Our nation’s independence was founded on a fundamental belief in representative government, in every voice being heard. But for as long as the nation has been free, the District has been nothing more than a tax revenue cash cow for the United States government, as its residents get only one non-voting member in the House of Representatives. The nearly 600,000 residents of the District are a disenfranchised bunch, stripped of their most basic citizenship rights. This needs to change. Legislation with a real chance of passing is making its way through Congress to get D.C. a voting representative. Now is the time for Congress and the President to make D.C. representation a reality.
License plate changes aside, the transition will be fairly simple. Since there must be an odd number of representatives in the House, the current bill proposes adding two congressional districts, one in D.C. and one in Utah. The logic behind this is that the Democratic representative that the District will undoubtedly elect will be offset by a new representative in the heavily Republican state of Utah.
The present bill has real momentum, unlike its watered-down predecessor that was debated a few years ago. The least populated congressional district in the United States is Louisiana’s 2nd district, which claims a measly 395,000 citizens. With over 588,000 residents, D.C. certainly has the population to justify voting power.
Not surprisingly, the main argument against the bill comes from Republicans, who complain that Utah has had such strong population growth since the 2000 census that the state will be appointed a new district after the 2010 census anyway. Opponents see the bill as trading a perennially Democratic district for a Republican one that should be created regardless of the bill’s outcome.
Despite this partisan opposition, the split nature of this bill should work in favor of passing it, since the Democratic Party has strong majorities in both the House and Senate. Furthermore, the bill already enjoys the support of President Obama, who has already come out in favor of expanding voting rights to District residents. After over 200 years of being treated like second class citizens by a government which calls the District home, now is the time for our voices to be heard and our votes counted.
