So you don't care much about local issues in Washington, D.C.?
That's the point.
Americans have governing control of a place they don't know or care about.
It is the opposite of self government. Our founders had a word for it: "Tyranny."
The District of Columbia has a population of 713,000. That is a bit fewer than North Dakota, and more than Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. It is a coherent political entity, but it won't be allowed to become a state for the same reason that for 200 years states have been created or blocked: Votes in the U.S. Senate. The creation of Maine, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, California, and Oregon were all about the Senate count, and that mattered because it determined the status and power of Black Americans. That hasn't changed.
You and I, via our elected Senators and Representatives, have oversight and veto power over the District and its people. Too bad? How would you feel if Marjorie Taylor Green had power over your community, and you had no say in the matter? If that sounds OK, then how would you like it if Ilhan Omar did? Still don't care that much? It's their problem, not yours?
Again, that is my point. The rest of American has power over people and issues we don't know or care much about. That is wrong. It's un-American.
Jack Mullen grew up in Medford and worked beside me thinning pears in local orchards. He graduated from the University of Oregon and worked in the Peace Corps. We worked together again as Aides for U.S. Representative Jim Weaver. He had a long career in newspaper publishing. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Guest Post by Jack Mullen
When Peter asked that I, as a resident in our nation’s capital, provide an inside-the-Beltway observation on just what Washingtonians are thinking, I harkened him back to Tip O’Neil’s famous observation that holds in Washington as anyplace else: “All politics are local”.
Unlikely as it may seem to those outside of Washington, D.C. locals view politics the same as anywhere: One eye on national politics, the other on local issues. As of late, our ability to govern ourselves is once again put into question.
I am from Medford Oregon, and I seldom hesitate to mention my allegiance to my home state, especially to older Washington, D.C. African Americans. When they hear the mention of Oregon, the likely response is not about Duck football, but about Wayne Morse. Seems here in Washington, the late Senator is revered more for his efforts to provide citizens Home Rule to govern themselves, than for his stance on the Vietnam War.
Wayne Morse left the Republican Party and declared himself an Independent in 1952. Republican leadership, as punishment, banished him to the lowly District of Columbia Committee. The 1952 Senate leaders had no idea the value of what they just gifted the City of Washington, D.C., the “Tiger of the Senate”. Six times, Wayne Morse’s Home Rule Bill passed the Senate only to die in the House District of Columbia Committee. Undaunted, Morse focused his committee on normal local issues ranging from public health and public works to education, where he established the University of D.C. Community College for local residents.
Congress passed Home Rule in 1973, five years after Robert Packwood defeated Morse in 1968. At last, the nation’s capital was able to elect a Mayor and City Council. Congress still possessed Constitutional oversight over Washington.
Shortly after moving to Washington, my wife and I became acutely aware of Congressional oversight of our new hometown when a Utah Congressman, Jason Chaffetz, called a special hearing on D.C.’s new Assisted Suicide Law, a version of Oregon's trail-blazing law. Who knew at the time that Chaffetz’s Committee previewed today’s cultural wars? Unlike today, not all Republicans on Chaffetz’ committee were in lock-step. Representative Darrell Issa of California voted against repealing D.C.’s Assisted Suicide Law. Would the 2023 Darrell Issa, who last week, upon hearing of Trump’s indictment, suggested vengeance when he put out “Hunter Biden: Call your Lawyers!!”, vote the same on Assisted Suicide as the Darrell Issa of 2017? I have my doubts.
President Biden wisely is not commenting on Trump’s indictment. D.C. residents wished he had not commented on the D.C. Crime Bill revision. He only opened the flood gates for the Oversight Committee to grill local D.C. Council members on matters such as public urination (Loren Boebert R-Colorado), establishing bike lanes in D.C. (Virginia Fox (R-NC), naming of Black Lives Matter Plaza (Paul Gosar R-Nevada).
James Comer of Kentucky is Chair of this House Oversight Committee. Friends and acquaintances of mine here in Washington know very little about James Comer. I would suggest James Comer knows very little and cares even less about the lives of those of us who live in D.C.
Now I ask: Why can’t we in Washington rule ourselves like people in James Comer’s Kentucky or Lauren Boebert’s Colorado?
The Republicans’ denial of voting representation to DC residents is a raw exercise of political power. The anti-democratic denial of voting rights is an exercise of raw political power just like McConnell’s denial of a Senate vote on Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland.