What's it like being a Democrat in DC?

[rumguy]

Do you feel connected to the national party? I mean - in DC you have all the major institutions of the party right there in the city, yet so much of the focus is outward.

Is there a local Democratic party? Are you involved in it?

You live in a city that is full of Democrats, many of whom are from other places and are there to work for a particular politician.

I lived in DC about ten years ago, right as I started college. I didn't really form impressions about these issues at the time. Although I do remember DC being an exciting and interesting city. And I did do some political work. But I was still voting absentee ballot in my home state. I was never really a part of the DC Democrat 'scene', so to speak...

[Jabbery]

1. It's GOT to be better than being one in Georgia

I'm starting to consider buying lynching insurance.

[soothsayer]

2. Same as the anagram for the District of Columbia:

"I toil bad cosmic turf"

[rumguy]

3. good god it's slow in this forum!

[northzax]

4. and there, my friend, you have the answer

in the most political of towns, where the first qustion is always, "who do you work for," and a large plurality (at least) of the population is mobile and transient, you can't expect people to care much about this forum. Sorry (and I frankly like it) but our news is national news. Often I come here to post something only to find it's already in LBN or GD.

You really want the answer? ask what you would feel like if you lived in the most, absolutely the most, democratic city pseudo-state in the union, where fewer than 20,000 of the 700,000 residents are republicans, and yet your vote was meaningless in the grand scheme of things. We are the Democratic power base. We are the most ethnically diverse, if segregated, city in the US, Caucasians are barely a plurality in the District, if that. And yet the Democratic Party won't go out on a limb to support us in our quest to be treated like every other American. Every politican in the US fights like hell to get to live here, only to bash our fair city at every turn back home. We know that we are the center of the universe at this point (sorry, New York, you've got the financial thing, and the arts thing, but the real power players live here. And they are frighteningly young.

From the balcony of my apartment I can look out on the Capitol, and the Washington Monument, and know that my voice is not heard there, even in theory. We often have, indivdually, more power and access than you can imagine (I count as friends and friendly acquiantances people who actually write the laws you live under, I drink with the staffers who control access to the most powerful congressmen and women in the country. I have senior aides on my speed dial and I work in a field that have nothing to do with politics. (I sell wine) I have, probably, better access to your congressman and senator than you do, yet don't have any of my own. And as long as the Democratic Party (or any Party, for that matter) won't make it a real issue to solve my political servitude to the rest of the union, I want nothing to do with them.

Yes, of course I will swallow my bitterness at this iniquity and vote for Kerry. I'd vote for a tin can to beat these bastards, but a little work on behalf of the 700,000 (and growing) slaves in DC would be nice, you know? (and yes, slavery is the right word. I pay federal taxes. I have my streets closed so chimpy can get driven around. I have entire blocks closed for 'national security' (the one good thing is that there are no more low flying airliners) but I cannot vote on how that money is spent, or on the tax rates I pay. Indeed, the house and senate routinely void DC laws, even those passed by referendum, if they are not what their majesties want. If something doesn't play in Peoria, they'll do it here, and we have to take it. THe House actually passed a LAW forbidding DC to put the words "taxation without representation" on our license plates. Luckily the Senate let that one die.

Now for most things this really doesn't matter. It's only money. But for something like a constitutional amendment? like one imposing absurd religious doctrines on people (marriage, cough, cough) It will apply to me (not that it's directly relevant as I'm hetero) but I will be forced to be a citizen of a country that enshrines discrimination in its constitution, and I will never get to vote on it. My senators (oh, wait, don't have any) my Represenative can't vote
and there is no provision for DC to be included in ratification procedure (since that is limited to the 'several states' and we ain't one of them. There are, by some estimates, 30-50,000 homosexuals living, and contributing to DC. and they will have a basic right denied without getting to vote on it. If the Democratic Party won't protect THEM, or me, from totalitarian government, then fuck 'em. And if this doesn't, at the very core, piss you off as well, then fuck you too. (and I mean that in the nicest possible way)
and, of course, we have les boulez. and no one should have to deal with that.

answer your question?

[Skinner]

5. Preach, brother!

Great rant! :thumbsup:

[wildeyed]

6. I finally saw the taxation

without representation license plate recently. Much better that the DC is a Capitol City that was on them when I was living there back in the when.

Actually, I have been thinking about DC and it's lack of representation recently. We are all freaking out because people are being denied their civil rights in FL in 2000 (and rightly so), but there is an entire city that can't vote and no one says boo.

