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If the residents of Arlington want to form their own state and secede from Virginia, I'll support them. As it stands, they already have representation in Congre

by imgabe 5y ago

If the residents of Arlington want to form their own state and secede from Virginia, I'll support them. As it stands, they already have representation in Congress. > Moreover, anacostia residents probably have more in common with residents of pg county than residents of palisades, who have more in common with bethesda residents than anacostia residents. Sure, and residents of Manhattan probably have more in common with people in northern New Jersey than they do with people in Buffalo, but New York still gets to be a state. So what?

dnautics 5y ago
My point is: There's no shared identity among DC residents, the most of whom don't even really live there all that long, due to political cycles/fluid flight to the suburbs of MD and VA. Your statement is pure nonsense. The most sensible solution is to give DC back to Maryland (which is where it came from) and thereby give the residents representation, which is your end goal. If you want some other end goal, it has to be weighed against the other absurdities of making DC a state.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  The ghost of Petey Greene begs to differ.
- tyre 5y ago
  I have friends from DC who do feel strong connection to it. It might be the way people think of NYC — i.e. from a city/metropolis rather than a state. But they damn sure don’t think they’re from Maryland.
- imgabe 5y ago
  > There's no shared identity among DC residents Uhh, yeah there is, if you move beyond happy hour with the other transplants whose dads got them internships in their representative's office and talk to people who actually grew up there. And who cares how long people live there? If I move to VA for 2 years I still get to vote for a representative if there's an election while I'm there. Why should we have a void area in the country where like "ah ah aha, gotcha! you stepped in the your-vote-doesn't-count zone, so your vote doesn't count! Too bad!" This is the government that impacts our lives not some children's board game.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> If the residents of Arlington want to form their own state and secede from Virginia, I'll support them. This idea doesn't get enough application. NYC should be its own state. LA should be its own state. Most big cities should be their own states. They are not similar to the area around them.
- torstenvl 5y ago
  > This idea doesn't get enough application. It gets far too much application. We literally put down a rebellion and rewrote the Constitution over this. It didn't work before and it won't work now.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    On the contrary, it's worked well in the past and it's also working right now. What's the problem supposed to be?
    - torstenvl 5y ago
      There has never been a time in all of human history where cities cordoned themselves off politically from the rural areas they rely on that did not end in rebellion, bloodshed, and/or collapse. If you want rural America to rise up in rebellion again, I mean, I guess go for it. But there's a specific reason the vast majority of state capitals are in comparatively rural areas: to prevent exactly the kind of division you're advocating for. This was a hard-won lesson in the aftermath of Shay's Rebellion.
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        > There has never been a time in all of human history where cities cordoned themselves off politically from the rural areas they rely on that did not end in rebellion, bloodshed, and/or collapse. I guess you could call this true, but only in the sense that there has never been any system of any kind that didn't end in rebellion, bloodshed, and/or collapse. The normal pattern historically is that the city's hinterlands are subject to the city's rule. You never see the hinterlands ruling the city.

by imgabe 5y ago

dnautics 5y ago

My point is: There's no shared identity among DC residents, the most of whom don't even really live there all that long, due to political cycles/fluid flight to the suburbs of MD and VA. Your statement is pure nonsense. The most sensible solution is to give DC back to Maryland (which is where it came from) and thereby give the residents representation, which is your end goal. If you want some other end goal, it has to be weighed against the other absurdities of making DC a state.

selimthegrim 5y ago
The ghost of Petey Greene begs to differ.
tyre 5y ago
I have friends from DC who do feel strong connection to it. It might be the way people think of NYC — i.e. from a city/metropolis rather than a state. But they damn sure don’t think they’re from Maryland.
imgabe 5y ago
> There's no shared identity among DC residents Uhh, yeah there is, if you move beyond happy hour with the other transplants whose dads got them internships in their representative's office and talk to people who actually grew up there. And who cares how long people live there? If I move to VA for 2 years I still get to vote for a representative if there's an election while I'm there. Why should we have a void area in the country where like "ah ah aha, gotcha! you stepped in the your-vote-doesn't-count zone, so your vote doesn't count! Too bad!" This is the government that impacts our lives not some children's board game.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> If the residents of Arlington want to form their own state and secede from Virginia, I'll support them. This idea doesn't get enough application. NYC should be its own state. LA should be its own state. Most big cities should be their own states. They are not similar to the area around them.

torstenvl 5y ago
> This idea doesn't get enough application. It gets far too much application. We literally put down a rebellion and rewrote the Constitution over this. It didn't work before and it won't work now.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  On the contrary, it's worked well in the past and it's also working right now. What's the problem supposed to be?
  - torstenvl 5y ago
    There has never been a time in all of human history where cities cordoned themselves off politically from the rural areas they rely on that did not end in rebellion, bloodshed, and/or collapse. If you want rural America to rise up in rebellion again, I mean, I guess go for it. But there's a specific reason the vast majority of state capitals are in comparatively rural areas: to prevent exactly the kind of division you're advocating for. This was a hard-won lesson in the aftermath of Shay's Rebellion.
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      > There has never been a time in all of human history where cities cordoned themselves off politically from the rural areas they rely on that did not end in rebellion, bloodshed, and/or collapse. I guess you could call this true, but only in the sense that there has never been any system of any kind that didn't end in rebellion, bloodshed, and/or collapse. The normal pattern historically is that the city's hinterlands are subject to the city's rule. You never see the hinterlands ruling the city.