Washington, DC Statehood 🇺🇸
Foreword:
This was originally written on Tuesday February 16, 2021. It is now the first of November, Friday November 1, 2024 to be exact, and the Election 🗳️ is now 4 days away. I’ve already voted 🗳️, it turns out that Acoma had early voting 🗳️, so my grandma and I as well as my other grandma and one of my cousins were able to vote early 🗳️. I voted for Kamala Harris, which is probably not surprising if you’ve read any of the stuff I’ve written about this election 🗳️ so far, or written any of the political stuff I’ve written on here.
So, I did my part, now it’s up to the rest of the country to do their part in making sure that Donald Trump does not get back into the White House and wreck even more havoc on this country than he already has in his first term. Particularly those living in the swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina. Crazy to think that this election 🗳️ will be decided by those 7 states, but that’s the system we have, we have to deal with it for the time being. We’ll deal with Electoral College reform or abolition until after this election 🗳️. If the election 🗳️ goes our way, that will remain his only term in office, so if you haven’t already voted already 🗳️, vote now 🗳️ to get rid of this guy for good so we won’t have to think about him ever again.
Things are looking pretty optimistic for us on the Democratic side, early voting numbers 🗳️ have started to come in, and they’re looking pretty good for Kamala Harris right now and are only getting better. One notable thing is that the early voting numbers 🗳️ show a higher turnout amongst women ♀︎, like more women ♀︎ are voting early 🗳️ in this election 🗳️ than men ♂︎. And women ♀︎ make about 53% of the voting age population in this country, meaning there’s more women ♀︎ in this country than men ♂︎, and they are more of them eligible to vote 🗳️. Many observers on our side believe that if this trend continues, if women ♀︎ continue to vote 🗳️ in high numbers, particularly for Kamala Harris, then she will win. Higher women ♀︎ voter turnout 🗳️ benefits Harris more than it does Trump, and higher voter turnout 🗳️ in general benefits Democrats more than it does Republicans.
That’s why a lot of people believe that Trump was able to win the 2016 Election 🗳️ because there was low voter turnout 🗳️, and the reason why he lost the 2020 Election 🗳️ is that there was higher voter turnout 🗳️, much higher than even this year. But, it’s women ♀︎ this time that are dominating this election cycle 🗳️. If any group in America 🇺🇸 will save this country from Trump’s incompetence, insanity, and tyranny, it will be women ♀︎. The Republicans badly miscalculated by nominating Trump to be their nominee for president this year when he is so unappealing to the vast majority of women ♀︎ in this country due to his misogyny and sexual abuse towards women ♀︎.
And of course his policies which are overwhelmingly detrimental to women ♀︎ than are to men ♂︎, such as getting rid of Roe v. Wade, and plotting to institute a national abortion ban, as well as plotting getting rid of No Fault Divorce, which would hurt men ♂︎ just as much as it would women ♀︎, but women ♀︎ would hurt more since No Fault Divorce gave women ♀︎ more freedom and autonomy. Something the Republicans, or at least MAGA Republicans 🇺🇸, don’t want or believe in. There would be other laws too put in place that would restrict women’s rights and freedoms ♀︎. Regressing American society 🇺🇸 back to what it was in the 1910s, not even the 1950s, the 1910s before women ♀︎ even had the right to vote 🗳️.
You know Trump and his ilk want to strip away women’s right to vote ♀︎🗳️ especially since women’s votes ♀︎🗳️ have proven to much more powerful and significant than men’s votes ♂︎🗳️ in this election 🗳️ alone. Now you can see why women ♀︎ are so motivated to go out there and vote 🗳️ as soon as possible, why they are so ready to do this thing compared to men ♂︎. They have a lot more to lose in this election 🗳️ than men ♂︎ do, although men ♂︎ certainly will not benefit from women ♀︎ losing their rights and freedoms as the MAGA Cult 🇺🇸 tries to make it seem like they will. They won’t. The Patriarchy benefits no one, that’s the argument feminists ♀︎ have making for over a century now.
Speaking of miscalculations, Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City this past Sunday (October 27, 2024) was a complete disaster that seems to have irrevocably damaged his campaign and has pushed him even further down the path of desperation. What was meant to be his closing argument, his homecoming, ended up being the dreaded October Surprise that every election analyst and observer 🗳️ and every campaign strategist anticipates and tries to avoid. At least, avoid happening to them. And it all comes down to one joke made by one hack comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe.
