Republicans in Congress expressed concerning sentiments against the existence of the District’s local government earlier this month. Congressional Republicans opposed to Mayor Muriel Bowser threatened to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act in an interview with the conservative outlet The Daily Caller. The act chartered the District’s mayor office and D.C. council, giving the District’s residents their own local government.
To repeal it, Republicans will need to control Congress after November’s midterm elections. Because the future of the District’s government will depend on which party controls Congress, the University’s out-of-state student population should vote for their respective states’ candidates that are committed to protecting D.C. residents’ right to self-governance. Without action, the very outcome of this year’s midterm elections could end the District’s local government.
Students’ relationship with the District includes a responsibility to safeguard its right to representation. The comments made by House Republicans, whether they contained actual legislative intent or empty political grandstanding, reveal a deep contempt for the District, its residents and its democracy. Repealing the 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act would go well beyond disenfranchising the District’s more than 500,000 registered voters: it would eliminate the very elected offices that comprise the city’s government. But the democratic promise of local government can survive if students give back to the city that they attend school in and vote, support and advocate for candidates in favor of home rule.
The District’s government is a tangled web of Constitutional mandates, federal laws that devolve powers to local officials and Congressional oversight that can override local measures. While forms of local political control existed in the District before the law, the 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act provided for a broad-based, democratically controlled, municipal government. Yet the act also left the city council’s legislation subject to Congressional review, and Congress maintains control over the District’s budget.
Republican politicians have used Congress’s sweeping authority to rail against the deeply Democratic District time and time again, opposing locally popular programs like marijuana legalization and gun control and introducing their own conservative legislation. And because the District’s representative in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-District of Columbia), is a nonvoting member, the fate of the District’s policies are up to other states’ representatives and senators.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) among other Republicans cited Mayor Bowser’s leadership on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, increasing instances of crime and a likely undercounted homelessness crisis to justify quashing the District’s local government.
Bowser’s tenure and her responses to these issues has been far from perfect. And if a majority of D.C. residents feel that way, the answer is to remove her from office – not eliminate the office she occupies wholesale. A Washington Post poll from earlier this month makes this clear: if Bowser’s popularity is slipping, but still high, then this November’s election should provide a referendum and perhaps resolution to her political career.
Put simply, wresting control from the area’s voters in favor of absolute Congressional authority would be an ineffective and dire breach of this nation’s self-proclaimed democratic values. District voters should be able to vote for and even successfully re-elect Mayor Bowser, flaws and all. Such a gross breach of democratic expression at the ballot box is unscrupulous and unconscionable, nor would it solve the problems the District actually faces.
The future of D.C.’s democracy is a national issue and one that its residents ultimately have little to no say in. It’s all too easy for students to treat the District as a four-year long revolving door between high school and the professional world. Yet what students take from D.C., a world-class education, countless memories and a one-of-a-kind community all within a unique urban environment, means they can, and should, offer something in return.
Students overwhelmingly hail from outside the District. Those who are registered voters in their home state should exercise that right, in-person or by mail, on behalf of the District. Even a single vote goes a long way to determining the outcome of an election, maintaining the balance of Congress and ultimately the future of the District’s government. See what your candidates’ stances are and call their offices for a position. Because for four short years, you too are a resident of D.C. – and one with a say in government.
But casting your own ballot isn’t enough. Registering eligible voters within the District and in your own community is the first of many steps to drive the voter participation necessary to preserve the District’s democracy. Ultimately, vocally supporting D.C. statehood by donating your time, money and energy is the best protection of the city’s – and hopefully one day state’s – democracy.
A committee of cruel, vindictive members of Congress with open animus towards D.C. and its residents will hardly solve, or even try to solve, the District’s problems. Contrary to the persistent ignorance of certain politicians, the District’s nearly 700,000 residents are real.
Students at GW should join the ranks of these residents during their brief education, and then take more than a degree with them when they leave. With an enduring love for the city and its people, students have a responsibility to give back their votes, their support and their advocacy in return. District residents deserve their own representation for no other reason than it is their right. Until they have it, students should do their part to represent them.
Ethan Benn, a sophomore majoring in journalism and mass communication, is an opinions writer.