Separate, Not Equal: D.C. Needs a Voice

Tomorrow you will have the opportunity to influence local leadership or fall asleep in your Laz-E-Boy watching Nick-at-Nite, ambivalent to who will take the reigns of power before morning. Isn't it great to have such a range of freedom?

Personally, I vote. Sure, apathy might gain me an extra hour of sleep, but by not voting I would forfeit my right to bitch and complain about elected officials.

But what about citizens denied the voting rights most Americans take for granted? It's one thing not to vote because you got distracted after spilling the bong water; it's another to be denied the full extent of this right by the government.

So who are these second-class citizens facing Uncle Sam's erect middle finger? The citizens of the District of Columbia.

D.C. citizens pay the second highest per capita federal income tax, perform the same duties as all other American citizens and yet have no representation in Congress.

Oh, my mistake. They do have a nonvoting member in the House of Representatives. Barred from voting, however, she is like a lobbyist without a checkbook.

A recent bill introduced by this delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., known as the No Taxation Without Representation Act of 2001 is the latest attempt to apply the 14th Amendment to D.C. voters. In short, the bill proposes that D.C. citizens be exempted from paying federal income taxes until granted full voting rights. But how do their rights differ from ours?

Washington, D.C., is governed by a city council and mayor. Congress, however, according to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, acts in place of a state legislature and oversees the council's rulings. On a brighter, more democratic note, for the last 40 years D.C. citizens have held three electoral votes in the presidential election.

So what can be done?

Despite Lieberman's good intentions, his bill, if passed, would negatively affect the capital. A better way to look at the bill is as a call to amend the U.S. Constitution.

First off, 42 percent of D.C. cannot be locally taxed because it is federal property, which leaves D.C. looking for a wider tax base. If the city eliminates the $2 billion it pays in federal income taxes, I doubt Uncle Sam would continue to return the $24 billion to the city that it does today.

Secondly, would you rather have money or the right to vote? If asked this question, most Americans, I'm convinced, would take the money and run. Voting seems noble and all, but a glance at past voter turnout suggests most Americans could be bribed into shutting up.

Lastly, the D.C. College Access Act of 1999 grants all district residents up to $10,000 to help them pay out-of-state tuition. Frankly, this alone makes this bitter out-of-stater less sympathetic to the bill's objective.

But D.C. citizens deserve representation in Congress. Does this mean they should become a state? Of course not.

I love it when D.C. statehood advocates cite that Wyoming has less eligible voters than their fair city. As though Wyoming's worthlessness justifies D.C.'s right to statehood. If this were the case, every locality more populated than that giant, vacant rectangle of a state could apply for statehood.

If D.C. becomes a state, I propose the union of North and South Dakota into one giant, all-purpose Dakota. This would preserve the `niftiness' (according to the childhood song) of our states as well as Old Glory's pattern.

The best solution, however, would be a constitutional amendment that treats D.C. citizens as Maryland voters for federal elections to Congress and frees the capital from congressional oversight.

Consequently a new House member would represent the district, and D.C. voters would help elect Maryland senators. This is much more logical than granting the capital two senators, which would prescribe a disproportionate amount of power to the capital.

We are the only democratic nation prohibiting full voting rights to citizens in its capital. It's a bad sign when we must look to Slovenians and South Africans to see how democracies ought to be run.

So get out and vote! We're lucky to be able to take this right for granted.

Michael Carlton is removing his absentee ballot from his mailbox with forceps and carefully placing it in his makeshift anthrax decontamination unit (microwave). Send untainted e-mails to carlton@email.unc.edu.