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It has been over two centuries since the Revolutionary War, but the cry for “no taxation without representation” is still echoing loudly across the District.
In an effort to win voting representation in Congress, volunteers for the activist group DC Vote gathered on the Hill on Tuesday— tax day — to encourage senators to bring the D.C. Voting Rights Act up for discussion.
“‘Taxation without representation is tyranny’ was sort of the rallying cry for the founding of our nation, so it’s a little bit disturbing that still today, for 207 years we haven’t had a vote in Congress,” said Nell Schaffer, a student outreach coordinator for DC Vote.
The volunteers with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), a longtime advocate of the District’s right to a Congressional vote. The volunteers also delivered letters to Senate members, urging them to support the bill.
Norton represents Washington, D.C., in the House of Representatives, where she can vote in House committees but is not allowed to cast a vote in a decision of the full House.
“This is already two centuries past due,” said Jaline Quinto, communications manager for DC Vote. The D.C. Voting Rights Act would give voting power to one representative of the District in the House. Norton and Congressman Tom Davis (R-Va.) sponsored the bill in the House, which passed it on April 19, 2007. The bill is currently being filibustered in the Senate, where it has been stalled since September. Three more senators must vote to end the filibuster in order to meet the 60 vote requirement before the bill would be eligible again for discussion in the Senate.
DC Vote members have also been campaigning outside of Washington, D.C., in “target” states, whose senators voted last September not to discuss the D.C. Voting Rights Act. Members traveled to Montana, Oregon and New Hampshire on “public awareness campaigns” and are planning a trip to Mississippi.
About 15 volunteers also went to Union Station and the National Capitol Post Office to “spread the word,” Schaffer said.
“We are a democracy. We are based on voting, and yet it’s kind of ironic that people in the very heart of democracy, the nation’s capital, don’t have a vote in their own national legislature,” Schaffer said.
“I think it’s about time that if we are paying our taxes, that we have people that can go and die for their country in the District, that we as a first-class citizen just like everyone, should have the right to have a voice in Congress and in the Senate,” said Donna Olson, a D.C. citizen and volunteer for DC Vote.
“I think that in the end democracy is going to prevail,” Schaffer said.
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“We are a democracy. We are based on voting"
No, we are a republic. We are based on the Constitution. Article I, Section 2 says that only "States", and the people thereof, are represented in the House of Representatives. The Congress may have "exclusive" control over the District (see District Clause), but that doesn't mean the Congress can override how the Constitution applies to the District.
Actually, we are based on the principle that just (ie legitimate) power derives from the Consent of the Governed. Our Founders recommended frequent reference to such fundamental principles. Consent of the Governed is achieved by frequent, fair, open and free elections; a concept unfamiliar in practice to DC residents.
The people of DC are the "people of the several states" as much as any others who actually live in the states. They are certainly not people of the pampas, the steppes, or the savannah. They are the same posterity our Founders referred to when they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
Take for example a midwestern farm boy who grows up, gets an education, and embarks on a career with a world-class organization in one of the world's great capitals. No matter which world capitals his career takes him to (Abidjan to Beijing to Moscow to Mumbai, etc.), even thirty years after he has last lived in the midwest, he can still vote (absentee) in his home state...UNLESS that world capital was Washington, DC, in which case he can never vote again while he resides there.
If "Stefan" were a real American, he would recognize and attempt to resolve the contradiction of this situation with underlying principles, rather than seeking technicalities on which to base a denial of the fundamental rights of his countrymen.
I'm as much of an American as you citizenw. I respect your opinion, even though I disagree with your conclusion. Can you respect my opinion?
As for "people of the several states", that is a reference to the people who live in any of the States in the Union. The District of Columbia is not a State, just like the Territories are not States. That why the Congress has control of the District, rather than a State government.
If the District is to legitimately obtain full representation in either House of the Congress one of three things must occur:
(1) A Constitutional amendment;
(2) Statehood; or
(3) Retrocession.
So which one will you work for as we seek a more perfect Union?
I find it rich that you wish your opinion to be respected while declining to respect (over decades and centuries) the opinions of your fellow countrymen living in the nation's capital. And are apparently not clever enough to notice the contradiction.
Which of these quotes is not American?
"That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity;"
Virginia Bill of Rights
" That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for publick uses without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the publick good."
Virginia Bill of Rights
"That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."
Virginia Bill of Rights
"Bad principles in a Govt. tho slow are sure in their operation, and will gradually destroy it."
A. Hamilton.
"Equal laws, protecting equal rights, are found, as they ought to be presumed, the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country;..."
J. Madison
"[T]he right of electing the members of the government constitutes more particularly the essence of a free and responsible government."
J. Madison
"[M]en cannot be justly bound by laws, in making which they have no share."
J. Madison
" Extreme cases of oppression justify… a resort to the original right of resistance, a right belonging to every community, under every form of Government…"
J. Madison
If you want a Constitutional amendment in order to get representation, I'm with you. If you want to retrocede to Maryland, I'm with you. I'm not with you when it comes to getting representation via legislation. Such legislation would be declared Unconstitutional. Also such legislation could easily be repealed by a later Congress. I don't disagree with your goal (Congressional legislation), but I do disagree with the method you are advocating (legislation).
In my previous comment, where it says "(Congressional legislation)", it should have said "(Congressional representation)". I apologize for any confusion caused by my mistake.
"I'm with you."
Actions speak louder than words. What, if anything, have YOU done to accomplish America recognizing and respecting the inalienable (innate, inherent, intrinsic) rights of the posterity ("All the future generations, especially the descendants in a direct line.") of the Founders who happen to be living in the nation's capital? Talk is cheap.
"I'm with you" refers to a Constitutional amendment or retrocession. Are you advocating either of those routes for getting voting representation?
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