a state like North Dakota, which has only a fraction of one percent of the country's population, nevertheless can become the tail that wags the dog in the U.S. Senate.
In several previous posts, I have also criticized the continuing failure of Congress (and of the American people as a whole) to permit citizens of the District of Columbia a voting representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, or any representation at all in the Senate. Opponents of DC voting rights have usually suggested that the District is just too small to have Senators.
But if North Dakota, with 672,000 people, has two Senators; and Wyoming, whose population is 563,000, also has two, I think we have to ask why, in the 21st century, the District, with 601,000, should not be a state or should not have two Senators to represent its population.
Other objections opponents have raised include that the District's special status, as defined in the Constitution, precludes such representation. Of course, it's recognized that some special arrangements - mostly involving local government and the jurisdiction over federal facilities in the District -- would need to be made for the nation's capital. However, the Constitution can be amended, and given the fundamental question of unequal representation here, all our states ought to be lined up to set about doing so. That they are not reflects shame on the political leaders of every state in the union, and on the people of the U.S. who allow them to drag their feet on this simple question of justice.
The real objection of politicos, of course, is political. The District of Columbia typically votes heavily Democratic. Sometimes they suggest a new House seat for the District should be counterbalanced by creating a new seat in some Republican stronghold, but that's poppycock. DC is already balanced... by tiny North Dakota and Wyoming, among others. This is not, should not be, a political question. It's an issue of basic fairness. How can we preach democracy to the benighted lands of the Middle East, when at home we disenfranchise 600,000 citizens?
What Republican political candidate will pledge to push through an amendment for statehood for the District of Columbia? Now that might actually shift quite a few of those DC votes onto the Republican side of the ledger.
A side note: I don't mean to pick on poor North Dakota, by the way, especially when they're currently suffering the terrible effects of our latest weather disaster. Have you donated to North Dakota flood disaster assistance yet? Relief is just a click away, at www.american.redcross.org.