I am a native Washingtonian. I was born and raised there and am a product of the Washington, D.C., public school system. My first job (at 15) was moving clothing racks to an overnight storage facility for a department store. Any longtime native can tell you about getting their first local credit card—Central Charge. I lived through a congressionally appointed mayor and taxation without representation that still exists. So when the local government of my hometown decided to revamp a penal code that has existed since 1901, I was thrilled. The old laws had inherent flaws because it was designed when women and people of color suffered open discrimination. The current mayor of D.C. vetoed the new law over reducing sentencing for crimes such as carjacking, burglary, and robbery. The city council worked for over two decades to update the over 100-year-old criminal code.
The D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who said, “the bill does not make us safer,” veto of the council changes, should have been enough to set up a process that every state, city, and municipality goes through regularly, debates and compromises. Instead, D.C. was reminded of its past as a colony. Despite its elected local officials exercising power vested in them by the voters, they are being reduced to figureheads. Surprisingly President Joe Biden and unsurprisingly West Virginia senator Joe Manchin joined in support of congressional Republicans to overturn the new law. Unfortunately, Mr. Biden, I fear, fell victim to the short-term populist view—much like the Patriot Act, of lock ‘em up—people’s rights aside for the future of senate Democrats coming up for reelection. In light of the longtime commitment by the Democratic party to support D.C. home rule, even Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) equivocated, “On the one hand, I really support D.C. statehood, I support D.C. home rule. On the other hand, the mayor vetoed the bill saying that it would not provide enough safety … so I am torn.” Ms. Hirono has no decision; leave it up to Mayor Bower and D.C. City Council to work out a deal.
The GOP will never support home rule because that would mean competing for minority votes. D.C. statehood would also mean two Democratic Senators and at least seven additional Democratic Representatives. The path of the Republican party since 1965 has been skewing away from black Americans, and that trajectory has become a rocket ship toward planet Jim Crow.
As a native of D.C.—who has fought all my adult life for statehood, it was disheartening to see 31 Democrats vote to repeal a provision of D.C. rights to self-govern. There is some good news the vast majority of Democrats are willing to reaffirm the right of over 700,000 people to have a right to self-determination. D.C. has had a non-voting delegate and shadow Senators for so long that it has become a sardonic running joke in the city. Those who have served in those positions, like Eleanor Holmes Norton, are not the joke, but the system treated her like a mascot. Many people outside Washington are unaware that Jesse Jackson served as D.C.’s shadow senator from 1991 to 1997.
I wear my DC-ism with pride. I was born in Freedman’s Hospital—now Howard University Hospital, established in 1862 as a place of care for former slaves. I have a sister whose military service took her around the world; the license plates on her car have read D.C. Native for probably 30 years. In one of the greatest miscarriages of congressional injustice, Rep. Holmes sponsored legislation for D.C. delegate voter rights in Congress in 2009 and ironically could not vote for her legislation. Much like the Equal Rights Amendment, the idea of D.C. Statehood languishes in a warm place of American hearts only to freeze in the cold light of what many see as an electoral political necessity—maybe the one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree.
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