We have been down this road before, but it appears the time is again upon us to recycle the ridiculous idea of creating another liberal, blue state, out of a tiny federal district, to satisfy left wing democrats. Can you imagine the state flag? Logos from Speaker Nancy Pelosi must already be in process.
In 2019, Democrats in the House passed HR 51, to make D.C. America’s 51st state – Washington, Douglass Commonwealth. I think George would be grateful that they decided not to attach his name to the new swamp land state. The happy little effort headed off to the Senate only to be ignored.
Senator Tom Carper of Delaware was chosen to reintroduce the D.C. statehood bill into the Senate this year. With 38 cosponsors and Biden’s support, they hope for better results. And, of course, D.C. delegate Eleanor Norton was chosen to reintroduced the statehood bill in the House with a promise from Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer of Maryland, that the measure would be brought to the floor for a vote.
Founded on July 16, 1790, Washington is unique among American cities because it was established by the Constitution of the United States to serve as the nation’s capital. President George Washington actually chose the exact site along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Both Maryland and Virginia ceded land for the new federal district which was named Columbia, a poetic name for the U.S. in use at that time. Washington itself is a city in the District of Columbia, named after our first President.
In 1847, the portion of the city that had originally belonged to Virginia was retroceded back to Virginia after the voters in Alexandria elected to leave the District.
The lack of statehood for the nation’s Capital is enshrined in the Constitution in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 which reads in part: “Congress shall have Power to…exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States.”
It was James Madison who outlined the reasoning behind this provision in his Federalist Paper #43. In essence, the founders were worried that if the capital of the nation were to ever become a state, the government would be “unduly” beholden to give it too much power over the entire nation. D.C. as a state would be able to “insult” or “interrupt” the proceedings of government to get their way by virtue of physical proximity to the halls of power.
So the Democrats are out of luck. Congress, itself cannot simply change the “Seat of the Government” into a state or delegate its power over the District to a new state. It required a Constitutional Amendment just to give the residents of DC the ability to vote in federal elections. Ratified in 1961, the 23rd Amendment recognizes Congress’s authority to oversee the manner in which the District appointed electors to the Electoral College.
In Adams v. Clinton (2000), the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found that legislative efforts to allow for voting representation in Congress were unconstitutional making it clear that the Constitution would need to be amended. In other words, Article 1 of the Constitution would have to be amended and the 23rd Amendment would have to be repealed.
Congress itself recognized this in 1977 when they presented a new Constitutional Amendment to grant DC representation, an effort that failed to gain approval of the states.
But the left’s agenda is not about statehood any more than voting by mail is about fairness in the voting system. They are intent on dismantling our nation’s history by demonizing the Founding Fathers and by ridding the nation of its emblems of freedom, through intimidation and false charges of racism and intent on toppling a nearly 300 year old form of government that created the most prosperous, free, protected, and liberty-oriented country on earth.
“D.C. statehood is advocated as a matter of voting rights, and there is no reason parts of the city could not be returned to Maryland, just as the Virginia portion of the district was returned to that state in 1846. But the core of the city must remain under the sole control of the federal government, lest the mob impose its will on a nation helpless to defend its center of power.” Kyle Sammin, Esquire
Source: Washington DC Statehood: A Democrat Power-Play Going Nowhere by Sara Cowgill, Liberty Nation; Here’s Why Washington D.C. Isn’t a State, TIME
