Here’s how you can tell that the Democrats have become the Party of Washington D.C. They’re about to pass H.R. 51 which will make Washington D.C. a state.
Not in real life. Obviously.
For now, even if they take the Senate, they wouldn’t be able to pull off this plot to turn a government city into its own state with electoral college votes and two Senate seats.
That said, it wouldn’t surprise me very much if they continued to aggressively pursue this agenda despite its general unpopularity outside Washington D.C.
The current status of Washington D.C. is a problem. The obvious solution has always been to provide D.C. residents voting rights within Maryland. Some Republicans have tried to do that, but were obstructed because Democrats would much rather get two Senate seats and electoral college power than a few seats in the House.
It’s been their choice to keep Washington D.C. disempowered.
Republicans have mostly ignored the issue. But H.R. 51 should serve as a warning that this is something that the Democrats will push. The rewards are great and if they take the Senate, dismantle what’s left of the fillibuster and ram through whatever they want, from packing the Supreme Court to inventing a new state, this will be on their agenda.
Republicans should unveil a plan to provide voting rights to D.C. within Maryland.
And if the Democrats advance a plan to turn Washington D.C. into a state, then Republicans should announce that if that happens, Alaska will become three states.
The only leverage in this political civil war that we have anymore is a balance of power. Or terror.
And Republicans have been quite bad at signaling that there would be clear consequences and what those would be if Democrats abuse their power.
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