...and nobody noticed?
That's what happened yesterday... only it wasn't an actual governor, it was the mayor of Washington, DC, who as the highest elected official representing 600,000 sovereign American citizens (which, I'll add, is 50,000 more than the number of people represented by the governor of Wyoming) who aren't residents of any other state, should rank on the same level as the governor of any state. (If the governor of Wyoming was arrested, do you think we'd be talking about that? I sure do.)
DC Mayor Vincent Gray and five members of our city council were arrested yesterday as they engaged in an act of civil disobedience, standing up against Congress's usurpation of the sovereign right of DC citizens to govern our own affairs.
And yet, if you read the Front Page, Rec List, or Community Spotlight on this site—it might as well have not happened.
"John, I will give you D.C. abortion."
Those were the words reportedly spoken by President Obama to John Boehner on Friday night, as they negotiated on an agreement to keep the U.S. government from shutting down.
The burdens of a government shutdown, of course, would fallen particularly heavily on the shoulders of DC citizens, as tens of thousands of our fellow citizens would suddenly be out of work (and not spending money, thus costing our city revenue and our businesses customers) and we'd lose trash pickup, libraries, DMV service, and other city services.
But the cost of avoiding that burden was Congress yet again asserting its so-called "right" to override the sovereign will of the people of DC and tell us what we aren't allowed to spend our own tax money on.
So no matter what happened on Friday night, DC citizens would have been uniquely screwed.
Of course, the core of the problem isn't that President Obama "gave" John Boehner DC abortion (though it certainly speaks to the little regard with which Congress and the President hold the sovereignty of DC's citizens); the core of the problem is that our laws are a horse that can be traded, another chip in the grand poker game that is Congressional politics.
If President Obama had said "I'll give you abortion in Pennsylvania and private-school vouchers in Montana," Boehner would have laughed in his face—but because it's the will of the 600,000 DC residents that's being traded about, it's completely within the President's power to "offer" control of our local tax dollars.
This state of affairs—in which the will of the people is overridden by an unelected Congress (in that we certainly didn't elect them and they sure as hell aren't answerable to us)—should be unacceptable to anyone who calls him- or herself progressive.
But sadly, on this as on other progressive sites, it appears as if this state of affairs is acceptable, at least judging from the almost deafening silence echoing around this site about the poison pill the people of DC were asked to swallow in order to keep your government open.
If six ordinary people had been arrested for occupying a Bank of America, it would have been on the Rec List all day.
But when six elected officials in the District of Columbia—the nation's capital, home of 600,000 people—get arrested for standing up to the Republican Congress, Daily Kos is too busy with bullshit meta wars about what our President might be rumored to maybe someday propose to do to have the time to talk about what a brave mayor and five brave city council members actually did—engage in a courageous act of civil disobedience to injustice.
(There was one exception, one low-traffic diary on the subject).
This isn't acceptable to me, and it shouldn't be acceptable to you. And as this site's community, we have to take responsibility for ensuring that the continued disenfranchisement of 600,000 taxpaying Americans doesn't remain a non-issue on this progressive site.
So what can you do?
1. Follow the DC Local Politics group, which will cover not just purely local issues but also the issue of DC statehood and ensuring the basic civil rights of DC's citizens. Recommend, tip, and comment in diaries that emphasize DC's lack of civil rights. Maybe even write a diary about DC statehood and what you're doing where you are to make it happen.
2. If you're a citizen of one of the 50 enfranchised states and your right to a voting representative and two Senators is being respected, contact them to let them know that any future budget "deals" that trade away the democratic rights of DC residents won't be acceptable to you.
3. Contact your members of Congress again and let them know that unless they get serious about DC statehood, they can't count on your support in the next election.
4. Whenever you see a diary on this site that asks people to call Congress, kindly remind the diarist that 600,000 Americans don't have a voting member of Congress to call, and ask him/her to add another call to action on DC statehood.
Unless this issue starts becoming front and center on this site, and in the progressive movement as a whole, nothing's going to change—and 600,000 taxpaying Americans will continue to be denied the most basic of civil rights.
Yesterday, six brave American elected officials defied Congress and took a stand for democracy.
Will you stand with them?Updated by JamesGG at Tue Apr 12, 2011 at 03:37 PM EDT
Only a few minutes after I hit "post," another excellent diary about DC abortion rights was added. Please tip and rec that as well.