Voting for the 51st State

In November 2016, one of the questions which DC citizens were asked to vote on was whether the city of Washington DC should become a state.

Setting the table for the question, DC is not a state, which means no representation in the US Congress.  DC citizens do vote for President with 3 electoral votes. The US representative sits in Congress, but has no vote, similar to auditing a college class in a way.  The original table was set by the Constitution which set it up such that the city and no state would have no impact on Congress and thus be a step above the other states.  Taking this one step forward, Congress rules the city, still to this day.  All DC legislation is approved by Congress, which does allow for interesting positions wherey the city votes on way and out of state Congressmen disallow the legislation.  Usually, sometimes Congress doesn't respond quickly enough, which may explain why the 2015 legalization of marijuana got through Congressional oversight.  Budgets are also included within this oversight, which does allow for true Congressional power in many ways.

Some legislation is written which gives States particular powers and responsibilities, and I do like to see how DC dances with that.  In some cases, DC uses it to its advantage, in some cases, the tweak of language is used against DC's positions.

There are a number of reasons why I think DC should be its own State. Likewise, I have almost an equal if not more reasons, where I think DC should not be its own State.  To be clear, the way things were in the late 18th century isn't the way things are now.  Those 3 electoral votes, thank you 1964 legislation. As of 1973, DC has its own government, which does acknowledge that there is room for change and interpretation with how our nation and its capital are related.  Simply considering these past 43 years and 8 mayors itself doesn't balance on side more than the other for me.

In conclusion, if someone is looking to this post to understand the proper response to DC being a State, (the November 2016 vote was 86% for Statehood, 16% against Statehood) truthfully this won't tell you.  There are many wonderful legal & political writers and pundits who can address that issue further.  I voted for, because to my universe, I see everything through a real estate prism.  I want to know more.  Do I like the home? Not sure, I have to know more. Do I like the idea of DC being a State? Not sure, but I want to know more. A vote of 51/49 won't compel Congress to look into the matter with any true investigative zeal while a vote of 95/5 would at least allow a case to be made for Congressional consideration.

There are so many other pros/cons to the question, to the vote and to the ultimate answer. If all I can get is for people to understand there are 50 states PLUS DC, that is progress.  Still in 2016, there are times when I am filling in a form and the option to my city/state in the address label still only shows DE, FL. The response then finds me defaulting to WA, which is on the other coast.  Again, just like real estate, similar to where the home I was looking for yesterday wasn't in the gps because the address is new. It's always just like real estete.