He made a bunch of offensive and racist jokes about a bunch of groups, groups that Trump really can’t afford to offend at this crucial point in the Election 🗳️. He made jokes about Latinos, he made jokes about blacks, and so did every other speaker at that rally really. Tucker Carlson, the disgraced Fox News host and Russia shill 🇷🇺, also spoke at the event. And his comments were just as bad or even worse than what Hinchcliffe said, he called Kamala Harris a “brainless Samoan-Malaysian-whatever woman 🇼🇸🇲🇾♀︎.” Something like that, it was awful. Of course Tucker knows that Harris is black Indian-American 🇮🇳🇺🇸, everyone does, he was just saying that to be racist and sexist. His sentiment basically was that women ♀︎ shouldn’t be allowed to lead this country, a woman ♀︎ shouldn’t be president, especially not a biracial woman of color ♀︎ like Harris. But, the comment that stuck the most, and did the most damage to Trump’s campaign and put him and the Republican Party in full damage control mode was a joke that Hinchcliffe made about Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, an offensive and racist joke.
He called Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 a “floating island of garbage 🏝️🗑️ .” This pissed off pretty much every Puerto Rican 🇵🇷 in the country 🤬. Even Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 who had supported Trump before this rally turned against him after it. What can I say? Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 have a lot of pride, and are not all self-hating. There’s no Puerto Rican Vivek Ramaswamy 🇵🇷 out there who will just sit there and take this kind of disrespect and hatred from MAGA Republicans 🇺🇸. This brought Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 back into the conversation, and finally made people realize that Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 is a US territory 🇺🇸 and Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 are US citizens 🇺🇸. They are not immigrants, they are legit Americans 🇺🇸 like you and I.
Sure, there are a lot of Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 who live in the Contiguous United States 🇺🇸 and not on the island 🏝️ itself, but to call them immigrants for that reason would be like calling any American 🇺🇸 who moves to another state an immigrant. Not only that, but they disproportionately enlist and serve in the military more than any other group in the country other than those who live in American Samoa 🇦🇸. It seems that people who live in these American territories 🇺🇸 that aren’t even states are more patriotic and more willing to serve their country in the military than those who live in the Contiguous United States 🇺🇸.
The fact that Hinchcliffe and every other MAGA Cultist 🇺🇸 who laughed at his joke were too stupid to realize this shows the depth of their ignorance. They were stupid enough to think that Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 are immigrants and that they could make fun of them with no consequences. They thought this comment would be ignored and brushed over by every comment made by MAGA Republicans 🇺🇸 during this election cycle 🗳️, and wouldn’t have any significant impact on the Election 🗳️. The Trump campaign and the Republican Party as a whole has tried to distance themselves from Hinchcliffe, and denounce his statements saying that it doesn’t represent them or reflect on their own beliefs, and Trump himself has tried to claim ignorance, saying that he didn’t know Hinchcliffe or know that he was going to make that joke and he loves Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷.
He even put on an orange vest 🦺 and dress up as a garbage man driving around in a garbage truck, to say that Biden and Harris are the real ones that are garbage, especially after Biden put out his statement addressing the Puerto Rico joke 🇵🇷, and “accidentally” said that Trump supporters were garbage 🗑️. Which, they are, he’s not wrong. But, none of this has worked, mostly because everyone knows that Trump is a pathological liar and never means what he says if it doesn’t have anything to do with McDonald’s, which is another publicity stunt that fell flat with the majority of voters 🗳️. Everyone thought that it just made Trump look even more ridiculous than he already does, which was the same as when put on that stupid vest 🦺, and cosplayed as a blue collar worker.
Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 are still pissed 🤬, they’re not just going to forgive Trump, his campaign, and the Republicans that easily just because they claim they didn’t know Hinchcliffe or they didn’t vet his statements and they didn’t know he was going to say that and he ad-libbed it. They know Trump lies, and they know that his campaign did know Hinchcliffe, they did approve his jokes, and that it does reflect on them and their own beliefs. They’re just saying all that, and trying to distance themselves from him and use him as a scapegoat to try to win back Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 and Latinos in general so they can win the election 🗳️. But it isn’t working, it isn’t going to work. The damage has been done, nothing can be done to change it. Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 are thoroughly against the former president, and they will punish him at the ballot box 🗳️ by voting for Harris.
Even though Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 is not a state and Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 who live on the island 🏝️ itself are not eligible to vote 🗳️ for that reason, lot of Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 live in the swing states particularly Michigan and Pennsylvania, so along with women ♀︎, they have the power to tip the election 🗳️ in Harris’s favor. All of the major Puerto Rican celebrities 🇵🇷 such as Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, and Ricky Martin to name a few (I’m not counting John Leguizamo even though he is Puerto Rican 🇵🇷 because he endorsed Kamala Harris before this incident took place) have endorsed the Vice President.
