DC Is On The Fast Track To Statehood!

Within a few weeks, Washington DC could be a US State, with 2 US Senators, one Representative, and everything else that comes with being a state in this wonderful nation. The bill to grant statehood to the district seems to be supported by every Democrat, and the party has control of both chambers of congress and the presidency. 

House Bill 51 has 211 sponsors, which is extremely close to a majority of the House right off the bat. In addition to the sponsors, seven more congressmen voting for the bill would mean that it passes. The House did pass the same bill last year. Senate Bill 51, the Senate version of the DC statehood bill has 39 sponsors, including Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer. An additional 11 Senators voting in favor of the measure would cause it to pass. Once it passes both chambers, it will be sent to Biden for signature. Biden has made it very clear that he believes DC should be a state.

Once the district adds two more permanently Democratic Senate seats and one more Democratic congressman to the government, the chances of Republicans ever gaining control over the federal government in the future will plummet even lower than their current minuscule chances. 

Of course, even when Republicans have total control of the government, they conduct policy in a nearly identical fashion to the Democrats, anyway.

A very important distinction is that this proposal is a standard bill, not a constitutional amendment. Legislators can file amendments to the US Constitution, but they are extremely difficult to pass. The proposal must pass the House and Senate with 66% majorities in each chamber, and then it must be ratified by 75% of the states. This is extremely difficult to attain. 

A simple bill, on the other hand, becomes law with simple majorities in each chamber and the president’s signature. Now that Democrats have majorities in both chambers and control the presidency, nothing stands in the way of them passing bills, as long as all Democrats are on board. 

There seems to be no opposition from any Democrats in Congress to this bill, which would give DC the greenlight to statehood. 

Citizens of DC rightfully argue that they are subjected to federal laws and taxes despite having no representation in the federal government. The progressive left has been campaigning for DC to become a state for years, and now they finally have a golden opportunity. 

Technically, Republicans can filibuster the bill in the Senate, but that would require a backbone, which few Republicans seem to have. Democrats could eliminate the filibuster by a simple majority vote, though.

Some optimistic conservatives believe that admitting a state into the union would require a constitutional amendment and cannot be done with simple legislation. Of course, Congress can do whatever it wants, because nobody could or would stop them. The biggest optimists believe that some federal judge would intervene and block DC from becoming a state on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. However, history has shown that every judge is either a leftist or is afraid to oppose the left. This is especially true in recent years, and is even more true now that Democrats have total control over the federal government. No judge would dare go to war with the party that controls the whole country. 

Personally, I hope that the bill is signed into law, making DC into a full US state. This tremendous change in the power structure of the US political system would grant the Democratic Socialists so much power in such a short amount of time that millions of conservatives would instantly wake up and realize that the US is finished and hopeless to ever return to the level of freedom we had in the 1770s. Once they understand that hard truth, they could seek another solution: A national divorce. 

UPDATE: HB51 has passed the US House by a vote of 216-208 and will move to the US Senate.