Taxation without Representation

Being from DC, the issue of voting rights for the city has always been important to me. For a nation that declared war against the British under a rally cry of "No Taxation without Representation" we have been slow to develop essential voting rights for all citizens.

In the next week (Tuesday most likely), The DC Voting Rights Act is set to be voted on by the Senate. And to my surprise, there seems to be a good amount of support for the bill from both sides of the isle, as emphasized in an op-ed in the Washington Post this past Wednesday from Senators Hatch (R-UT) and Lieberman (I-CT) and Representatives Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Davis (R-VA 11). But, the closer we get to a vote, the more rumblings I hear about a possible filibuster to block the vote by some Senate Republicans.

I really have to ask, what the hell? Yes, DC does have a representative in Congress, but as Stephen Colbert made clear, DC's representative (no offense to Rep. Holmes Norton) lacks teeth without any voting rights in the House. Yet, DC has more residents than the states of Wyoming, and...well just Wyoming. Furthermore, Congress still has the right to govern over the finances of the District. But still, almost 600,000 people living in the nation's capital and cannot have a say over laws and funding that directly impact them.

Opponents of the bill claim that voting representation is set out in the Constitution only for states. They are interpreting the language in the Constitution in the strictest and most narrowed sense. The founding fathers however denounced the notion of residents being taxed without adequate means to represent themselves. In my mind at least, while it isn't implicit in the Constitution, the founders intended to give voting representation to District residents. In my mind (and here is where my political ideology filters through) what this boils down to is that Republicans don't want to enable a significant Democratic voting block.

This coming Monday (September 17) is Constitution Day, the 220th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. It is a shame that on such a monumental day of achievement, we still have citizens struggling to achieve voting representation--one of the vary principles our founding fathers rebelled for--against our own governmental body.

So that's my two cents. Once something happens, whether an actual vote or a filibuster, I'll have a follow up response.