DC used to have a locally elected gov't and voted for representation in Congress but it was stripped away in the 1870's because white's were concerned about blacks having too much influence in a city and national gov't. https://www.history.com/news/washington-dc-statehood-reconstruction
I guess the issue is that it takes two to tango. Puerto Rico needs to agree to change its status, but the existing states must also agree. For my part, I don't like tolerating the status quo to go on. My preference is they become a state. But if they don't want to, just get out. US Virgin Islands have 100k people. Wyoming 560,000. 134 square miles vs Rhode Island's 1,212. They don't get to have 2 senators. I like @DonnyMost's suggestion for DC - cede Washington to an adjacent state and keep a tiny DC for the government buildings.
Existing states don't have to agree. You just need a majority vote in Congress. If Puerto Rico drafts a state constitution and submits it to Congress, you just need a majority to grant statehood. I also don't understand why everyone is so opposed to DC statehood. We granted statehood to states with huge swaths of land and few people but because DC is the reverse of that we don't give them the same treatment? Th DC has its own history and culture (especially as a majority African American city). DC was denied statehood forever because southerners didn't want a majority African American state. To me, this is absolutely arbitrary especially given the history of past statehood admissions. And forcing DC onto another state just achieves the same goal that segregationists pushed for centuries. It means that two guaranteed black senators never get seated because the population gets absorbed into a different state. It was wrong then and its definitely still wrong now.
Adding stars to the flag isn't a big deal. It will help the economy because people have to buy new flags and shirts with flags on them and give more money to China since that is where all the flags are made anyway.
If your number one concern about granting U. S. citizens equal rights, representation, and protection under the law is making sure the flag looks cool then you're doing it wrong.
I'm all for statehood for Puerto Rico. I'm not for statehood for DC. The population of DC is less that 700K which isn't even a big city. Now if they annex all the surrounding suburbs, then you can make a case but Virginia and Maryland wouldn't like that much.
If you're all open to revoking statehood (which probably isn't constitutional) for Wyoming, Vermont and Alaska then you have an argument. But if we're going to allow other states to have smaller or similar populations, then I really don't understand what is different about DC. You can point to its physical size but we live in an era of urbanization now. Geographic size is largely meaningless as the population continues to gravitate to cities. If anything, DC is a way to give urban voters greater representation in the Senate at a time when rural voters have disproportionate voting power.
Thanks for sharing. I didn't know about this. As I research more about America, I keep finding just how much of our history is shaped by white supremacy. It's shocking. America was literally, not figuratively, built on a foundation of white supremacy. Until we acknowledge that fact, it'll be hard for America to ever be "united". The electoral college, 11th hour compromise for white supremacists The shape of Oklahoma, that silly strip of land on the west, white supremacy. Felon's can't vote, yep. Jim Crow law. Organized policing in America. Started so they could round up runaway slaves. Still dealing with that mindset today. Even Zombies. ZOMBIES! The idea was born from some white guy visiting Haiti. Anyway, sorry to change the subject. Back to the show. DC should be a state. PR needs to vote for themselves. Get in or Get out. Status quo should be taken off the table. Guam, they don't want to be a state. We just keep them for the military base. It's tiny. Who cares. Virgin Islands. It's tiny. Who cares.
The debate begins (in the House committee anyway). https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...c7efb6-88ca-11eb-bfdf-4d36dab83a6d_story.html
Just consolidate the Dakotas and Carolinas. That’ll make room and keep the flag at 50 by giving statehood to PR and who the heck cares.
DC has a larger population than Wyoming. Huge South Dakota has slightly more people than DC, but not many. Population of DC/Maryland would significantly exceed the combined population of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota all put together. Maybe we could consolidate those 5 into the state of South Canada which would give us lots of room for expansion. Puerto Rico by itself has more people than North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.
