An American Sham(e)

If citizens of the 50 United States actually read, understood, and believed in the noble principles embodied in their Declaration of Independence, they would allow denizens of the Nation's capital, Washington, DC, to participate equally in the life of the Nation, along with their countrymen in the other 50 states. "To secure these rights (among others, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness), Governments are instituted among men, deriving their Just Powers from the Consent of the Governed." The Consent mentioned in this case is given by participating in the means we as a nation use to reach a national consensus: regular election of a national legislature to make the laws under which we all must live. Shamefully, over half-a-million members of the nation (a larger population than that of the state of Wyoming), residents of the nation's capital, are STILL persistently and deliberately excluded from this process. Though they are part and parcel, progeny and posterity of the same Founders who pledged their Lives, their Fortunes, and their Sacred Honor to secure these rights, the Tyranny of their Countrymen has so far precluded DC denizens' participation in the national legislature in any meaningful form. This is an American Sham(e). Washington, DC continues to be Governed Without Consent.  This violation of fundamantal first principles results in degradation of governmental legitimacy.


Non-whites are now counted as whole persons, and allowed an equal vote; females are allowed an equal vote; 18-20-year-olds are allowed an equal vote. The primary groups NOT allowed an equal vote are non-citizens, children, criminals, cretins, and... residents of the District of Columbia. For Shame, America! For Shame!

Practically Aliens

1893 Frederick Douglass stated, "Regarding their political rights, residents of the nation's capital are not really citizens but practically aliens in their own country."

 DC is Governed Without Consent.

I might point out that the bedrock principle on which this country (and democracy itself) is founded is Consent of the Governed.

DC is Governed Without Consent.

As a DC denizen, I have to point out the following: The United States Congress is not really our Congress, since we have had neither voice nor vote in it for over 200 years; the United States Supreme Court (and other Federal courts) are not really our courts, since we have had no say in their operations, their officers, nor the laws they impose on us, for over 200 years; The United States Constitution is not really even our Constitution, since we have had no say in Amendments 12-27.
I’m neutral on the gun issue. If we weren’t outnumbered 600 to one, maybe guns would be useful in getting us out from under the tyranny (“benevolent” as some may see it) of our countrymen. As it is, I think we need more ballots, and less bullets.

Welcome to DC.

Where Government by Consent of the Governed has been passe for several centuries now (since 1801).  Where Americans have consistently, persistently and insistently imposed their own peculiar brand of tyranny on their own fellow citizens for far longer than living memory.

"For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery." Jonathan Swift

Both the Declaratory Act of 1766 and the District Clause of the US Constitution (qv) are unwarranted attempts by a national legislature to arrogate to themselves Absolute Power "in all cases whatsoever" over an unrepresented minority of the national population, in an obvious and egregious violation of a fundamental first principle of participatory government, that it "deriv[es] just power from the consent of the Governed."  This persistent, consistent, and insistent violation of fundamental first principles degrades the very legitimacy of the government.

Hear, Hear

"For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery." - Jonathan Swift

What has been denied?

"All of this ink and time being spent on giving the residents of the District of Columbia a 'full voting representative' in the House of Representatives. What exactly have the residents of the District of Columbia been denied as a result of not having such a representative?"

Simple answer: They have been denied their inalienable (innate, inherent, intrinsic) rights as citizens of this nation to participate equally in this participatory form of government which all other citizens enjoy. They are Governed Without Consent. They seek Equality, Nothing More, and will settle for Equality, Nothing Less.

They are denied recognition and respect for their inalienable right (which cannot be sold, traded, or taken away, an arbitrary, anachronistic, and artificial provision of the Constitution notwithstanding) to Consent to the laws under which we all must live, to be heard in the national consensus which we develop via our national legislature.

Denying DC the opportunity to either grant or withold Consent over the laws under which we all must live (as exercised by all other citizens in the fifty states) leaves the power exerted by Congress over the District both illegitimate and tyrannical. Recall that our Constitution, as originally written, denied these same fundamental rights to blacks and women, too. We have corrected that over time as we strive for "a more perfect Union." The task is not yet complete.

Founder George Mason said,

"No free government, or the blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people, but by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."

James Madison said,

"The people were in fact, the fountain of all power, and by resorting to them, all difficulties were got over. They could alter constitutions as they pleased. It was a principle in the Bills of rights, that first principles might be resorted to."

Our Constitution is a document written in an attempt to "form a more perfect Union". One of the basic, bedrock fundamental principles upon which participatory government such as democracy and its variations (such as a democratic republic) are based is "Consent of the Governed". Consent is determined by majority consensus, with special protections afforded to the rights of minorities. One of the most basic implications of this approach is that "the people" consist of ALL of the people. If a minority of the people are excluded from even participating in the process of decision making by the majority, that exclusion tends to erode the legitimacy of the entire system. Such is the situation of the long-suffering residents of the District of Columbia. Excluded from participation in the national decision making process nearly from the beginning of the Republic by the tyranny of the majority (those living in the fifty states), their exclusion (along with the now-corrected one-time exclusion of blacks, women, and young adults under the age of 21) has tended to erode the legitimacy of the rule of law, under self-evident, bedrock, fundamental democratic principles such as Consent of the Governed. Consent of the Governed has not been afforded denizens of the District since 1801. The current Constitution is hardly even their Constitution today, since they have not been afforded an opportunity to participate in decision making that resulted in Amendments 12 through 27 (since 1801). The Courts, likewise, are hardly even their courts, since they have not had representatives with an opportunity to participate in decisions (advise and consent) regarding their staffing and operation, since 1801. Finally, the Congress is hardly even their Congress, since they have had no vote, and precious little voice, in either chamber, since 1801. The denizens of DC, as part of the original thirteen colonies, are unrebuttably the same posterity, the same progeny, as those currently residing in the fifty states, for whom, as an indivisible Nation, the Founders pledged their "Lives, their Fortunes, and their Sacred Honor" to secure Liberty. Of that there can be no argument. Other territories (Puerto Rico, Pacific Islands, etc.) have a more tenuous claim on that position.

The Declaratory Act of 1766 was an attempt by the British nation to arrogate to itself an Absolute Power over an unrepresented minority "in all cases whatsoever". Similarly, the District Clause attempts to arrogate to the American nation Absolute Power over an unrepresented minority "in all cases whatsoever". Both cases are highly rebuttable, since both seek Absolute Power by the majority (and we know what Absolute Power does) over an unrepresented minority. The bedrock principle of "Consent of the Governed" is violated by such unwarranted assertions.

"VI. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in Assembly, ought to be free; and that all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented for the public good."

Virginia Declaration of Rights,
June, 1776


The consistent, insistent, and persistent violation of this fundamental, bedrock, first-principle of modern participatory government undermines and erodes the very legitimacy of the rule of government over those excluded from participation in our representative, democratic, republican system of government. As a citizen of this nation, I urge my fellow countrymen to address this deficiency in our Constitution, with the goal of forming a More Perfect Union.

DC Lament

My people, you are.

Not only rude,
but deliberately rude.

Not only clueless,
but deliberately clueless.

In our pain
at your exclusion of us,
you mock us.

Showing all the compassion,
and integrity,
and principle,
of little boys
who pull wings off of flies –
because they can!

And so we proclaim you,
as did our forefathers,
to their people,
before us…
Enemies in War,
In Peace, Friends.