The experiment of self-rule in our nation's capital should be abandoned as the dismal, lamentable failure that it obviously is.
The spectacle this week of Democrat President Joe Biden joining Democrat lawmakers in the Senate and Democrat lawmakers in the House and the unanimous consensus of their Republican counterparts to overrule the District of Columbia's misguided and dangerous attempt to rewrite its criminal code is just the latest and should be final example of a dysfunctional government that needs to be put out of its own misery.
It should be noted before we go any further with this discussion that the district government is dominated unanimously and unambiguously by hardcore, doctrinaire, left-wing Democrats. They are a perfect petri dish experiment of what happens when Democrats have the ability to run things without any objection.
Furthermore, it's also the perfect example of Democrats' inept management of a city government without any actual financial repercussions for their horrible ideas. The federal government, your tax dollars, subsidizes the awful mismanagement of these out-of-control Democrats, and even with the financial support of the federal government, they are still incapable of running the show.
With rising violent crime, falling police recruitment, restaurants, businesses, bars, and citizens fleeing to Maryland, Northern Virginia, or Florida, the Democrats running DC decided it was time to rewrite their criminal code and remove or reduce punishments for carjackers, rapists, thieves, and murderers.
When even Democrat poster child and celebrity Muriel Bowser, the mayor of the failed state of Columbia, vetoed this debacle, all but one of the Democrats on the district council voted to successfully override her objection.
Sadly, the one dissenting vote in the veto override did not come from a Republican since there are no Republicans on the district council. It came from Trayon White, the Democrat whose other noteworthy achievement is to take to Facebook with a live stream video in which he claimed that the Jews control the weather. Yes, that man is the sole voice of reason on the Democrat-dominated district council.
Joe Biden vowed to veto Republicans' effort to throw out the district's misguided permission slip for violent criminals masquerading as a criminal code, but when legions of Democrats hopped across the aisle to vote with Republicans, he did what Joe Biden has always done. He followed the prevailing political winds to save his own unremarkable political legacy. Joe Biden doesn't stand for any principles, even bad principles; he just stands for his own political survival.
Biden's announcement that he would not veto the Republicans' bill also stated without irony that he supported DC statehood. Somebody who either has the ear of the president or the ear of the person actually making decisions for the president at this time should point out that if DC were a state, then there would be no opportunity for Congress and the president to reverse their horrible decisions, which Congress and the president are, in fact, doing at this time. But never let logic get in the way of a good Joe Biden decision.
Thankfully, our Founding Fathers anticipated the likes of Muriel Bowser, Marion Barry, and Trayon White being in charge of our nation's capital. So they carved out congressional oversight of the management of the federal district where our capital resides. Over the years, Congress's control over the roughly 10 square mile region has diminished with past Congress's acquiescing to the local government's demand for home rule. These demands have morphed into the unconstitutional call for DC statehood.
If this latest escapade doesn't put an end once and for all to the DC statehood fantasy, nothing ever will. If this is how the people of Washington, DC, mismanage things as a federal district, imagine what a disaster it would be as a state.
In my interview last week with House Oversight Chairman James Comer about his role in evaluating and approving laws passed by the district council, he confirmed that overriding the criminal code was just the beginning.
"I hate to micromanage, but our committee has jurisdiction in Washington, DC," Comer told me. "We're supposed to be a check and balance on Washington, DC, and this city is not run in an efficient manner. This is a dangerous city. There are a lot of problems in this city. We're gonna continue to examine the problems with the way Washington, DC, is run, and hopefully, we can make a better capital city."
Furthermore, in his nearly two-hour speech before the gathered assembly at CPAC this past Saturday, President Donald Trump went even further and called for the federal government to retake control of Washington, DC.
He's right. Proponents of the constitutional role of Congress over the federal district should no longer be on the defensive, explaining why they don't think Washington should be a state. It should be the DC government defending its right to any semblance of home rule. The rising crime rate, unending criminal vagrancy resulting in fetid pestilent written encampments, the deteriorating public transit system, and the streets strewn with filth and trash are examples of a broken government not just in need of oversight but in need of being overtaken.
It's time for the federal government to finally put an end to any notion of DC statehood and take back full constitutional control of the District of Columbia.
Every tax-paying citizen of this country who deserves to visit their nation's capital to meet with their elected representatives without looking over their shoulder for fear of violence and assault deserves no less.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member