Six-hundred-and-fifty-thousand American citizens are denied voting representation in the U.S. House and the Senate. This willful and deliberate act of voter suppression is never, ever brought up in a presidential campaign.
{mosads}Of course, neither Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton nor GOP nominee Donald Trump mention this injustice. No debate moderator in a presidential debate even considers asking the candidates how they feel about the topic and if they want to remedy the situation; what they would exactly do.
No, the residents and citizens of the nation’s capital are invisible. “D.C.” in the American political lexicon means “doesn’t count.”
Strange, when you think about it. Clinton lives in D.C. She has a nice big house there and has spent decades living and working in Washington, starting with her work on the House Judiciary Committee’s Watergate investigation after law school. A day doesn’t go by when Trump doesn’t mention his big new hotel right smack in the middle of America’s main street, Pennsylvania Avenue, as he did in Monday’s debate. But anything having to do with D.C. is off-limits.
Earlier in this space, I said this was deliberate. No, it is worse. It is not even considered.
The whole matter is treated with massive indifference. We, the citizens of D.C., don’t exist. Yes, we cast three electoral votes for president. That in itself took quite awhile; 1964 was the first time the residents of the nation’s capital were allowed to vote for president. Every four years they have voted for the Democratic party candidate. Maybe because this is such a political certainty, the chattering class of political pundits continues to ignore the issue.
D.C. never will be a swing state or a battleground state. But the fundamental issue of exclusion and fairness should be discussed. If voting representation in the U.S. Congress is overlooked, the “S” word is even more forbidden: statehood. That word is deemed unmentionable.
Clinton should not have a problem with speaking the words. She wrote a column in a D.C. publications saying she was in favor and if elected president, would actually make it happen. But the “S” word never leaves her lips. Guess it was just for the D.C. Democratic primary. That’s it; she doesn’t utter the word again.
To his credit, Chuck Todd of NBC actually asked Trump on “Meet the Press” whether he was in favor of D.C. statehood. Trump did not seem to fathom the concept. But in typical Trump fashion, he did say he was for anything the citizens of D.C. were for.
On Wednesday of this week at DAR Constitution Hall, there will be a conclave to discuss the subject of D.C. statehood. The citizens of D.C. have to ramp up their own interest and participation concerning their own future. There is no doubt about that.
Right now, D.C.’s lack of voting rights and desire for statehood continues to be a non-issue. One day a candidate for president will make it an issue, but 2016 does not appear to be that year.
Plotkin is a political analyst, a contributor to the BBC on American politics and a columnist for The Georgetowner.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.