Tell me what to do to help and I am on board.

[primavera]

7. Damn, that's hard to improve upon!

Northzax hits the nail on the head. It's a very mixed experience living here. On the one hand, it's very cool living in a city so completely dominated in its general population at least by liberals. You can make even the most tasteless jokes about the shrub and voice even the most paranoid of conspiracy theories with just about any passing stranger on the streeet and expect them to agree with you. That's worth something, I think. I mean, I imagine if I lived in some Bible belt part of the country and had to endure the terrors of the bushista junta without even being able to say anything for fear of being lynched, that would make the shrub's reign of terror even more unbearable. As it is, you need only step foot out your door to find hundreds of thousands of like minded people willing to take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction. At least you don't feel like you're alone.

And it's kind of inspiring to live in a community which contains so many incredibly bright and dedicated people who are committed to the notion of public service. Despite the popular perceptions of the DC bureaucracy, in reality it's bloody hard to get a federal job; they don't hand them out to idiots; idiots find their way into the government through political appointments and elections. Most of the people who do the actual work in DC are highly educated, intelligent, and dedicated people who work long hours and take considerable pay cuts from what they could make in private sector jobs to work in government because they genuinely want to feel like they're making a difference. Why do you think the shrub has taken such pains to go after the bureaucracy, introducing measures that enable the administration to fire federal empoyees without cause? He knows the bureaucracy is no friend of his and will do its damndest to obstruct his efforts to resurrect the glory of 1930s Germany in this country. Again, that's kind of a cool populace in which to live.

But northzax is absolutely right in that it's incredibly frustrating to be in this incredibly liberal community and be so completely chained in what you can do. DC is the ultimate circus maximus; it exists solely as a forum for political combat and both sides bring out their fiercest gladiators. Everything you might want to do will be contested. I think about a colleague of mine who works in refugee resettlement in Amarillo and she pulls off virtual miracles in getting stuff accomplished locally, because no one organizes to resist what she does. In DC, if you tried to get away with the sort of programs she successfully implements in Amarillo, you'd immediately have a hundredweight of high powered attorneys and lobbyists organizing a campaign to counter your efforts. Nothing goes unnoticed and unchallenged. If you're part of the apparat and have the connections and resources to lauch campaigns at that level, then great, you can at least console yourself with giving the opposition a run for their money, but even then, the best you can hope for is checking their way somewhat; the odds are heavily against you being able to make substantive progress against that kind of resistance. And there's no room for amateurs.

Take, for instance, the decision to re-name Washington National Airport after Ronald Reagan. The communities of DC, Maryland, and Northern Virgina which own, maintain, and are served by National Airport were one and all uniformly opposed to the measure and fought tenaciously gainst it - it was a shining moment of democracy at its best where the people stood up and clearly expressed their will. And Congressional Republicans simply didn't give a shit, anymore than the shrub cared when we all took to the streets to protest his illegal invasion of the sovereign state of Iraq. Living in DC, you are constantly confronted by such evidence that your government of, by, and for the people really couldn't care less about the people. It's an inescapable conclusion and one that is very depressing to reach.

[LibInternationalist]

10. that is an excellent post

and there's really no chance of DC getting the vote any time soon, either -- it's sickening -- at least let us vote for senate in Maryland or something

[northzax]

12. screw Marlynad. Give us Virginia

Maryland is already Democratic. We'd tip the scales in VA. Hell, add us to Ohio, or Florida, or Virginia and Kerry would be President-Elect today.

Let's not forget Baseball...

[journalist3072]

8. A Democrat in DC

No, as a Democrat in DC, I really don't feel connected to the national party.

I think that because the D.C. is so overwhelmingly Democratic, the national party makes no efforts to campaign here. Besides, we really have no national power because we don't have full representation in the U.S. Congress.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi journalist3072!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[journalist3072]

11. Thank you!

Thanks for the kind welcome! I'm glad to be on board here!

[godblessthebeastinme]

13. hot chocolate in chocolate city

remember when the control board took away Marion Barry's motorcade?

he fought back by trading his Armani suits for a Dashiki and speaking in a stilted monotone.

i love that man.

[mattclearing]

14. I used to be with the local chapter of YDA,

but it got difficult to contribute with school and all. Great people, though. I highly recommend anyone under 35 get involved with DCYD.