Comments on: License plate politics

By: Steven desJardins

Steven desJardins — Mon, 11 Aug 2003 21:27:32 +0000

We in D.C. wish you in the flyover country would get rid of your own damn rotten boroughs before speaking out smugly in favor of an ongoing, outrageous injustice. You can start with Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and the Dakotas—all of which have Senatorial representation far out of proportion to their population.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Sun, 10 Aug 2003 03:48:34 +0000

“I don’t know what otiose means” Try this “In this information age we can all make our views known to the Federal Government. Does that mean formal representation is superfluous?” You think e-mail, but the Founding Fathers and I were thing about mobs with pitchforks, stones and torches. I and most of the other flyover people do not want the Federal Bureaucracy to have a rotten burough. If the residents of DC want representatives, the only hope that they have is to argue for deacssesion of the residential areas.

By: Steven desJardins

Steven desJardins — Sat, 09 Aug 2003 01:36:31 +0000

If you could choose to live in either D.C. or one of those aforementioned states, you would only pick D.C. if you could commute from Virginia or Maryland.

Mr. worried (or can I call you “rather”?), I’m having trouble reconciling the emphatic statement above with the prosaic fact that I chose to live in D.C. instead of Maryland or Virginia, and so did many of my neighbors. It seems odd that there’s so much construction of high-priced condominiums, or that the market value of my condo has tripled in the last ten years, if there hasn’t been a sizeable influx of well-to-do professionals who ignore old stereotypes and move into a city that is, let’s face it, a whole lot more fun than any of the suburbs surrounding us. I’m also finding some of the political assumptions floating around to be a little doubtful. I wouldn’t expect anyone who hasn’t lived here to know that David Catania, a white Republican, defeated Arrington Davis, a black Democrat, for an at-large City Council seat in a citywide election. But I would expect people to be slightly less confident that all three of our Congressmen would be black Democrats. It’s likely, I admit, at least until the city’s demographics shift a bit more, but far from certain, and it seems that anyone who knows he knows little about recent D.C. elections would hesitate to make bold pronouncements about the electorate’s predilections.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Sat, 09 Aug 2003 01:14:40 +0000

ratherworried, by your criteria for statehood population doesn’t matter; poor quality of government does. Shouldn’t we be revoking Texas’s statehood right now?

By: Bill Burns

Bill Burns — Fri, 08 Aug 2003 16:11:15 +0000

I would like to suggest an alternative argument for DC representation in the US Senate as a separate entity—it would effectively create a permanent black presence in the Senate, something rather sorely lacking.

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Fri, 08 Aug 2003 08:26:16 +0000

“The residents of the District will always be able to make their views known to the Federal Government. Formal representation would be otiose.” But aren’t views without votes a bit like taxation without representation? In Australia, the national capital, Canberra, was planted in the middle of a wilderness for political reasons like Washington DC. But we now have the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) which has two Senate seats and two House of Representive seats in the Federal Parliament. Admittedly they are even more of a parochial shower than normal but the entertainment value alone is worth it. An aside. When coming up with names for what is now Canberra, one frontrunner was Myola – until an MP at the time publically pointed out it sounded like “the mating call of an Italian streetwalker”.

By: Jason McCullough

Jason McCullough — Thu, 07 Aug 2003 17:49:08 +0000

“The District of Columbia is a City that has been run for years by more or less corrupt Democrats and nearly fiscally destroyed.” Yes, this would definitely be worsened by the district’s residents having some sort of federal representation!

By: PG

PG — Thu, 07 Aug 2003 15:15:08 +0000

Several alternatives to the current situation in D.C. Pro-choicers should be supporting the "choose life" plates (with one caveat).

