Taxation Without Representation
As the license plates in the federal capital say, DC has taxation without representation. I thought it was a joke for the first few months I was there; turns out, "Washington's lack of representation was one of the founding fathers' great pieces of unfinished business" -- we haven't gotten this right in a couple centuries?! How is it that this is still being overlooked?
The latest proposal to rectify this in the age-old war to give DC residents their constitutional rights of representation is not news to me, as I've been living in the District for a few years now. But it's still stupid.
The proposal, in case you don't feel like following the link (which will expire in 10 days, anyhow), is this: Give [the overwhelmingly liberal (we went 90% Kerry in '04)] DC a rep in the House, and balance it out with giving [the "Republican bastion"] Utah one more, too. Even it out back down to 435 in 2010, after the Census, which probably means letting Utah keep its vote.
Note that this doesn't solve anything -- DC residents get one rep (uhh, what about the Senate?), but it's cancelled out by beknighting Utah with an extra one, too. It placates some vocal advocates of the No Taxation Without Representation movement (didn't we get this over with the Boston Tea Party?), but doesn't actually address the issue, effectively declawing it.
There are reasons I've kept my residency in Wisconsin all these years. Fucking electoral college.
The latest proposal to rectify this in the age-old war to give DC residents their constitutional rights of representation is not news to me, as I've been living in the District for a few years now. But it's still stupid.
The proposal, in case you don't feel like following the link (which will expire in 10 days, anyhow), is this: Give [the overwhelmingly liberal (we went 90% Kerry in '04)] DC a rep in the House, and balance it out with giving [the "Republican bastion"] Utah one more, too. Even it out back down to 435 in 2010, after the Census, which probably means letting Utah keep its vote.
Note that this doesn't solve anything -- DC residents get one rep (uhh, what about the Senate?), but it's cancelled out by beknighting Utah with an extra one, too. It placates some vocal advocates of the No Taxation Without Representation movement (didn't we get this over with the Boston Tea Party?), but doesn't actually address the issue, effectively declawing it.
There are reasons I've kept my residency in Wisconsin all these years. Fucking electoral college.
posted by nori | 17:10
5 Comments:
as I've been living in the District for a few years now.
lived! lived! before now! before now! you live here with us now, in beautiful not quite properly represented California! :-)
Oh yeah. I forgot. :-)
And as for that bit about not-quite-properly-represented CA, it's true ... I think I'm still going to keep my WI voter registration, but then there's the whole not-being-able-to-participate-in-local-elections thing, which makes me feel like a bad citizen, and uninvolved. Suggestions?
Totally off-the-top-of-my-head suggestions: some local volunteering should more than balance out not voting for now, and then you can decide to switch over when you finally realize you are fated to stay. :-)
Scotto probably would be a good source of ideas.
Hmm, good call. Of course, this would have been best to have begun during my unemployment; now, I'll have to wait and see what my availability will be like. But your argument makes sense. Yay for proactive common sense. :-)
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