D.C. Is Neither a State Nor A Not-State: Discuss

D.C. is not a state. Fine. Whatever. Except for two things: We have no vote in Congress and too many damned web forms do not list D.C. as a “state” where a person can live!

First, the serious issue: If you live in D.C., you don't have any real representation in Congress. This may not be well known outside of D.C., judging by the questions I've heard when people see that theD.C. license plate reads “taxation without representation.” Some say this is how it's supposed to be—people in the Capital City is not a in a state but in “neutral” territory where no one has a vote. Others say, fine, don't make us pay taxes then, if we have no say in how they're spent. But mostly I hear people saying: “Bullshit. If this is a democracy we should have real voting representation in Congress.” That's what the voices in my head say, too.

The less serious but more practically maddening issue with D.C. not being a state is that it means that sometimes you can't tell people where you live. This happens when you reach a drop-down menu on a web form asking you to choose the state where you live and D.C. is simply not on the list. This is only a serious deal when you're trying to give someone your shipping address for something you've purchased. Of course, this never happens at Amazon or whatever, but it's happened a couple of times to me recently w/other vendors, and just now w/a survey from Skype. I suspect there's some boilerplate drop-down list code floating around somewhere that lists all the 50 U.S. states but not the District or Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories.

It's true what they say around here: D.C. always gets the shaft.

Posted 11:23 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | general politics