By: fastback

fastback — Thu, 07 Aug 2003 03:17:14 +0000

Regarding the plates: Yes, it is true that Clinton had it placed on the presidential limosine and Bush removed it. Considering that the limos (as do all federal government vehicles) normally have federal government plates and not DC plates, legally they didn’t belong there. I don’t hold that against Bush, but he certainly made a point of removing them quickly. Clinton didn’t do much to help DC and his stunt was just another of the minor stink bombs he left his successor. Another interesting fact is the idea for the “Taxation Without Representation” plates started when a caller to a local drive-time radio talk show suggested it as a replacement for the previous “Celebrate and Discover” tourism inanity on the plates. Mayor Williams picked up on the idea and it was basically a done deal within a couple of days. Eleanor Holmes Norton the city’s “Representative” in the House said the plates would prompt visitors to ask us residents what it meant. I’ve only been asked once and the nonplussed tourist said that considering the inordinate number of BMWs and Mercedes she’d seen in DC, it didn’t prompt much sympathy. Although I said in a post above that I’d rather be returned to Maryland, I often think, nah, I just rather have my federal tax payments back.

By: fastback

fastback — Thu, 07 Aug 2003 02:14:55 +0000

Maryland does claim the Potomac, but Virginia has taken this to court since Fairfax County has plans to build a pipeline to pump water from the river against Maryland’s wishes. A special master has been appointed by the Supreme Court to look into facts at hand. The case is styled Virginia v. Maryland.

By: jw mason

jw mason — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 19:43:30 +0000

“No more worrying about where in the Potomac the border is.” It’s at the Virginia shoreline. We won the river in the Civil War. At least, that’s what I was told growing up in Maryland….

By: Ratherworried

Ratherworried — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 19:19:20 +0000

Surely D.C. residents deserve some form of representation. The current lack of representation was likely the framers’ desire to prevent the new Federal Government from becoming hostage to any particular State government. Maybe I’m cynical but…Is it an issue now only because control of Congress is at stake? I’m certain that over the 40 years that Congress was dominated by the Democratic party the issue of representation for D.C. residents was not a priority for either party. Now with control of Congress at stake we have an issue that must be addressed? As to some posters statements regarding Alaska, Wyoming and Rhodes Island not qualified to be states…some of you need to get out more. Wyoming has some good sized cities (Casper, Cheyenne, hell…Laramie) and a great deal of economic output (Agriculture, natural resources); Alaska is a huge state with large cities and a diverse and vibrant population, oh yes, and they are filthy rich (oil); Rhodes Island is typical of New England, it has a gorgeous coast line with large cities, old industries and a unique culture (love the Quahogs!). Lets compare those states to D.C. The District of Columbia is a City that has been run for years by more or less corrupt Democrats and nearly fiscally destroyed. D.C.’s problems have nothing to do with lack of representation. Getting D.C. government representation would mimic the parable of providing clothes to the hungry. D.C. does not need representation, it needs fiscal restraint and the clean up of a historically corrupt City government. D.C. has one of the highest crime rates in the country, very high taxes but terrible schools and lousy government services. With drug and crime problems, failing schools and a huge percent of the population on various forms of government assistance, Maryland and Virginia DO NOT WANT IT BACK. If you could choose to live in either D.C. or one of those aforementioned states, you would only pick D.C. if you could commute from Virginia or Maryland. That said, give them a couple of Representatives, it will not solve a single one of D.C.’s problems but it will eliminate the ability to blame these problems on someone besides themselves.

By: Roger Sweeny

Roger Sweeny — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 19:05:29 +0000

Christian Waugh, D.F. in Mexico means Districto Federal, Federal District. Like Washington, D.C., it is not part of any state. My preferred solution is to combine the residential parts of DC with Virginia and Maryland to form one superstate. No more worrying about where in the Potomac the border is. And I still have a 49 star flag.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 18:43:13 +0000

I wonder how many of these people with an opinion on DC’s future (and its license plates) actually live in the District of Columbia?

By: eric

eric — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 18:02:43 +0000

The District was originally created becuase the Federal government didn’t want the capital to be in a particular state. That’s probably still a good idea, but not necessary, so just cut those neighborhoods back to Maryland or VA or whatever, or, abolish the district entirely and make it part of Maryland again.