Re: (ReacTor) Five SF Scenarios Involving the US Presidential Line of Succession

On 2024-10-14, William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:

Chris Buckley wrote:

On 2024-10-11, William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:

Dimensional Traveler wrote:

On 10/10/2024 9:28 AM, William Hyde wrote:

Paul S Person wrote:

I also suspect a new District of Columbia will be established,
probably in the middle of the country. Nothing like high mountains and
a thousand miles or two of land to make a government feel secure.

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Without, one hopes, disenfranchising a million Americans.
>

You can't be disenfranchised if you don't have the ability to vote in
the first place.  ;)

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As I understand it a number of people in Georgetown and other
settlements in what became DC were rather unhappy with their loss of
voting rights.
>
>
When I lived in DC someone published a few letters from the time as part
of the movement to enfranchise the residents of DC.

 
The issue in DC has not been about being able to vote for a long time.

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It certainly was when I lived there.
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Republicans have been floating plans to enfranchise DC residents for
decades,

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Only plans that will never come to fruition.
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>
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  but the local Democrats have been saying "no, we don't want

to vote that much."  The Republican plans are to join DC and Maryland
in some form, perhaps making the remaining DC part of Maryland

>
Maryland doesn't want them.  That's what makes the plan so perfect for
the Republicans. It won't happen but they can say that they are doing
something.

Baloney!

First, both DC and Maryland are heavily Democratic; Maryland is the
3rd most Democratic state (more than California, less than
Massachusetts and Vermont). If the Democrats want it to happen, it
will. Can you name a single recent Democratic leader in either DC
or Maryland who says they want to work towards having DC vote with
Maryland?

Second, it's the leaders (and residents) of DC who strongly do not
want to vote with Maryland.  They like the current situation much better
than having DC as part of Maryland. They have an absentee landlord who
occasionally makes ridiculous demands, but for the most part leaves them
alone. The leaders would hate to have to give up power to Maryland.

The fact that DC residents don't want to vote with Maryland is indeed
a major obstacle.  But that is their right.  Yes, they would like to
have their current situation PLUS the right to Congressional votes
(note that they get to vote for president) and power, but they value
the current situation much more than voting.

Chris