The Fruitless* Fight (Negotiation) for District of Columbia Statehood. Need to Search for Creative Alternatives.
Introduction
This issue presents several key questions:
Why do some people fight for positions like DC Statehood that seemingly will never happen?
Why are folks locked into positions, instead of interests, leading to an intractable situation?
History
Since its establishment by the "District Clause" in Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the United States Constitution, the District of Columbia has been a federal district under the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the United States Congress. It is currently debated whether the District of Columbia could be made a state by an act of Congress or whether it would require a constitutional amendment. Source: Wikipedia
Politicians have worried about the lack of representation for the District of Columbia since the inception. Statehood was really not mentioned until the 1980’s. In 1982, post a successful referendum, the Constitution of the new state of New Columbia was ratified, but no real action. For two years, Democrats ruled over both the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, and the Presidency which seemed to be the best time for a move towards statehood, but that did not happen.
Groupthink aka Social Validation
For the past 40 years, almost no one can run for political office in the District of Columbia unless they embrace the position of Statehood. This approach follows Social Validation: everyone is doing it and everyone must do it. To many DC residents, especially new ones, this approach has been frustrating, fruitless, and stagnated. Despite this intractability, the DC politicians persist. The persistence is so strong that there is really no negotiation. There were two years during the first President Obama administration when the Senate, House, and Executive all agreed on DC statehood and yet it did not pass. Why has it failed so far?
Failed Democracy=United States
It is ironic that DC’s undemocratic establishment is seeking assistance to remedy the situation from the national government which is considered “a failing democracy.”
Both the rating international entities Freedom House and Democracy Now are rating the United States as “a failing democracy” along with such countries of Brazil and India. The US is no longer in the top ten democracies.
One of the metrics that brings the US down in the ratings is the lack of voting representation of DC in the US Congress.
The metrics of these ratings fall into two categories: structural and implementation.
Structurally, the Electoral College goes against the idea of democracy.
Having the large state of California and the small populated state of Wyoming have the same number of US Senators (2) seems undemocratic. This means that that each of the WY (pop=584K) senators represents 292,000 people; whereas, each CA (pop=40M) senator is representing 20M.
In the US House, each Representative represents 747,000 people. Both Rhode Island and Montana have over one million in population, but still merit only one representative. The US is out of sync with most other western countries in regards to the the number of representatives. For example, in Australia, each of their national representatives represent 165K folks.
The US Supreme Court has been exposed as a political body (Bush v. Gore) and has recently been manipulated so they no longer represent the majority of US (example: abortion aka women’s health).
Ironically, DC politicians cry out for democracy in terms of Statehood and yet behave undemocratic when it comes to voter referendums. The DC Council has overturned two popular voter referendums (term limits and minimum wage) declaring that the voters were not knowledgeable enough to vote on the issue.
Escalation of commitment may help to explain why DC politicos are especially insistent with the idea of Statehood.
According to Wikipedia:
Escalation of commitment is a human behavior pattern in which an individual or group facing increasingly negative outcomes from a decision, action, or investment nevertheless continue the behavior instead of altering course. The actor maintains behaviors that are irrational, but align with previous decisions and actions.
Economists and behavioral scientists use a related term, sunk-cost fallacy, to describe the justification of increased investment of money or effort in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment ("sunk cost") despite new evidence suggesting that the future cost of continuing the behavior outweighs the expected benefit.
In sociology, irrational escalation of commitment or commitment bias describe similar behaviors. The phenomenon and the sentiment underlying them are reflected in such proverbial images as "throwing good money after bad", or "In for a penny, in for a pound", or "It's never the wrong time to make the right decision", or "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."
Positions vs Interests
Demanding statehood for DC is a position. One should look under positions to discern the interests. Once they discern the interests, maybe creative options might be identified.
Need for Creativity
Instead of being stuck on the position of Statehood, effective negotiators should creatively posit other ideas to achieve the interest of democratic representation of DC's 670,000 residents.
Retrocession to Maryland: The land that Virginia gave to create a diamond-shaped capital, totaling 100 square miles, has been retroceded to Virginia. It is now known as Alexandria and Arlington Counties. Could the rest of DC be retroceded to Maryland? Many think this idea would be embraced by a majority in both DC and MD?
Transforming DC into a Puerto Rico status: This might mean a trade-off of representation in exchange for paying no federal taxes.
Persuade by Emotions, Logic, and Values
It is often said that the magic formula of persuasion is to:
Appeal to values
Appeal to emotions
Appeal to logic
The idea of DC statehood easily satisfies the Appeal to Values; that is, the value of each American having voting representation in US Congress.
The idea of DC statehood easily satisfies the Appeal to Emotions; that is, the excitement of a new state with newly-elected representatives.
The idea of DC statehood completely defies the Appeal to Logic. It has long been estimated that DC is 80% Democratic, with a small amount of Republicans. Thus, if DC became a state, it is a certainty that DC would elect two US Senators and one US House Representative. Possibly there could be some creative approaches in whom DC elects. Note that in the DC Council it is required to have 2 non-Democrats. Of course, Democrats got around this by becoming Independent.
