4 ms·

Because one party wants two more uncompetitive senate seats.

dane-pgp 5y ago
And the other party doesn't want people having representation at all. For the record, the popular vote percentages for the Democrats in the past 3 senate elections were: 53.0%, 58.2%, and 47.0%. That averages 52.7%, so gaining an extra two senate seats would still mean the Democrats were under-represented. (I know that the purpose of the senate is not to represent each citizen equally, I just thought it was worth pointing out which parts of the country have the most grounds for complaint).
- knubie 5y ago
  Most of the people living in DC work for the federal government either directly or indirectly. That represents a huge conflict of interest, and was the reason DC was created in the first place. No one lived in DC before it was created, so the people that have put down roots there did so knowing they wouldn't have representation in the federal government.
  - oh_sigh 5y ago
    I don't think there is much of an ethical point to "Yeah you're disenfranchised but it was your great great great granddaddies choice!"
  - belltaco 5y ago
    Not true, most of the federal workers living in the VA and MD suburbs. >Only about 1 in 6 of the 1.87 million civilian full-time federal employees live in the Washington, D.C. metro area, which includes Northern VA
- dbcurtis 5y ago
  The purpose of the senate is to make sure that low population regions have a voice, and that majority interests don’t trample minority interests. To say that one party doesn’t want people to be represented at all is a ridiculous straw-man.
  - belltaco 5y ago
    >The purpose of the senate is to make sure that low population regions have a voice, and that majority interests don’t trample minority interests. Isn't DC a low population region? Then why does one party not want them to be represented at all?
    - rplst8 5y ago
      DC has about 700,000 residents and a population density on par with Chicago.
      - wbsss4412 5y ago
        Small state != rural state. Rhode Island is a small state, it isn’t rural. Hawaii is a small state, above average population density. Small and large on an electoral basis refer to population size.
  - pmyteh 5y ago
    I mean, it isn't? If DC voted Republican then they'd be totally in favour of making it a state. It's not a secret that is the reason why DC statehood has no traction in Congress. You can make a case for retrocession, but the other arguments are understood by everyone to be a fig leaf. The same was true in the past: Alaska and Hawaii were admitted essentially as a two-for-one deal because Alaska was reliably Republican and Hawaii reliably Democrat. If both had been one or the other they might have had to wait a long time. And the arguments would have been facially plausible (but not real) here too: the importance of territorial contiguity, the low population of Alaska, the difficulties of establishing effective transportation links, whatever. The number of people who are for (small-d) democratic advances regardless of whether they benefit their own party is (in my view depressingly) low.
    - selimthegrim 5y ago
      New Mexico had to wait quite a bit due to having too many brown people.
  - deleted 5y ago

And the other party doesn't want people having representation at all. For the record, the popular vote percentages for the Democrats in the past 3 senate elections were: 53.0%, 58.2%, and 47.0%. That averages 52.7%, so gaining an extra two senate seats would still mean the Democrats were under-represented. (I know that the purpose of the senate is not to represent each citizen equally, I just thought it was worth pointing out which parts of the country have the most grounds for complaint).

knubie 5y ago
Most of the people living in DC work for the federal government either directly or indirectly. That represents a huge conflict of interest, and was the reason DC was created in the first place. No one lived in DC before it was created, so the people that have put down roots there did so knowing they wouldn't have representation in the federal government.
- oh_sigh 5y ago
  I don't think there is much of an ethical point to "Yeah you're disenfranchised but it was your great great great granddaddies choice!"
- belltaco 5y ago
  Not true, most of the federal workers living in the VA and MD suburbs. >Only about 1 in 6 of the 1.87 million civilian full-time federal employees live in the Washington, D.C. metro area, which includes Northern VA
dbcurtis 5y ago
The purpose of the senate is to make sure that low population regions have a voice, and that majority interests don’t trample minority interests. To say that one party doesn’t want people to be represented at all is a ridiculous straw-man.
- belltaco 5y ago
  >The purpose of the senate is to make sure that low population regions have a voice, and that majority interests don’t trample minority interests. Isn't DC a low population region? Then why does one party not want them to be represented at all?
  - rplst8 5y ago
    DC has about 700,000 residents and a population density on par with Chicago.
    - wbsss4412 5y ago
      Small state != rural state. Rhode Island is a small state, it isn’t rural. Hawaii is a small state, above average population density. Small and large on an electoral basis refer to population size.
- pmyteh 5y ago
  I mean, it isn't? If DC voted Republican then they'd be totally in favour of making it a state. It's not a secret that is the reason why DC statehood has no traction in Congress. You can make a case for retrocession, but the other arguments are understood by everyone to be a fig leaf. The same was true in the past: Alaska and Hawaii were admitted essentially as a two-for-one deal because Alaska was reliably Republican and Hawaii reliably Democrat. If both had been one or the other they might have had to wait a long time. And the arguments would have been facially plausible (but not real) here too: the importance of territorial contiguity, the low population of Alaska, the difficulties of establishing effective transportation links, whatever. The number of people who are for (small-d) democratic advances regardless of whether they benefit their own party is (in my view depressingly) low.
  - selimthegrim 5y ago
    New Mexico had to wait quite a bit due to having too many brown people.
- deleted 5y ago