This Friday the House will likely pass a bill to make the District of Columbia a state, the first time such a bill will pass either house of Congress. It’s about time. And if anyone charges that Democrats want statehood only for partisan reasons, they should reply: So what?
There are multiple arguments and disagreements that swirl around this issue, but at its heart is a simple and inescapable injustice that no one who claims to believe in democracy can justify: 700,000 Americans live in Washington — more than in Wyoming or Vermont — yet they have no voting representation in Congress. D.C. even has its own flag already, and conveniently, it doesn’t honor traitors to the United States.