What are people’s thoughts on statehood for US territories?
For everyone but DC, I think they should become states if they want to. They have fully functioning legislatures and governors now. The only difference is that they’d have to start paying federal income tax and a bunch of work figuring out which local laws are no longer valid under federal law.
With DC, honestly I’m not particularly comfortable with the idea of a city state. It has always been run like a city, has no bicameral legislature (unless you count Congress) and no judicial system.
I’d open to the idea of ceding everything but the government buildings back to Maryland and restoring the city of Washington, Maryland again. On the downside to that is the 23rd amendment which would leave whoever is left living in the newly shrunk Washington, DC (I suppose the President) would get 3 full electoral votes.
I’d also be down for allowing DC citizens to vote in Maryland for the purpose of Presidential, Senate and House elections. Basically make DC kind of half-members of Maryland except without state-level representation. That way they can keep their name and get representation at the same time.
I guess I’d also be ok if all US territories where were given united territory representation where they shared two Senators and elected however many House Representatives their combined population would support. Sharing two Senators is less than ideal due to difficulty campaigning across such a great distance, but it is better than nothing.
Either tax them and make them states and give them representation in congress. Or don’t tax them, don’t give them representation, and don’t let them vote.
Freaking revolutionary war. No taxation without representation.
…and I completely agree with the slogan at the bottom. City residents succeeded in voting to legalize MJ in DC, but b/c the city’s budget is overseen by those fucktards the Congress, our overlords decided that while residents may have decided weed was okay, The Congress didn’t like it and disallowed the city from spending any funds to “make” MJ legal (all of which was spearheaded by a fucktard congresscritter from the mostly conservative Eastern Shore whose name escapes me now).
And if I were a betting person, I’d guess Guam will become a US state long before DC does–nobody living outside of DC seems to like DC (which makes some sense given the various stupid things issuing from there).
I’d be down with being able to go to a Spitfires game without needing a passport. Not sure you’ve really thought through this whole California thing, though.
One problem is that so many Americans keep forgetting all those territories are even part of the United States. Mention “Puerto Rico” and half the electorate will start bitching about illegal immigrants.
When PR came up during the Republican debates I swear most of the candidates on stage got this deer-in-the-headlights look like “wait, what does this have to do with the United States?”
