There are myriad reasons to oppose Washington, D.C.’s statehood quest, which Democrats seek in their latest power grab.
The simplest is, as a local resident told Alpha News, “the Founding Fathers already spoke on this matter. They created this federal district specifically to avoid making it a state. They knew that if the nation’s capital sat within a state, its residents would vote themselves more federal power. That is fundamentally antithetical to America’s values.”
The Founders may be “old white guys,” but they remain wiser than the average tenured professor or New York Times writer.
Rarely reluctant to federalize everything else, duplicitous Democrats now want to localize one of the few things in the Constitution that’s rightly federalized.
Washington, D.C., is arguably the most racially and economically segregated place in America. One of the most expensive cities to live in, it has some of the wealthiest, sheltered Americans, and some of the poorest and most vulnerable. Democrats love that combination, especially since it equals to over 90% support. The District’s voters are so left wing they make California and Vermont look like Mississippi and Wyoming.
The part of Washington we read about or visit is booming. D.C.’s median household income is higher than any state. That’s not good. The more powerful the political class becomes, the more reason to deny it statehood.
No matter the population, Washington was not created to be a state. It’s 1/20 the size of tiny Rhode Island after all. We already have deep blue Maryland and Virginia to represent the District. Most of the well-paid lawyers, lobbyists and federal employees live in those state’s leafy suburbs.
And the town’s great wealth is mainly produced by creating draconian laws and confiscating the wealth of others via taxes. Its economy is the least diverse in America. Why give them more power?
The only reason Democrats want to turn the one-party District of Columbia into the 51st state is because it adds two U.S. Senate seats, thereby helping their rule-changing agenda. They do not care about “taxation without representation” or “voting rights.”
Donald Trump barely cracked 5% of the D.C. vote in 2016 and 2020, and no Republican presidential candidate has crossed 10% since 1988. Even Ronald Reagan in his two landslide wins tallied only 13% support. Washingtonians have never had a Republican mayor, nor a U.S. congressman. There are currently no Republicans on the 13-member D.C. City Council.
“Statehood for the District would create two related problems: accretion of too much wealth and federal power in the capital, and the danger of making the physical security of the federal government dependent on the favor of a local government that could prove hostile or extortionate,” National Review’s Dan McLaughlin explained. “The D.C. suburbs are now the wealthiest places in the nation, and uniquely recession-proof. This is hardly a picture of an oppressed community needing a further voice in a national government run by its own residents.”
Nonetheless, with wanton murders of immigrants in broad daylight, black nationalists killing Capitol police, and a regressive coronavirus vaccine rollout, the tone-deaf mayor seemingly has no greater concern than this power play.
Last month, South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds noted on Twitter the “Founding Fathers never intended for Washington D.C. to be a state.” Proving Sen. Ben Sasse correct that America lacks civic education, deceitful left-wingers like Aaron Rupar attacked Rounds, ignorantly claiming our Founders never envisioned South Dakota becoming a state.
The Founding Fathers absolutely wanted a place like South Dakota to be a state. In just 30 years from the final state ratifying the Constitution in 1790, we nearly doubled to 24 states, due to paths provided.
Most people understand. Recent polls show more Americans than ever oppose D.C. statehood, with fewer than three in 10 favoring the illogical idea.
I wonder if the latter group believes the Founders wanted Puerto Rico — an ungoverned island of only 40,000 people in the late 18th century — to be a state.
And if D.C. residents don’t like any of this, head across the Potomac River. Millions have, turning once deep-red Virginia into a state voting Democrat almost as heavily as New Jersey.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
