Status: 03/27/2021 5:47 a.m.
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Washington, DC was deliberately kept small by the founders of the United States. Now the capital also wants to become a federal state. Opponents say: It is only about giving the democratic party more power.
From Katrin Brand,
ARD-Studio Washington
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“What do we want? DC should become a state. When do we want that? Now!”, Joe Blunt and Joe Coleman, two soul legends from Washington, sing along with a handful of demonstrators. “Honk for the state” is the meaning of the signs that keep you in the morning traffic – not only here, but also in other parts of the city at the same time. “I think it’s time,” says Vivienne, who has lived in DC since the 1980s. How can it be, she asks, that 700,000 people do not have the right to vote for their representatives: “Why is it so difficult?”
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On the one hand, because it is in the constitution: Washington, DC was deliberately kept small by the founding fathers more than 200 years ago. The capital is only a district, not a state, it is subordinate to the Congress. That is, their citizens are allowed to elect the president, but they have no elected representatives in the Senate, for example.
Mayor Muriel Bowser finds this incomprehensible: “We pay more federal taxes than 22 other states,” said Bowser in a hearing in the House of Representatives.
Senators Tom Cotton and Steve Daines spoke out against state status as early as 2020.
Bild: picture alliance / newscom
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An operation in favor of the Democrats?
Washington has been in a good position to govern itself, Bowser and other activists have said for years, but above all: the right to vote is a fundamental right that is denied to the 700,000 inhabitants. The opponents refer primarily to the constitution, but also have practical arguments.
DC would be the only state without an airport, without a car dealer, without a capital and without a dump, says Jody Hice, a Republican, in the hearing. The thing about the car dealer is not true, by the way. But the most important argument is anyway that the hearing is only about getting the Democrats two new seats in the Senate – that is how Republican James Comer sees it.
Indeed, the capital is deeply democratic – and that the Democrats are speculating on the two extra seats that DC would get as a state, that is very likely.
A first attempt by law failed
But does it come that way? Last year, for the first time in history, the House of Representatives passed a corresponding law with its democratic majority. It failed in the Senate. There the Democrats now have a wafer-thin majority, but by no means all of their senators will support the law. And even if the Democrats got all of their 51 votes, the Republicans could still block the law.
After all: President Joe Biden supports the initiative. And that gives soul singer Blunt courage: “We still have the resistance of the Republicans, but his voice, to have his power behind it, is great – and long overdue.”
But now! The US capital DC finally wants to become a state
Katrin Brand, ARD Washington, March 26th, 2021 6:30 p.m.
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