So, the tide has definitely turned, Trump is losing. I mean, he already kind of losing before, that debate did a number on him, but now it really looks like he’s losing and it looks increasingly like he will lose and Harris will win. Good for us 😁✊. I mean, Taylor Swift has already endorsed Harris, she endorsed her after the debate, and it was her endorsement of Biden that helped propel him to victory. So, maybe her endorsement of Harris will do the same. We can only hope right now 🤞🙏.
I have said before in the past that even if I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift or her music 🎶 (there is a lot to legitimately criticize her about), if she ends up being one of the factors that saves this country from a second Trump presidency, I will be forever grateful for her and I will always respect her for that. If I met her in person (however unlikely that is), I’d salute her 🫡 and thank her for her service to this country for helping us defeat Donald Trump once and for all.
But we must remain vigilant and those who haven’t voted 🗳️ must vote 🗳️ either early or on the day, Election Day 🗳️ on Tuesday November 5, 2024. But, regardless of who wins, I will still write about it on the day, or the day after, or whenever the results come in and we know who the winner is, and talk about what the results mean for the future of our country and for the world. I will also show you the picture I took of myself after I voted 🗳️, my selfie 🤳. So, look forward to that.
That is the reason why I decided to post this today. Even though this post is more about Washington, DC, it still talks a lot about Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 and the possibility of it becoming a state along with Washington, DC. Surprisingly, although the incident at Madison Square Garden brought Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 back into the spotlight and brought it into the headlines, it didn’t bring the idea of Puerto Rican statehood 🇵🇷 back into the conversation. No one’s really talking about making Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 a state after this offensive joke was made by Hinchcliffe. But, I still felt posting this and I think it’s pretty relevant to the current moment.
I think Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 should become a state, along with Washington, DC, and I’m not just saying that because I want to see an extra star or two to the American flag 🇺🇸. I think, the people who live in these two territories deserve it after they’ve done and after they’ve been through. They both deserve to have statehood and full Congressional representation and have voter eligibility 🗳️. People who live in Washington, DC already can vote in presidential elections 🗳️, but people who live in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 can’t. So, he would increase enfranchisement for Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 by making it by a full-on state. Maybe it could be Kamala Harris’s gift to Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 if she wins this election 🗳️.
Of course, Republicans oppose making Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 (and Washington, DC for that matter) a state because they know that it would benefit Democrats electorally 🗳️. With Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 and/or Washington, DC as states, Republicans would never win presidential elections 🗳️ ever again. Even the Republicans in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 itself are an obstacle to it becoming a state. So, the only way that Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 and/or Washington, DC can become states is if there is an overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress. If there’s a split or if there are just a handful of Republicans, then you can kiss Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 and Washington, DC’s chances of becoming states goodbye 👋.
I will say that I was a lot more against the idea of Washington, DC becoming a state than I am now. For the reasons that I gave below in the initial text. But, in the updates, both of which I wrote last year, in 2023, I was a lot more favor of it than I was originally when I wrote that initial text, or at least, I wasn’t as against it as I was before. Now, I’m completely in favor of it because of everything that has happened since then and how it will hurt Republicans. Anything that hurts Republicans I’m pretty much in favor of because they are a death cult at this point. A death cult centered around one man ♂︎, and that man ♂︎ is Donald Trump. So, despite what you might read in here, I have evolved on this issue in the last three years and the updates I wrote afterwards are much more reflective of how I feel now.
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There’s a lot of debate over whether Washington, DC (the capital city of the United States 🇺🇸) should become a state or not. From what I can tell, the main reason why so many people want statehood for DC is that they want the ability to vote in elections. The people of DC do not have the right to vote for Congressional representation, but they still pay taxes while other unincorporated US territories 🇺🇸 such as Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 and Guam 🇬🇺 don’t. This has prompted the use of the slogan “No taxes without representation,” taken directly from the days of the American Revolution 🇺🇸, and directly invoking it.
But, to me personally, as someone who isn’t an expert on politics, making Washington, DC a state is unnecessary to solving these issues. If voting rights and taxes are the main points of contention for the proponents of the District of Columbia statehood movement, then change the US territory laws 🇺🇸 so that the people in those territories can vote in US elections 🇺🇸, or make the people of DC exempt from taxes like the other US territories 🇺🇸.
Another solution that I haven’t seen a whole lot of people consider is making Washington, DC apart of an already existing state. Both Virginia and Maryland contributed land to form the District of Columbia, so why just make the city a full part of one of those states? That’s what Canada 🇨🇦 did with its capital, Ottawa. It’s not administered as a separate territory, it’s apart of an existing province, the province of Ontario, which has its own capital, Toronto. DC by far has the most land in Maryland (in fact all of its land is in Maryland), so it would make sense to make it a part of that state in this scenario.
