How Democrats’ Capitol Fortifications Undermine Their Plans For DC Statehood

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In building an armed camp to protect themselves, Democrats implicitly endorse the case for D.C. remaining a federal district and not a state.
Democrats' Capitol Fortifications Undermine Their Plans For DC Statehood (thefederalist.com)
8 Mar 2021 ~~ By Kyle Sammin

When riots swept the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021, National Guard troops were called up to help keep the peace. Two months later, they’re still there.
The Capitol Building remains surrounded by a seven-foot fence. The area looks more like an occupied capital in one of our small wars of empire than the seat of government in the land of the free. That said, if anyone is going to station and control troops in D.C., it probably should be the federal government and not one of the states or the city itself. Congressional Democrats believe riots could return at any moment.
While that’s unlikely, protecting Congress from mobs is part of the reason we have a federal district in the first place. In building an armed camp to protect themselves from the people around them, Democrats implicitly endorse the case for D.C. remaining a federal district, and not a state.
Events shortly before the Constitutional Convention of 1787 influenced the Framers’ thinking regarding the capital. Four years earlier, the federal government created by the Articles of Confederation resided in Philadelphia. That Congress didn’t control any portion of the city, or even their own building. They met in the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, which they shared with the state legislature.
~Snip~
This sort of danger has brought down many new nations, and it might have done the same to the United States. On June 21, 1783, about 300 troops marched into Philadelphia from Lancaster against the orders of their officers and demanded what they were owed. Congress had adjourned for the weekend, but its presiding officer, Elias Boudinot, summoned it back into session. As the congressmen arrived, the troops surrounded the building.
The Confederation Congress had no authority over state militias in peacetime, and asked Pennsylvania’s executive, John Dickinson, if he would call out the state militia to keep them from being killed or overthrown. Dickinson declined.
~Snip~
In explaining the part of the Constitution that provided for a federal district, James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 43 that such a district was an “indispensable necessity”:
Without it, not only the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity; but a dependence of the members of the general government on the State comprehending the seat of the government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy.​
In short, Madison and the other Framers didn’t want Congress to ever again have to depend on Dickinson or any other state governor to bail them out of trouble. The federal capital would be secured by federal officials. That principle held — until 2021.
~Snip~
In explaining the part of the Constitution that provided for a federal district, James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 43 that such a district was an “indispensable necessity”:
Without it, not only the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity; but a dependence of the members of the general government on the State comprehending the seat of the government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy.​
~Snip~
There are plenty of problems with how the District is governed, but Congress controlling its perimeter is not one of them. They may not admit it, but congressional Democrats are underscoring that making the district into a state would be a big mistake.


Comment:
What we have is a a stolen election and a Progressive Marxist/DSA Democrat controlled Junta.
We can see that by the laws being passed by Executive Order, HR 1 and the so called Covid relief Bill that is so laden with Pork it has become rancid...
Only in the addled minds of the PM/DSA Democrat Left could they make the District of Columbia a Federal entity a State without a Constitutional amendment.
 

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