How to Prevent DC Statehood:

Give the city back to Maryland. Give the capitol back to Congress.

[An earlier version of this essay was published at the American Thinker on March 30, 2021]

For traditionalists, one of the most frustrating characteristics of contemporary American politics is that the left is always on the offensive while the right seems constantly to play defense.   By the time conservatives realize that a battle is about to take place over some major social or political issue, progressives have already framed the issue to their advantage, mobilized their forces, and launched their campaign.  In short, by the time conservatives realize they are in for a fight, progressives are already halfway to victory. 

This happens because “progressives” are constantly on the lookout for any social or economic condition that can be perceived as unjust or conferring an unfair advantage upon one group at the expense of another.  Given the hypersensitivity to any such inequity, especially among today’s social justice warriors, there is seldom a shortage of events or circumstances that cannot be turned to the political advantage of radicals. Almost any policy or practice that can result in an alleged “disparate impact” on one group or another will be viewed as an intolerable injustice.  Once such an instance is identified, the mainstream media bring it to the attention of the general public, progressives propose a “solution” and quickly organize a reform campaign to enact legislation to right the wrong.

Democrats almost always clothe their most radical demands in the language of justice. This is one of the reasons so many of the public tend to support otherwise outrageous demands made by the left.  When Americans perceive an injustice, they want to remedy it.  In some cases they even feel guilty and want to atone for it.  Hence the support for “reparations” for slavery, an evil that was abolished over a century and a half ago.  After all, most Americans perceive themselves as fair.  Fairness is generally seen as one of the most important of American virtues.  So progressives are often successful in making their demands on the basis of “fairness,” or as they now call it, “equity.”  Regardless of the issue, traditionalist need to be able to meet the left on the same ground and they need to do it preemptively before Democrats seize absolute control of the moral high ground and frame the issue as best suits their political objectives.

One such issue on the agenda is the proposal to make Washington D.C. a state.  No doubt, the real reason Democrats want to make D.C. a state is that they are desperate to seize the political advantage two additional senators would give them in the U.S. Senate.  But they will never publicly admit this.  Instead they will make their case on the grounds of justice and equity.   Accordingly,  it is time for Republicans to prepare for the battle ahead and respond to the arguments Democrats make in favor of the proposal to make D.C. a state with concrete proposals of our own.  The GOP must get ahead of this onrushing train. 

To this end we must acknowledge that with respect to Washington D.C., the district is not what it was when Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson agreed that the site on the Potomac should be set aside as the seat of the national government, or when Pierre L’Enfant laid out the original plan of the city.   Jefferson regarded the region as little more than a swamp where nobody would ever want to live.  To him, that was one of its greatest features.  Geography itself would ensure that the Federal Government would remain small and ineffective just as he wanted it to be. Accordingly there was no reason to provide for Congressional representation of those who lived there.   But Jefferson was wrong on both counts.  The Federal Government is vastly more powerful than any of the states, and today over 700,000 people live in the city and over five million live in the metropolitan area.   They have a legitimate claim that they deserve representation just like American citizens who live in any other American city.

As it is, Democrats claim that the citizens of D.C. suffer “taxation without representation.”  Since approximately 47% of the residential population of the city is black,  Democrats also make the claim that the failure to grant representation to the city is yet another example of the racism that is said to pervade American society and politics.  Both of these claims have a powerful emotive force and can persuade a great many  people that this is an injustice that needs to be made right.  Republican claims that neither of these outcomes was intentional, though historically accurate, will persuade few that reform is unnecessary or inadvisable.   It is the demand for political and racial justice that will carry the day.

Accordingly, Republicans and conservatives generally should acknowledge the inequity of the situation and propose a solution of their own, one that grants representation to most of the 700,000 people, predominantly African-American, who live there, yet doesn’t transform the district into a state entitled to two senators.  What follows is such a proposal.

Given that 100 percent of the territory that now constitutes the federal district was ceded to the national government by the state of Maryland, why should the Federal Government not retrocede to Maryland all of the district that is not currently occupied by the actual seat of the government, retaining only the facilities on, or immediately adjacent to the Mall such as the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the White House, the Library of Congress, the monuments, parks, museums, administrative offices and buildings that are currently owned or operated by the Federal Government?

This would not be an unprecedented act.  The original federal district consisted of a ten square mile tract of land ceded to the central government by the states of Maryland and Virginia by the terms of the Residence Act of 1790.  Maryland contributed 69 square miles north and east of the Potomac to the federal district, while Virginia donated a 31 square mile area known as Alexandria, to the south and west of the river.  The cession of Alexandria was controversial from the beginning.  As early as 1791 the Residence Act was amended to prohibit the construction of any public buildings on the Virginia side of the river, thus rendering Alexandria an agricultural backwater.  While, it remained predominantly rural, it did become the site of a thriving trade in slaves, a condition that constantly aggravated anti-slavery opinion until 1846, when the territory was finally returned to Virginia.  Should Congress return part of Maryland’s original cession it would merely be following the precedent set in 1846. 

Should this come about,  all of the residential neighborhoods and private businesses, parks and municipal facilities that are not part of the Federal Government, would revert to the state of Maryland and to a new city shorn of federal facilities.  Those who reside within the newly drawn boundaries of the city would become citizens of the state of Maryland. They would vote for representatives to a newly formed city council, newly established statewide electoral districts, and brand new Congressional districts. They would be eligible to vote for Senators from the state of Maryland.  Meanwhile the state’s congressional delegation would be expanded to accommodate the additional 700,000 new residents.  Washington, with perhaps a new name, would become the largest city in Maryland.

In this manner, all those who now live in Washington D.C. and are disenfranchised will be able to vote for their own representatives in Congress, the state house, and their own city council, just as all other Americans do.   No longer will Democrats be able to claim that African-Americans in the district are disenfranchised or that they are the victims of either racism or taxation without representation. Justice will have been done, the racial issue will have been transcended—and Democrat ambitions to gain another two senators will have been thwarted.

Meanwhile, Congress will continue to govern all remaining federal facilities and Washington D.C. will become a city within a city.