So, as you may have heard, President Trump has decided to destroy the East Wing of the White House to build some kind of Bribery Ballroom (name pending, but actually not because it’s going to be called the Trump Ballroom because of course it is). He also, you may not have noticed, cut down a few heritage trees for the same reason.
If this were just a normal building somewhere else, owned by a real property owner, this would have been illegal. Mostly due to lack of permits, environmental protection (or lack of report of environmental impacts), and, like, all the other regulations about tearing down a building to build a new one. But it’s the White House, which isn’t governed by the same rules as other government buildings, and otherwise, the federal government can just do what it wants, state or local regulations be damned (often to alarming consequences).
And, of course for my diseased brain, this made me think about D.C. statehood. Not for any moral reasons, or why this many people (more than some states) don’t have any real representation or sovereignty. No, because a lot of people often bring up the whole operational thing of it all. How can the capital of the federal government live in a state, that kind of thing.
You see, there are really two Districts of Columbia. The first is one where a lot of people live, and are basically living already in some kind go state/local thing. This one is where if I cut down a tree in my backyard I get in super trouble. The one where a business has real regulations to operate, where building something requires going through some amount of bureaucracy, where the local police patrol and have jurisdiction. Basically, the same kind of place where all kinds of people live with a local government and rules and laws that govern it. Normal shit.
Then there is the other District of Columbia: where the federal government operates outside of that local control. Where Donald Trump can tear down a building and cut down trees and the mayor can’t do shit. Where the local police department has basically no jurisdiction unless called upon.
These are two different things and places! You see, it already exists, the only difference is first D.C. is totally under the heel of the second. Anyways, all I am trying to say is, it wouldn’t be much different, and we’re already proving it’s operationally possible. D.C. (minus the federal property) can be its own state, because it basically already is.
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