Thread by @_centrism_

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Except there's a good reason for enhancing the political power of large, sparsely populated regions like Wyoming. If this was not done, the more populous states would be able to use the less populous ones as colonies, to be used and abused.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW This is not a grim hypothetical situation, either. Something very similar has already been seen to happen at the state level, when there is proportional representation.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Note the case of the once reasonably lush county in California that was turned into a wasteland because Los Angeles wanted its water. The local people had no say in the matter. Political might made right, they were out of luck, and their home was destroyed.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW One thing that the founding fathers were open about their wish to avoid was the formation of any sort of tyranny of the majority.

We shouldn't want to see one of those formed, either. Minority communities should have recognized rights, too.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW But this has all been discussed many times, before, Claire. Why do you act as if those population figures are late breaking news, and provide an argument for which there has never been a reasonable rebuttal.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Nevada is given two senators so that California can't just turn it into a toxic waste dump for its own convenience, and without regard for the wishes or well being of the Nevadans.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW If the city of Washington were to become part of Maryland, giving the residents of that city the ability to vote in congressional elections, the residents of this new city of Washington, Maryland would not have cause to worry about a similar scenario being inflicted on them.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Compare the populations of Baltimore and Washington. Washington would be a major population center in Maryland, the state that donated the land on which that city was built. Washington's wishes would carry a lot of weight in the Maryland legislature.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Further, as part of a larger state, Washington could do something it couldn't, were it to be its own state: it could grow, were it to persuade the smaller municipalities bordering it to become part of Washington.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW One unhappy question to ask about a future in which the district of Columbia becomes its own state is what the tax base for the state is going to be.

No room for farms, to be sure, and barely any for factories. Somewhere that compact would seem doomed to have a service economy.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Service economies might not seem so bad to the privileged few (eg. well connected lobbyists and ad executives), but for most of us, they've been a source of hunger, misery and despair.

The people of Washington deserve better.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Sure, factories could be placed outside of the tiny current boundaries of the city, in order to take advantage of the large, nearby population - and I have to think that would be exactly the right way to put it: to take advantage of the people commuting in.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW They wouldn't be answerable to any state government that these Washingtonians would be voting for, nor would they pay taxes to any state government that would be looking after the needs of the people of this city made into a state.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW The employees of such factories, should they ever be built, would have to get the hard to obtain attention of the federal government to get relief, if mistreated by their employers. Meanwhile, unless subsidized, their micro-state would struggle to fund services.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW This is assuming that any sort of economic activity moves into the vicinity of the city. So far, Washington is famous for the large number of residents existing on the dole.

Existing, not living. Anybody who has ever been on welfare knows that's not living.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW It beats starvation, to be sure, but it's a lousy way to go through one's years. It's a living death.

It's also a trap. Every try traveling while living on $15/day or less? It's a challenge, to say the least.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW As for the imagined political upside of this underhanded proposal - the eternal guarantee of two more Democratic senators - speaking as one of the poor, I'm going to say "don't count on it."

We're not as dumb as some privileged people think we are.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW What a lot of us want is a fair chance to earn an honest living, one which we've been denied by the openly acknowledged cronyism in hiring ("networking"), not a handful of unearned crumbs off the tables of the wealthy.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Also, the shipping of industry out of the country has eliminated many of the entry level opportunities we could have used to rise out of poverty.

The Democratic party has done nothing to help with this. Nada. So why would we be in that party's corner?

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Because you guys care so much about us? Be serious. Bill Clinton was the president who signed "welfare reform" (under which aid was cut off to the still unemployed after two years, when job seekers already outnumbered job openings), leaving cities scrambling.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Places like Chicago had to get "creative" in order to find ways of keeping their own people from starving or freezing to death - and in the latter case, not always with success.

No matter how motivated people were, they couldn't fill jobs that didn't exist.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Rich "progressives" didn't care, as long as they got their cheap imported labor, and if some kids get separated from their parents at the border? Blame Trump until he loses, then change the word used to describe those detention centers and go on doing the same evil thing.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW We're not part of the "Blue Wave" because we have memories, and we know nothing has really changed from election to election. Both parties have been worthless.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Now we have this absurd proposal, which seems more of the same. Try to bait some of the poor with something that won't really do them, any good, and hope they'll be well enough played that they'll vote the way wealthy "progressives" want them to vote.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Let's think about it. Let's say the residents of "New Columbia" (or whatever this completely urban, nearly totally built up 68.34 square mile state got called) somehow got the money needed to start new businesses in the undeveloped areas a new business can afford. Then what?

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Then those businesses will be located in states in which they don't get to vote, and the state government is not politically motivated to worry about their concerns. This would seem to put them at a disadvantage.

For them, Claire, what's the up side to this?

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Why do you want to do this to people?

Or were you thinking that they'd just use their two senators to keep on getting more free money for themselves, while drinking their suffering away on Night Train?

Because bad news: I don't think that's made any more.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Also, we expect a real chance to get more out of life than that, because why wouldn't we?

A society with the bottom rungs knocked off the ladder of success is an aristocracy, no matter which party is in charge, and you seem content to go on knocking off more of them.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Not. cool. Claire.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Unroll:

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1364973…

I'll archive that, in a bit.

@claire9219 @twCyborg @BW Archive Today:

archive.is/P2HIc

The Internet Archive is still failing to save pages. Maybe I'll try later.