Don’t Celebrate Too Fast if The House Votes for DC Statehood

Don’t celebrate too fast if the House votes for DC Statehood today, just 6 short days removed from DC Emancipation Day. It’s just a high-stakes game of 3 card monte. Another Democratic shell game to lure us into a sense of advocacy only to find a trap door waiting for us at the end; the US Senate. The long march to become the 51st state will most likely succumb to either a Republican filibuster or a fragmented Democratic vote when or if it reaches the Senate. In either event, the wait will continue.

However, some will see the increasing support for statehood as a victory. I don’t. I see it as a referendum on the changing demographics that make the cause more palatable for many while continuing to harbor the plantation mentally for others. Over 700,000 citizens are being deprived of true representation. The Last Plantation, Washington, the Domesticated Colony, lives at the whim of political hacks who see us as property of the federal government.

Native Washingtonians have heard it all over the years. DC was built to be a federal city and that’s what it needs to stay. It’s too small to be a state. It’s too Democratic-leaning which puts the Republican party at a disadvantage. More recently not having a new car dealership or airport have been seen as disqualifiers. Although it’s never been said out loud, the racial mix, until recently, was always suspected as a reason not to take DC seriously. In fact, most people think of the Nation’s Capital as monuments and museums and give little consideration to its residents.

Yet, all of that pales when you consider the following.

DC paid more in Federal income taxes in 2019 than 21 other States
DC Paid More Federal Taxes Per Capita than Any Other State
DC Paid More Federal Taxes as a Percentage of Income than Any Other State
According to the 2010 US Census DC has a larger population than Wyoming and Vermont and is closing in on Alaska and North Dakota.
Greater Greater Washington reported that “DC has more people in it now than any state had at its date of admission except Oklahoma. The only way to see DC as “too small” is if you think representation should be based on land mass, not people.”

It’s almost inevitable that the District will fail again this year to achieve statehood. So what should be the game plan going forward? I don’t know but maybe it starts with calling out the Democratic party for its inability to push statehood across the goal line. What good is it to have majorities in both chambers of Congress yet lack the courage to push forward legislation on voting rights, policing, and DC statehood – all minority-centric legislation. Ironic, since the margins of victory to run the table on the Presidency, the House, and Senate were fueled by minority voter turnout.

Maybe DC residents need to realize that the path to self-determination and statehood cant lie in the benevolence of other people. Or the awakening of consciousness to realize our lack of statehood is a form of colonization. The rollercoaster ride of peaks and valleys and longsuffering hopes wears at your soul. While some still cling to the belief that a change in racial leadership will lead to statehood, I hate to believe that’s the case although the support for statehood increases as the racial mix trends more white.

So, let’s see how the events of the next few months play out. Will, there be a big celebration on Thursday where Mayor Bowser, DC’s non-voting delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and other prominent figures parade around with a sense of victory of a battle yet won. Will the Democratic party summon the courage to kill the filibuster and pass landmark legislation on DC statehood, voting rights, and policing? The odds are slim. These are transformational decisions resting on the shoulders of a Congress that seems content to save the status quo than save a nation.

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