DC statehood Megathread (pg 33 - Manchin questioning constitutionality)

[GeneralMacArthur]

No.  DC and Puerto Rico have been talked about as potential states for decades.  There are no other territories for which this is the case.  Nobody has ever talked about making American Samoa a state.  There has never been any serious attempt to break up California or Texas or whatever.

These things don't just come out of the blue.  DC/PR statehood has been gaining momentum for a very long time.  If Republicans want to split Texas into two states or something, they're welcome to put in the effort spending a decade convincing the entire country that it's a good idea.

I don't see how anyone can credibly claim that DC or PR statehood is purely political.  Puerto Rico is millions of people totally dependent on the United States but totally forgotten about, and abandoned during Hurricane Maria.  That's an extremely good reason to become a state and get proper representation and treatment.  That's also a totally unique situation.  If we acquire Greenland or some other large territory, we may also start talking about a 53rd state.

[GeneralMacArthur]

The arguments against DC I can certainly understand.  It's kind of silly to make a state out of our capital city, when it's so small.  But then again, it's kind of silly that DC is what it is in the first place.  Why is it its own thing and not part of any state?  Why does it get electoral votes, but no representation in Congress?  The whole thing doesn't really make any sense.  DC is more populous than Vermont and Wyoming, but those states get 7 congressmen making laws, yet the people of DC have no control over the laws of their own country.  Makes no sense.

That said, there is no cohesive argument against making Puerto Rico a state.  It's a large enough state population-wise that it would have 6 congressmen, same as Iowa, and in terms of area it is 80x bigger than DC and about the same size as Connecticut.  Puerto Ricans are at the mercy of U.S. rule, as we found out so painfully during Hurricane Maria.  They absolutely deserve representation.

If you want to argue against DC being a state, that's fine, but as soon as someone starts arguing against Puerto Rico being a state, you know it's just bad-faith with political motivations.

[GeneralMacArthur]

So do away with the filibuster for the purposes of installing new state.

I don't like it, but if Mitch is gonna do it for adding new Supreme Court justices, we can do it for adding new states.  Just get rid of one big rule every cycle until the entire Senate is just the House with fewer members.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Columbia isn't even a reference to Columbus.  Columbia is a woman, she was used in "goddess of the new land" type imagery before the Statue of Liberty came along and became our new favorite gal.

The name originally came from Columbus, because the land was originally named after Columbus.  As is the entire country of Colombia.  But DC is not named after Columbus.

This is Columbia:

[GeneralMacArthur]

I'm not sure "flee in terror before the giant industrializing mightiness of our manifest destiny" is exactly a positive message these days. I mean, yes, it's better than "guy who got removed from power by colonial Spain for being too vicious and corrupt". Columbia is certainly part of America's history, but I can equally see why one wouldn't want to name a new state after her.

This is just a famous painting that includes her, not the sum total of what she is.

I just don't see the point in renaming DC, which is what it's been called in every historical document and every piece of media for 230 years.  It's annoying and confusing, and "Douglass Commonwealth" is particularly dumb because there's no historical reason to call it a commonwealth, they just chose the name because it starts with "C".

And the effort seems to be mostly driven by misinformation about DC being (directly) named after Columbus.  In fact this misinformation is so widespread that it's literally in the header to Columbus' Wikipedia article:

Many landmarks and institutions in the Western Hemisphere bear his name, including the country of Colombia and the District of Columbia.

While the Washington D.C. Wikipedia article has the correct information:

The same day, the federal district was named Columbia (a feminine form of "Columbus"), which was a poetic name for the United States commonly in use at that time.

[GeneralMacArthur]

I would have preferred just making DC part of Maryland, but I certainly would have voted for this bill, as denying the residents of DC representation is shameful (especially when they have to pay federal taxes).

The Republican opposition to this bill is yet another example of putting partisanship ahead of democracy.

Wait why would you like DC to be a part of Maryland? DC has been separated from Maryland for over 200 years.

DC is the capitol of this nation and should not be subjected to the whims of Maryland state government.  Why should Maryland get this enormous responsibility/privilege over the other 49 states, just because it's the state where the capitol is located?  The capitol is for the entire nation, not Maryland.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Everyone's talking about DC but in all honesty, Puerto Rico is much more deserving to be the 51st state.

[GeneralMacArthur]

TBH we should just merge all the red states into one mega state and then break Washington DC up into 24 separate states and introduce all of them separately, so we can keep 50 stars on the flag.  Like Foggy Bottom would be one state, Chinatown would be one state, Penn Quarter would be one state, the White House would be its own state and the president could personally select which aides he wanted to represent his interests in Congress, etc.