President Bush Is Against Democracy

Bush is (once again) a hypocrite (h/t to ThinkProgress.org):

House Approves A Full D.C. Seat

A bill giving the District its first full seat in Congress cleared the House yesterday, marking the city's biggest legislative victory in its quest for voting rights in nearly three decades.

Democrats on the House floor burst into applause, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) grabbed the arms of the District's nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, as the 241 to 177 vote was announced.

"There was nothing but joy in the chamber this afternoon, because we knew we had given this bill the kind of send-off that can get it through the Senate," Norton (D) said later.

But the bill faces considerable obstacles. Democrats don't appear to have enough votes in the Senate to avoid a filibuster, and the White House has threatened a veto. If the measure becomes law, it probably will be challenged in court.

Bush is a liar and a hypocrite when he says he is wants to spread democracy, but he refuses to spread democracy IN HIS OWN COUNTRY!

This bill would give a voting rights to the congressional representative in Washington, D.C. and, to make things "fair", give Utah an additional seat in the House of Representatives. However, I would contend that because it is unfair and unjust that residents of D.C. have no current representation with voting rights then simply giving them a voting representative would make it fair; you should not have to give Utah an additional seat.

I am happy that this effort was made to give D.C. residents a voting representative in Congress, but I am disappointed with its inadequacy. D.C. residents are Americans, and as such, they deserve represenatation in Congress equal to what all other Americans have. That means they need to be represented by one Representative in the House of Representatives and two Senators in the Senate. Period.

Now, I know no Republican in Congress or the White House is going to allow the strongly Democratic constituency of D.C. its own set of Senators and most are hesitant to even allow D.C. a voting Representative, but that is no excuse to punish residents of D.C. by denying them the rights given to all other Americans. It is a blatant form of voter fraud and morally reprehensible to deny D.C. residents Congressional representation because of their party affiliation, and the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for continuing this unethical practice.

At the same time, I am not satisfied with this current bill, and I think we should do more than what it proposes. My solution would be to allow D.C. residents to be represented by and to vote for the Senators of another state (preferably a bordering state) and another congressional district (preferably a bordering congressional district). Then there would be no need to create any new seats in Congress or to have to spend any more tax dollars on such seats or their staff. It does not matter whether their represenatation comes from more than one state as long as they have the same amount of representation that all Americans are due.

Denying Americans their right to full representation in Congress is morally wrong. After over 200 years of this violation of our democracy, it is time we make amends.