"Nothing good ever came from slow-motion children..."

[chaletian]

♥ Praise the sweet lord and all his pigeons: I get paid tomorrow. The day after tomorrow I will be broke again, but never mind. That brief respite from poverty will see me through the long impecunious autumnal gloom of November

Comments

[katie__pillar]

No tuna? That was shortsighted indeed, mon chou. I'm sure we'll struggle through (wo)manfully.

[celtic_tigress]

The very general idea behind the lack of political representation for DC is that since it is the site of the federal government, it shouldn't be located in an actual state. Being located in a state would make it dependent upon that state's state government and the Founders wanted the federal government to be totally independent of all the states. Since DC isn't a state, they can't have members in Congress, or so some people claim, and so it works out in reality so far.

As for Puerto Rico, it is kind of the same thing. It is a US protectorate, but it isn't officially a state, so they can't have real representatives in Congress. There is a loud and ongoing debate on whether the people of Puerto Rico want to become a state, whether the US wants to accept them as a state, and whether it would be a good thing for them in terms of economy, government, ect, but so far they haven't signed on the dotted line.

[chaletian]

Ah, that does make sense - thank you very much for explaining it! But isn't it an issue that a bunch of people are essentially disenfranchised?

[celtic_tigress]

Mmmm, kind of. Some people are lobbying for congresspeople to represent DC, but as of right now, they have silent representatives. As in, they are elected, and they get to go to Congress and participate in the debates, and make their opinions known, but they have no vote. As of 1961 people in DC can vote in presidential elections as well.