In 1991, the Olsen twins looked like this, JLo looked, well, somehow exactly the same, and I was
a tiny baby. And in our nation’s capital, D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton
was introducing a bill to make Washington, D.C. a state. It failed. So she did it again the next
year, and the next, and the next, and the next and the next and the—okay, she did it every year for
30 years, and last week the House passed the bill! - The bill is passed!
So I sat down to Zoom with her to talk about this historic vote.
Are you excited? - I am. I’ve
been in Congress for 30 years, so I’ve been working on D.C. statehood for my entire time.
I doubt that anyone has ever asked you this before, but why should D.C. be a state?
- Ha. Well, there are multiple reasons, but perhaps the reason that most Americans
would understand is that the American citizens I represent pay the highest federal taxes per capita
in the United States. I would think we have earned our way to statehood already.
Despite those high taxes, D.C. has zero senators, which is like, I don’t know... There must be some
catchy phrase for that. Mmm… That’s alright, I guess. D.C. has more citizens than Wyoming and
Vermont, but its only national representative is Delegate Holmes Norton, and she can’t actually
vote on bills. It’s like she’s auditing Congress. To add insult to inequality, Congress—you know,
home to folks like Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan—has final say over D.C.’s local budget.
Congress is basically Britney Spears’s dad. Like Free Britney. And free the D.C. budget!
- Yeah. And that’s the battle Holmes Norton fought for
three decades—very fiercely. Like… very fiercely. - I will not yield, sir! The District of Columbia
has spent 206 years yielding to people who would deny them the vote! I yield you no ground!
You’re very passionate about this. Where does that passion come from?
- I suppose that passion comes from being a third-generation Washingtonian.
My own great-grandfather, Richard Holmes, escaped from slavery in Virginia,
made his way to the District of Columbia. That means nobody in the Holmes family has ever had
equality with other Americans. So I am personally and professionally ambitious for D.C. statehood.
Republicans, of course, are ambitious to block that from happening, and they’ve marshalled
their very best arguments: - D.C. would be the only
state without a car dealership. - Can you tell me about the manufacturing, or
agriculture, or mining in your district? - Where are the forts going to be? And
where are the dockyards going to be?” And what of the buggy dealerships! And the
horseshoe-y people! BTW, D.C. does have car dealerships—and besides, if that’s the bar,
New Jersey should be like five states. And yes, D.C. is small. But Monaco could fit
in Central Park, and it’s a whole country! With a prince! Oh, we miss you. But what,
say conservatives, of the hallowed Constitution? - The framers never said that the nation’s capital
can never become a state. They didn’t quite know what to do with the nation’s capital. But there’s
nothing in the Constitution that disables the district from becoming the 51st state.
Not to mess up our lovely narrative, but the bill actually passed last year as well.
But when it entered the Republican-controlled Senate, the delicate proposal was eaten by
Mitch McConnell. But now Democrats are in charge, and they’re unified! Mostly.
How close are you to Senate passage? Like is it actually going to happen? Or are you
going to get the big, like, thumbs down from Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin?
- Oh, no. We recognize that it’s harder to get a bill passed in the Senate, and Joe Manchin and
Kyrsten Sinema are among the holdouts, but we already have more than 90% of the Democrats.
Do you want me to call up Joe Manchin? Because I have him on my phone on rant-dial.
- I’m not sure you are the best person to talk with him.
Aww, she’s watched our show before! But even with every Democrat on board,
statehood may require busting the filibuster. Do you think that Senate Democrats
have what it takes to get rid of the filibuster? - The Senate not only has the guts, it has every
reason—if it wants to get anything done—to get rid of the filibuster. The reason they took control
is because they promised the American people: give us the power, we’ll get things done.
That requires getting rid of the filibuster. If that happens, we might soon be singing about
the fifty-one, nifty-one, United States-y-one. Okay. Can the flag support that many stars?
Will the fabric hold? Do we have the technology? - The least of our worries is the flag! The flag
business is going to go up many times as everybody orders new flags.
Yes! This is a growth opportunity.
This is infrastructure. - This is the kind of
infrastructure that matters most. So support the economy—get your order in early!