Right now, there's a front-page story about the MA legislature passing a law to allow Gov. Patrick to appoint a temporary replacement for Ted Kennedy until a special election can be held.
I strongly support this proposal. Not only is a second Massachusetts vote essential to passing agenda items like strong health care reform, it's a basic matter of principle: Massachusetts should not be denied half of its Senate representation for half a year. Massachusetts residents - progressive, moderate, and conservative alike - don't like the idea of only having one Senator to every other state's two.
If MA going with only half its Senate representation for half a year is an offense, how much more offensive is it that 590,000 American citizens have no Senate representation at all, and don't get to hold a special election for Senators? I'm talking, of course, about the residents of the District of Columbia who, despite the fact that we pay our full federal income tax every year and register for the draft like anyone else, don't have representation in either of the bodies of the Legislative Branch.
In that vein, the discussion of the MA appointment process is an opportunity for us to strike a blow for the basic civil rights of our fellow American citizens, whose disenfranchisement will continue unless people in the 50 enfranchised states stand up. I'm proposing that we - progressives, Kossacks, Democrats, whatever we consider ourselves - make sure that not a single conversation on this topic can occur in our presence without our bringing up the fact that DC residents have absolutely no Senate representation at all.
The remedy is as simple in form as it will be difficult to enact: A Constitutional amendment granting full enfranchisement for DC in the House and Senate. Until that Constitutional amendment is passed, Congress (constitutionally) can and should pass a law exempting current DC residents from federal income taxes and Selective Service registration. It is unjust that we are taxed by a body in which we have no representation.
So my challenge to us is this: Part of every conversation about Massachusetts' representation in the Senate should include a discussion of DC residents' lack of representation in the Senate. When we talk about the injustice of MA having only half its Senate representation for a long period of time, we should talk about the even greater injustice of 590,000 American citizens with no representation in the Senate at all.
Urge everyone you know to call their Congress members - House and Senate - and demand that this Constitutional amendment move forward.
Urge them to demand also that in the meantime, a law be passed exempting DC residents from federal income tax and registration for Selective Service.
Justice demands that you stand up for the disenfranchised; if you don't, we'll never see our civil rights realized.