Life in a Single-Party State

I voted early this morning at my local elementary school here in Washington, and once again I was reminded of what it is like to live in a one-party state. The mayor's race, the only race of consequence, since we have no voting representation in Congress, was settled in the Democratic primary a couple of months ago. Most voters in Washington are Democrats, which is fine, I suppose, except it means that the Palestinians will achieve statehood before we achieve statehood. Maybe even the Kurds will gain statehood before us. Though we should safely beat the Tibetans.

If D.C. voters split their vote between Republicans and Democrats, we would have a better chance of achieving representation (the taxation part we already have), because Republicans in Congress would be slightly more likely to enfranchise the city if they didn't think that do so would mean the creation a reverse-Utah on the Potomac. But this is a real tilting-at-windmills exercise. Most of the people I know around here would sooner give up their Volvos than vote Republican, even for tactical reasons in meaningless races.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/11/life-in-a-single-party-state/65563/