bkp_duke
Well-Known Member
I'm glad to hear you would support Puerto Rico statehood. (Hawaii became a state in 1959.)
However, why "never" to DC statehood? It has a larger population than 2 other states.
The position that it requires a change in the Constitution (and 67 votes in the Senate instead of 60 or 51 with the filibuster removed),
is not "clear", it's just the position of mostly the Republican Party. So I'm going to quote a FoxNews article on that (but there are of course others like it):
House passes DC statehood bill: Here’s how it would work
The Democratic-led House on Friday for the first time passed a bill that would make Washington, D.C. the 51st state.www.foxnews.com
A specific bill for statehood has already passed the House. The reason it would fail in the Senate is described in the FoxNews article this way:
(If it passes without a change in the Constitution, it may come to the Supreme Court. However even 67 votes doesn't seem completely impossible since it would most likely get almost all Democratic votes.)
So this appears to be mostly the self-interest of "winning", and contradict the claimed "dedicat[ion] to the proposition that we are all equal", which was my point.
The "why" is complicated, but it boils down to the original intent of the founding fathers. If DC were to become a state, it would be the only state that contains the seat of government for all 3 branches of the federal government. The original intent was to avoid this as to have a "district" that is neutral and favors no state.
I concur with that assessment, as DC statehood would propel DC to a status above all other states, and that should be avoided.
EDIT - or as @STS-134 stated, return all but the smallest fraction to Maryland and Virginia. Problem solved.