On Sunday, Sen. Susan Collins told CNN’s State of the Union that she is opposed to D.C. statehood, instead in favor of D.C. “retroceding” to Maryland. Collins indicates that she supports voting representation for D.C. residents and thinks this is a compromise, but in reality, retrocession is undemocratic and racist.
The 700,000 residents of Washington, D.C. have voted overwhelmingly to become a state, not retrocede, and polling shows that Maryland residents also prefer D.C. statehood to absorbing D.C. Forcing retrocession on two unwilling parties violates the “consent of the governed” embedded in our Constitution. To look at our own history, Maine broke off from Massachusetts in 1820 — what if a far-away senator told us to return to the Bay State?