The House of Representatives has approved a bill which makes the U.S. capital District of Columbia the fifty-first state on FridayOn the one hand, as I wrote in I finally celebrate World Population Day on time for its 30th anniversary by looking at China's two-child policy, "Sigh, Chinese state TV." May CGTN not end up suffering the same fate RT America and Ruptly earned, which is for me to stop sharing their videos because they engage in more propaganda than news. On the other hand, it was well done and had the best preview image available, so I used it.
CGTN America presented a good narrated summary. The Associated Press went with a different approaching, letting the participants in the debate speak for themselves in House approves DC statehood, Senate opposed.
The Democratic-controlled House approved a bill Friday to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, but the bill faces insurmountable opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate.This is encouraging, as this is the first time the House of Representatives voted in favor of D.C. statehood. However, Mitch McConnell calls statehood for both Puerto Rico and D.C. "socialism" and vows not to even bring it up for a vote. Even if he did, it would almost certainly lose in the Senate. Sigh. Still, progress. Until then, I'm repeating what I wrote last week.
Since I've made National Pina Colada Day the holiday to call for Puerto Rican statehood, I'm going to use Flag Day for D.C. statehood from now on until it is granted. May that be sooner rather than later.Stay tuned for a driving update tomorrow.
It really is rather odd. DC is too small to be a state -- it's just part of a large metro area with fewer than a million people (yes, I know some states have even fewer, but having a place as underpopulated as Wyoming be an entire state is a bad idea too). On a map of the whole US you can't even see it. The more logical way to resolve its people's anomalous status would be to absorb it into Maryland.
ReplyDeleteStill, if it works to reduce the imbalance of the Senate and the Electoral College, I suppose it will have a beneficial effect. The Republicans would doubtless split Wyoming into dozens of states in order to worsen those imbalances, if they could.
And of course none of the sane objections would apply to Puerto Rico.
True, it's ~5% of the area of the smallest state, but as you mentioned, it has more people than Wyoming, and the system is supposed to represent people in the House and states (areas) in the Senate. If the issue weren't tied with with disenfranchisement of African-Americans and the wish of the residents for statehood, I think your solution would be the one I'd support. Unfortunately, as logical as it is, the politics, and this is about politics, aren't on the idea's side.
DeleteAs far as splitting states for GOP advantage, the logical candidates would be Texas, which claims it has the legal right to be divided into up to five states, most of which would be Republican, and California, which would yield at least one GOP Congressional delegation. Californians might actually want to be split; we know we aren't really one place and culture; we're at least three. I'm not sure about Texas. Texans still think they're all one place and like being big.
And, yes, none of those arguments apply to Puerto Rico. Even the 2016 GOP platform calls for Puerto Rico statehood. The 2020 platform might retain that simply out of inertia. The issue is whether Puerto Ricans actually want statehood, which has won in the last two elections, but there are some doubts about how that really represents the opinions of the residents there; the pro-Commonwealth and Independence factions seem to have boycotted those elections.
I keep hearing that about Texas, but any special rights Texas got when it joined the US would have been abrogated when it rebelled in 1861, and I'm sure no such nonsense would have been allowed when it was re-admitted after the war.
DeleteFrom what I recall, it's possible for part of a state to separate and become a new state if majorities in both segments vote to agree (and Congress has to vote to admit it, of course). Considerably harder than admitting entirely new territories as states.
I hope we do get Puerto Rico and DC as states during the next term. Weird as it would be having one state so small and another that speaks mainly Spanish, it would alleviate the built-in bias of the Senate and the Electoral College without a constitutional amendment.
Well, Texas did try to split off another state, Lincoln, in 1869, but Congress rejected it.
DeleteI second your thoughts and emotions about both D.C. and Puerto Rico as states.