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WilliamOmorogievaFirstEssay 1 - 13 Mar 2017 - Main.WilliamOmorogieva
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We live in a nation that claims to be the pinnacle of democracy and a model to the rest of the world. However, this is far from the truth and many reasons exist that makes this statement false. America is hypocritical because we claim to stand for democracy while we lack full democracy in our very own nation’s capital. Being born and raised in Washington, D.C. I always had pride in the fact that I lived in the nation’s capital. To many, DC is seen as a tourist location where they can explore the monuments, museums, and see where the president lives. This view of our nation’s capital most likely contributes to the unfair and unequal treatment that the 650,000 DC residents face daily. Similar to the rest of the country, residents of the District myself included, are fed up with the political system since DC residents have been cheated of their full representation since DC was created.
If you look around DC you will notice the license plates which read, “taxation without representation”. This is an accurate assessment of the situation because D.C. lacks full representation in both houses of congress and full power over their own laws. I sometimes refer to The District of Columbia as the last colony. This may be a bit extreme, but the fact that D.C. has no voting representation in the House of Representatives, Senate, and the fact that other members of Congress can overturn and block laws that DC citizens have voted for and passed shows how backwards our political scheme is. Most people in America are not aware of the fact that D.C. such full representation and that Congress constantly decides to block legislation that is passed through the DC Council. Even though most people outside of Washington, D.C. are not aware of the struggle, many DC residents are and have attempted to fight back against the government that supposedly represents their interests. The accepted solution to this lack of political power, in the center of American Democracy has led Washingtonians to pursue the route to statehood.
Every year DC residents vote in a referendum on whether DC should become a state. With the election this past November such a vote took place and DC residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of DC becoming a state with 86% of residents agreeing. This is not the first time that such a vote with such lopsided numbers has occurred, but again and again Congress ignores the will of the people, in the city where they supposedly work as civil servants of the people. When people hear about the dilemma in DC they often point to the fact that DC is not a state and make it seem like that justifies the lack of democracy in the city. However, I believe that it is silly and outdated to deny hundreds of thousands of Americans their natural right to be represented in Congress and denied control over their legislation due only to the lack of a title.
It is an undeniable fact that Washington, D.C. has more residents than two states, Wyoming and Vermont. If two states with smaller populations than Washington, D.C. are allowed their standard two Senators, and other representatives in the house I see no reason why over half a million naturalized citizens are deprived of their exclusive right to participate in Democracy. All DC has is three electoral votes in the presidential election along with shadow representatives, and a Senator who all lack the ability to vote or even participate in discussions on the floor. The majority of DC residents are adamant about their animosity towards Congress for continuing to suppress the will of the people. It certainly seems hypocritical for the worlds self-proclaimed, greatest democracy to deny over half a million people in the nations capital, their right to fully participate in that democracy. But this comes as no surprise. As we have seen, America is a place where people can say one thing and do another, depending on how it aligns with their political purpose at the moment.
Arguments supporting the lack of representation in DC, point to the constitution and claim that DC was never meant to be a state or have representation in Congress. But we can not only view the past of our nation in a strictly originalist view, and as times change the law is sometimes required to change as well. There is one obvious reason why D.C., will not become a state or get representation anytime soon, politics. DC is a very liberal city and votes heavily in favor of the democratic party in all elections. Members of Congress fear that if DC became a state it would help to tip the Senate towards a more liberal makeup. What politicians fear the most is the loss of their power and influence, and in addition to the changes in the house of representatives and senate, another change would occur.
If DC was to become a state or at least if DC was given full representation, congress would lose the ability to override laws that DC citizens pass. Congress often likes to use DC to make a message to the rest of Americans about the direction in which they see our nation going. This could mean controlling and limiting the budget of DC so that funding can’t take place, which is necessary for certain programs to happen. This sounds extremely familiar to what is going on today with current president and his strategy for getting states to comply with his delusional will. However, no one seems to care when extreme overreaches of power that try to supersede local laws occurs in DC. This is because people only care about things which affect them. My hope is that with outreach and the use of the internet, the plight of DC residents can spread and people will start to realize that by allowing injustice somewhere, you are condoning injustice elsewhere. 246 years latter America still has taxation without representation. |
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