There’s been an ongoing discussion on progressive blogs regarding the D.C. statehood issue. Some, like Kos, believe that D.C. should be annexed into Maryland or Virginia. Others are suggesting abolishing the federal income tax and creating “Hong Kong on the Potomac.” But how about a simpler approach — why not just grant our congressional delegate a vote?

The idea of dumping D.C. into Maryland or Virginia is just offensive to Washingtonians — D.C. has its own unique culture and history, and I’m not sure Washingtonians (and I’m referring to the real Washingtonians, those of us who love this city and consider it our home, not the transients who come here for government jobs, appointments, or internships and then run back home to Minnesota or wherever when their job ends) would be too excited about suddenly become Virginians, or helping to expand the tax-base of Prince George’s County, MD. We could live in Virginia and Maryland if we wanted to, but we choose to live in the District instead. Some could say that we also choose not to have congressional representation — that’s a true statement, but it misses the point that the world’s greatest democracy purposefully denies the residents of its capitol city congressional representation. How can we argue for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, if we don’t believe the residents of D.C. deserve adequate representation in congress?

I think a single congressional vote is a fair compromise. It wouldn’t have the unbalancing impact of adding two more votes to the senate, but would be just one more progressive vote in the House. I’m still in favor of last year’s failed plan of giving us a vote and then balancing it out with a vote for a growing red state like Utah. Our population is bigger than the population of Wyoming — we should get some representation, but full representation seems unrealistic to me.