Are there other “Fruitless” initiatives?
Some may note other seemingly “fruitless” initiatives that culminated in success: Gay Marriage or Overturning Roe v. Wade. These two are discussed below but seem to be distinguishable from the uniqueness of DC Statehood.
According to the Brennan Center:
Same-sex marriage became legal in the United States through a combination of state court rulings, legislation, referendums, and federal court rulings…As public opinion shifted in favor of same-sex marriage between 2004 and 2015, more states legalized it. On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states and required states to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriage licenses.
Overturning Roe v. Wade: Roe v. Wade was one of the most famous cases of the US Supreme Court. This was one of the first of its kind in the western world and the international abortion liberalization has been ongoing for decades. The only countries to recently buck this trend have been El Salvador, Nicaragua, Poland, and now the US. How did the US become compared to El Salvador on this issue?
According to Council on Foreign Relations:
And in recent years, a number of countries, particularly autocracies, have pushed back against the expansion of women’s and reproductive rights. Abortion opponents in the United States won a major victory in June 2022 with Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion. Since Dobbs, twenty-one states have moved to ban or restrict abortion access.
This can be explained by an amazing confluence of events:
The election of Donald Trump. Almost no poll predicted this election. Almost all polls had Hillary Clinton winning. The Russian election interference (12 indictments) and the Attorney General James Comey decision in October to re-open the Hillary email investigation most likely swung the election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell incredibly blocked President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland stating it was too close to the election.
McConnell went on to orchestrate and manipulate Trump appointing 3 SCOTUS Justices which had never been done before. At the most, a two-term President has the opportunity to nominate two.
The Trump nominees like Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett literally lied their way through the process on the abortion issue. They lied to the faces of such Senators as Susan Collins.
Examination of Other National Capitals Might Be Instructive: Canberra, Australia, and Brasilia, Brazil.
These two capitals are noteworthy,
They were not the original capitals.
They were chosen because of their centrality geographically.
They are designated Federal Districts.
The residents have the right to vote and have voting representation in their national assemblies.
Mexico City is Presently Ciudad (City) of Mexico - not a Federal District
Much can be learned from the struggle of the capital of Mexico which was a Federal District until 2016. It simply became Ciudad of Mexico with a high degree of autonomy, electing its local leaders as well as voting representation in both entities of the Legislative Assembly. Mexico City is viewed as the most progressive part of Mexico, passing same-sex marriage, a form of euthanasia, and liberal abortion processes. Mexico City had been a Federal District since 1824. Mexico City consists of 577 square miles, with a city population of 9 million and a metro population of 22 million. Mexico City consists of 16 boroughs. The constitution actually prevents Mexico City from being a state as long as it is the capital.
Conclusion
Unpersuasively, some say that “DC is operating by a set of political clowns” causing great inefficiency and does not deserve autonomy. They don’t mind some national government oversight. This may be more of a statement about how government no matter where, operates. Think of the Office of the US Surgeon General which has a budget of $1B. Loneliness is heralded as the major health US crisis. Really? Not cancer or heart issues? Is this office operating effectively?
Advocating for District of Columbia to become a state is a position. A better approach might be to focus on the interest underlying the position; that is, voting representation for the 670,000 DC residents. Framing this interest might set the stage for more creative options and alternatives. The alternative should be open to persuasion to appeal to values, emotions, and logic. Presently, the position of statehood fails the Persuasion to Logic approach and so far has been unsuccessful.
*Some might wonder, contrast, and compare other “futile” political efforts.
In Spain, there is Catalonia. There are four ethnolinguistic groups in Spain, including the main Spanish identity, each with varying degrees of separatist sentiment: Catalan Countries, Galicians, the Basque + Catalonia.
In the US, there are some efforts to divide California into 3 states. Some parts of Western Maryland would like to secede. Some in Eastern Washington and Oregon states might want to secede. Some Texans are always discussed seceding.
Italy: Sicilian nationalism, or Sicilianism, is a movement in the autonomous Italian region of Sicily, as well as the Sicilian diaspora, which seeks greater autonomy or outright independence from Italy. Padanian nationalism is an ideology and a regionalist movement demanding more autonomy, or even independence from Italy, for Padania, a region encompassing Northern and, to some extent, part of central Italy.
Of course, some people thought South Sudan would not happen or BREXIT.
Resources:
See Recommended Books under “Blogs” drop down menu.
Roy J. Lewicki is the author of 'Essentials of Negotiation', published 2015 under ISBN 9780077862466 and ISBN 0077862465. Publisher: McGraw Hill Higher Education
The Conflict Resolution Training Program, Leader’s Manual, ISBN: 0-7879-6077-2. Prudence Bowman Kestner and Larry Ray
5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace.
Getting Your Way Every Day.
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