DC Statehood Now?

Now that everyone's talking about DC Voting Rights, or at least was a few months ago before everything stalled in the House, you knew it wasn't going to be long before DC Statehood advocates tried to get their two cents in. With the D.C. Voting Rights Act held up in Congress by the prospect of an amendment that would strip D.C. of its gun laws, DC Statehooders have a lot to complain about. First, even if the DC Voting Rights Act becomes law (and isn't struck down by the courts), DC will still lack representation in the Senate. And second, with Congress taking action to strike down DC gun laws and DC's recognition of gay marriage, the question of Home Rule is coming back to the fore.

Councilmember Michael A. Brown (I-At- Large) is the latest champion of the cause of DC Statehood, recently forming the D.C.City Council’s Special Committee on Statehood and Self-Determination, which met on Monday.

But if it feels like we've been down this road before, it's because we have. DC residents passed a couple of draft constitutions in the 1980s in preparation for Statehood, but Congress was never buying what DC was selling. The most recent effort to push DC Stathood through Congress -- which would require only simple majorities in both the House and Senate -- failed to get out of the House by a vote of 277 to 153. And this was when we had a Democratic President and Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. Sound familiar?

The political obstacles to DC Statehood are likely as high today as they were in 1993 -- hence the incremental approach suggested by the DC Voting Rights Act and adopted by the majority of DC's elected officials. But even if this approach is politically astute, it still leaves open the question of full representation and home rule. And whether it's DC Statehood or some other alternative, these problems will still need to be addressed before the unamerican democracy label can be removed from our Nation's Capital.

In the meantime, I'm sure Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton wishes everyone could just get on the bandwagon and stick together until the DC Voting Rights Act makes it through the House. But then maybe her failure, and the failure of the Democratic leaders in the Hosue, is the reason why DC Statehooders are coming out of the woodwork once again.