Expand self-determination for people in U.S. territories…without any further delay

People of America, fellow citizens of our constitutional democratic republic, let us grant DC statehood. Let’s add the District of Columbia to the Union as a state and rename it the State of Douglass. Let’s forward similar processes with Puerto Rico and other territories. All equally deserve to be liberated from anachronistic shackles of population requirements especially on islands and other areas constrained by geography so they may all engage with their fellow Americans as full citizens able to vote for their President and Vice-President of our United States. Yes, let’s grant DC statehood now.

The District of Columbia is constrained by geography, history, and territorial conflicts. DC can exist as a state, however small, simply as it is, especially as it’s population is larger than several other much larger current states. DC can be a state without any additional territory, altho it would be to the benefit of DC to have more territory. Having a larger, viable state in and around the current DC, while a territorial, voting, and tax loss in the short term for Virginia and Maryland, would most likely in the long run be in the best interests of the greater region including those neighboring states.

What would such look like in the 21st Century? Consider the possibility of all or at least portions of Fairfax County, Virginia, and both Maryland’s Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties being added to DC. Such may look great for DC and clearly logical from the perspective of a map, but politically unviable. Neither Maryland or Virginia would want to give up such densely populated, politically progressive, and tax-rich counties buffering the Federal capital district for a new state. It does make the most sense, historically, for City of Alexandria with Arlington County to be returned to the DC.

In what was called the Retrocession of 1847, Alexandria County and City were returned to Virginia in March of that year. Alexandria County became Arlington County with the City of Alexandria retaining its name. Virginia, along with Maryland, ceded their respective county and town territories to the Federal government in 1790. Some historians see the retrocession as one of the many conflicts over state’s rights and chattel slavery preceding the Civil War and Reconstruction. Some proposals of absolute retrocession, i.e. returning all of what is the current District of Columbia to the State of Maryland to negate any possibility of yet another progressive, Democrat-leaning state is popular among some right-wing pundits who strongly oppose DC statehood. Their stand is illogical, ahistorical to the founding of the capital city, unjust, and stupidly unjust. The far right more than any other wants to bask in the nostalgia of a status quo that never was so as to further facilitate “quiet” White supremacy and financial capitalism.

Ultimately the citizens of Arlington and Fairfax Counties along with the City of Alexandria must vote whether to remain in Virginia or join the new state birthed from the District of Columbia. Same thing for the citizens of Montgomery and Prince George Counties in Maryland. The citizens of DC have repeatedly demonstrated their desire to join the Union as a full state.

Naming the capital district of our democratic republic after a murdering, raping, imperialistic pedophile dishonors our nation of nations and disrespects the Native Americans who have so contributed to the US only to receive death and poverty in return. All names stemming from Columbus must go.

Make DC the State of Lincoln? After Abraham Lincoln (12 February 1809 – 15 April 1865)? Altho Lincoln’s name has been used twice already in the past to create states of Lincoln in what are now Texas and in the greater Pacific Northwest. State of Lincoln was proposed several times for what is now Eastern Washington and  Northern Idaho. These proposals began in 1865 and continue off and on still, with the last serious proposal in 2005. Sometimes portions of Eastern Oregon and Western Montana are included. Lincoln was also proposed as the name of a new state to be carved out of SW Texas in 1869 during Reconstruction. The proposal made it into Congress and failed to pass.

Initially the State of Lincoln seemed perfect as the new and proper name for the District of Columbia once it becomes a state. Abraham Lincoln as President of the USA governed from there during the American Civil War and fought successfully to keep a bitterly and violently divided America united. He did so even at the cost of his life to an assassin’s bullet fired into the back of his head towards the end of the Civil War. He more than anyone kept our Union together. What would keep such a noble name from being forever enshrined as a state?

Lincoln’s name, however, is tainted. His name remains tainted to this day. While supporting emancipation of slavery, he did so in stages. He was not an abolitionist altho he opposed chattel slavery. Lincoln was also a common racist of his day as he did not consider the different races biologically equal, and as President his military forces committed genocidal atrocities against Native American tribes including the Sioux Wars. True the Native Tribes attempted to exterminate the encroaching White invaders in a genocide of their own, but were defeated by a more powerful military foes bloodied in their own civil war further east and south.

Instead of Lincoln, let us rename the new state proposed to be created from the DC as the State of Douglass, after Frederick Douglass (14 February 1818 – 20 February 1895). To do so is logical, transformative, and just. Douglass was a giant of a man often overlooked in American history. 

Let’s make Puerto Rico a state of the American Union as well.

What can we do to change the constitution to welcome US nationals such as Samoans to become US citizens? Why the delays? How much longer will we allow the racist and class war policies of our past to grease the gears of constitutional government with such vile and repugnant anachronisms? What can we do to extend voting rights for American president to all citizens including those from or living in US Territories & Protectorates? 

As the world and our nation changes, as politics, economics, definitions, populations, and demographics change, should we redefine what constitutes an American state? Can all territories transition into states regardless of population? Two territories, Puerto Rico and the DC currently have larger populations than some states. Other territories do not yet have substantial numbers in proportion to inhabited areas. These issues of what is statehood also brings up expanding citizenship and voting rights, abolishing or reforming the Electoral College, and addressing gerrymandering in redistricting for the Congressional House of Representatives and even abolishing the Senate.

These conversations are best left for future articles. In the meantime, however, let’s finish the long overdue work of granting statehood to both the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia (State of Douglass?). We can complete this in 2021 under the incoming Biden-Harris administration.

William Dudley Bass
Sunday 29 November 2020
Wednesday 9 December 2020
Seattle, Washington
USA
Earth

Copyright © 2020 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.