For the State of Lincoln

Of Cities Treated as States & a City That Should Be

If Washington DC became a state, what would it be called?

Washington is taken, and Columbia has already alarmed those of us conscious of historical implications. For what has plagued the city in recent years, a wag might suggest Gridlock or Obstruction, either of which would serve as a double-entendre for the city’s traffic problems, sure to be peacefully transferred into a new state’s traffic problems.

If the US Senate remains in Republican control and one crank from Kentucky can continue to bury all legislative efforts to address environmental, health, economic injustice, and other national issues, we might as well call it State of Denial.

Considering that it—along with the existence of a senate and the Electoral College—was conceived as part of the give and take between Northern and Southern delegates who signed the Constitution, Compromise would be a worthy name if not for the inevitable ridicule—more for the sexual than political implications of State of Compromise.

How about we consider that, more than anything, Washington DC was intended to represent the American union, and is named for the only president who did not live in it, moving from Philadelphia to New York while the new city was being built on, of all things, a swamp.

In keeping with that spirit, we might name it for the president who did more to preserve our union than any other:

Call it Lincoln.

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Ads for the two Republicans in the Georgia runoffs stress the national implications of a Democrat-controlled Senate.  As expected, the scare-word, socialism, and  the  Democrats' own Kamakazi-phrase, defund the police, are prominent in menacing tone and large font.*

New is the addition of Statehood for the District of Columbia.

New, but no surprise.  Republican  lawyers--with the nervous accommodation of many Republican state legislators and the spineless silence of Republicans in the US Senate and House--are still trying to nullify urban votes in four states in the election just passed.  Republicans spent much of this year trying to prevent those votes from being cast in the first place.

Many call this racist, and for good reason.  Of the four cities they are now targeting, Detroit is just under 80% African- American, Atlanta just over 50%, Philadelphia and Milwaukee about 33% each.

Still, the charge of racism misses the point.  The white populations of those cities use the same public transportation and infrastructure as do black.  So do most suburbanites who owe their livelihoods to the economy provided by cities, but who would rather not pay the tax required by them.

This is why the status of Washington DC is suddenly featured in the constant bombardment of ads in Georgia.  Not to prevent it from having Electoral College votes every four years.  DC already has them.  But to prevent representation in the US Senate and House. That's why DC has the only license plate in the country to sport a slogan of bitter protest:

Taxation Without Representation.

The prospect of DC statehood is especially worrisome for Republicans.  Should Democrats win both of Georgia's seats on January 5, a Democratic majority leader could bring DC statehood to a vote.  Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who will likely fill that role, has already said it is on the agenda. Should the Democrats win Georgia and hold firm on DC against inevitable Republican obstruction, Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the deciding vote.

By 2024, the District's two new senators and one new representative would surely be Democratic, as its three electoral votes have always been since passage of the 23rd Amendment in 1961.

Republicans will argue that no single city should have equal standing with a state, and they will ignore the mathematics--as they are doing right now in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Pennsylvania--of DC's population being larger than that of Wyoming and Vermont.

Democrats will unwittingly oblige Republicans by calling their resistance "racist."  Yes, DC is 46% black with another 11% Hispanic, but enough of them are Republicans to allow the party to deny the claim.  This is why they often say, with a grain of just enough truth, that the charge of racist is itself racist.

What Republicans cannot deny is their attack on cities--on people of all colors and creeds who ride those subways and buses, who cross those bridges, who picnic in those parks, and who pay taxes on all those amenities that also serve commuters from suburbs who are not in the urban tax base and want to keep it that way.

The attack we have been witnessing these last five weeks on four swing states are more precisely attacks on Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee--much like the attacks earlier this year on Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, and New York City, not to mention the attacks last year on El Paso, Boston, Newark, and Chicago. On the surface, thanks to yesterday's Supreme Court ruling, they have already failed in their immediate purpose.

However, when we are done laughing at this nationwide "clown-show," and when we recompose ourselves after the sight of Rudy "Ghouliani" holding court between a crematorium and a dildo shop, we need to pay attention to the long game:

Republicans, no matter how laughably futile their lawsuits, may well be succeeding in a purpose that will serve them well before Joe delivers his first State of the Union or Kamala breaks her first tie: To cripple the in-coming Biden administration and create a backlash in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

To do that, it is mandatory that they poison public opinion on the issue of statehood for Washington, DC.**

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*My mention of "Defund the Police" refers to the slogan, not the concept. In fact, it's to the choice of a single word. Had the American public an attention span for "reallocating resources in the community" as a way to decrease crime, "defund" might have been understood as intended and would not have galvanized opposition. As anyone who has spent any time on social media knows, most likes & comments are for a link's headline & photo with no regard for anything in the article. To many, defund = anarchy, and that was all they heard or cared to hear.

While there are numerous causes of an effect so large as the results of national elections, I'm convinced that, pending the outcome on Jan. 5 in Georgia, the ill-advised adoption of that slogan cost Democrats the US Senate, a few House seats, and denied them any gains in state legislatures. But more: Had Biden not renounced that slogan immediately, or had he tried to mince words, panicking whites would have swallowed their disdain and fatigue and re-elected Donald Trump.