It would still be the capital city of the whole United States 🇺🇸, but it would no longer be a separate US territory 🇺🇸, and the citizens of Washington, DC would have the right to vote for Congressional representation in exchange from them paying taxes. Plus, you wouldn’t have to change a whole lot about how Washington, DC is governed. You wouldn’t have to change the Mayor into a Governor or anything like that. It would mostly all be the same, except that DC would just be another city within Maryland’s territory and jurisdiction.
That to me is a better solution to the whole voting rights and taxation problem than making DC a new separate state entirely. That honor should really go to Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, which is a whole island, and not just a city. Or who knows? Why not make American Samoa 🇦🇸 a state? I haven’t seen anyone suggest that one that much. But, that solution would not give the Democrats an advantage in Congressional elections over the Republicans (since DC is a solidly blue city and has never voted Republican in its entire existence), so it’s unlikely that they’d ever seriously consider that option. Their goal is defeat their opposition and gain as much power within the federal government as possible, which is also what the Republicans want. They are the biggest opponents of the whole Washington, DC statehood thing, but they are at a disadvantage especially after the 2020 election costed them the House and several seats in the Senate.
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Update (Friday June 16, 2023):
The Republicans regained control of the House by a very slim majority during the 2022 midterm elections. But, they still lost a lot of seats in the Senate, which is now held firm by the Democrats. So, the Republicans do have the upper hand at the moment when it comes to the statehood of unincorporated territories like Washington, DC and Puerto Rico 🇵🇷. Even if the Senate voted to grant either Washington, DC or Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 statehood, it would have to go through the House, and it probably would be struck down by the Republican majority.
The Republicans are still against adding any new states to the Union, especially Washington, DC or Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 because they’re worried that they’ll give the Democrats the upper hand in presidential and congressional elections. DC is already a staunchly blue city that hasn’t voted Republican in a very long time, not ever since the parties switched. And Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 would likely be a blue state if it were granted full statehood, since it’s a Latino majority territory, and Latinos usually tend to vote for Democrats. Though, the margin of Latinos voting for Republicans did grow in the 2020 presidential election, as more Latinos voted for Trump in 2020 than had did in 2016.
So, the Republicans vote down any proposals to add any new states to the Union because they don’t want to keep losing to the Democrats. But, I personally don’t consider that issue because I hate the Republicans, and I want the Democrats to keep winning. Besides, not granting DC or Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 statehood won’t save them from losing the Democrats so long as they’re still tied to Trump, and other crazy MAGA Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene, or Matt Gaetz (who is an alleged pedophile and sex offender BTW), or Lauren Boebert, or Kari Lake, among others. The Republicans will keep losing to the Democrats if they keep running with bad candidates, not if they make Washington, DC or Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 a state, or make them both states.
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Update (October 7, 2023):
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These are two possible hypothetical flag designs that the US 🇺🇸 may adopt if they had more states to the Union. The first flag on top is a 51 star flag, if the US 🇺🇸 adds a 51st state to the Union, either Washington DC or Puerto Rico 🇵🇷. The second flag on bottom is a 52 star flag, if the US 🇺🇸 adds a 52nd state to the Union. You might as well, which territory could the US 🇺🇸 possibly make into a state after adding a 51st state? Well, think of it like this: imagine a scenario in-which Washington DC and Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 become states. Then, we’d need a flag with 52 stars, and that’s how we might get something this:
So, you don’t need to imagine a crazy scenario in-which the US 🇺🇸 grants statehood to Guam 🇬🇺 or American Samoa 🇦🇸, you just to imagine a scenario where Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 and Washingtonians both get their wish and both grant statehood at the same time, or one after the other; just like Arizona and my home state, New Mexico, or Alaska and Hawaii. I don’t even think it’s even all that likely that Guam 🇬🇺 would gain statehood, since no one in Guam 🇬🇺 is actively seeking statehood like people are in Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 and Washington DC. Maybe, American Samoa 🇦🇸 might gain statehood, simply because that territory has the highest amount of military enlistment and recruitment per capita in the entire country, but it’s still pretty unlikely.
The only way I could see that happening is if Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 gets statehood, but Washington DC doesn’t gain statehood and is kept as an unincorporated territory, kept as the country’s one and only federal district. The more likely scenario to me is that either Washington DC or Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 gain statehood first, and then, whichever one didn’t get statehood the first time, will get statehood next. But, we’ll just have to see. The US 🇺🇸 may never add any more states, and may just keep it at 50. But, if it does decide to add more states, if the Senate and the House agree to it (it would have to be a bipartisan vote), then these are what the flag might look like afterwards.
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