By: Miriam Edelman
Imagine being a U.S. citizen of voting age and being told to contact your Members of Congress about a certain policy issue. Most of you fit this situation. Then, imagine living in the nation’s capital, which should be the home of U.S. democracy.
If you live in the nation’s capital, you can only contact your non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. What if you want to contact your Senator about Senate bills and issues, such as Cabinet and U.S. Supreme Court nominations? You cannot contact your Senators because you don’t have any.
D.C. residents actually have fewer rights than U.S. citizens who are not of voting age (younger than 18 years old) and who are residents of a state in the U.S. Youth can contact their Member of Congress, who would care since he/she represents them. While youth cannot vote yet, they will be able to vote sometime, and presumably, they live with their parents and are constituents.
Let’s make D.C. residents full U.S. citizens. D.C. must become a state.
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