Thread by @DougLindner, Now that the candidates who talked most on structural flaws in our [...]

Now that the candidates who talked most on structural flaws in our democracy (Pete & Warren) are out, it’s on us to keep highlighting those problems.

Here’s a lesser-known one:

There are 6 NON-voting members of the US House of Reps, representing 4,280,910 Americans... (thread)

The six NON-voting members of the US House of Representatives represent:

• Washington, DC
• Puerto Rico
• US Virgin Islands
• Guam
• American Samoa
• Northern Mariana Islands

The six NON-voting members of the US House of Representatives include:

3 Democrats
2 Republicans
1 Independent

6 out of 6 NON-voting members of the US House of Representatives are people of color.

For the people in the back: Congress is super white but 100% of the members who don’t get to vote are POC

5 of the 6 jurisdictions whose Congressmembers don’t get to vote also get ZERO Electoral Votes for president.

(DC gets as many as the smallest state but never more than that, no matter how many people live in DC)

Washington, DC has 705,749 people—more than Vermont or Wyoming.

Puerto Rico has 3,193,694 people—more than NINETEEN states.

Guam has about 29% as many people as the smallest state, Wyoming.

Wyoming has about 1% as many people as the largest state, California.

Wyoming gets 100% as many Senators as California. Guam gets 0%.

Wyoming gets 5% as many Electoral Votes as California. Guam gets 0%.

When Rs control the House, the 6 NON-voting members (including the two who are RNC members) have even less of a vote than when Ds are in power

This gets in the weeds quickly but for more info, click + scroll to “Expanding (and contracting) voting rights” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-voting_members_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives

It’s not just that DC and the territories have less of a voice in federal government. They also have less control over local affairs.

For example, *Congress* limits the height of buildings in DC, which makes housing massively more expensive and accelerates gentrification.

Congress has veto power over DC’s own budget and laws

Congress refuses to let DC legalize marijuana even though DC residents voted to do so

My home state of New Hampshire joined the United States freely by a vote of its legislature.

DC was created by the federal government out of land that used to be part of Maryland (the Virginia part later went back to VA).

The locals never got to vote on that, nor have they gotten a definitive vote on anything since because Congress retains a veto on everything they do.

Puerto Rico and Guam were Spanish colonies that the United States won in a war.

The US Virgin Islands were sold to the United States by Denmark.

American Samoa was separated from what’s now (generations later) the Independent State of Samoa—a sovereign democracy and UN member—by a treaty between the United States and the German Empire

The Northern Mariana Islands were a Spanish colony, then a German colony, then a Japanese colony, then handed to the United States by the UN after World War II.

I’m not necessarily saying the solution is to make all of these places states, though we should definitely make DC a state immediately, and Puerto Rico if they decide they want it.

It’s fair to ask why Northern Mariana Islands, population 55,194, should have as many Senators as California, population 39,512,223.

(Albeit same for Wyoming, population 578,759)

But there are other solutions. Most would require amending the United States Constitution, but so be it!

Sure, it’s difficult, but there are fights that needs fighting.

We’re the world’s oldest and second-largest democracy. It makes sense that we’d need to fix stuff occasionally.

James Madison was not Moses. The Constitutional Convention was not Mount Sinai. The Constitution is not some sacred, infallible document.

Our civilization has come a long way since 1787. The founders rode horses, lit their homes with candles, corresponded exclusively by physical mail, invited no women or people of color to the convention, and many owned slaves—including Madison, the Constitution’s primary author.

They were wise beyond their years and beyond their era, but no human is so good or so brilliant that every detail of their work remains 100% unquestionable centuries after their death, *especially* not those whose values are cherished.

JK Rowling, author of the world’s most popular books, is still alive and her fans hotly debate whether she lives up to the values in her beloved works.

This isn’t a silly comparison! The founders were only human. JKR is a once-impoverished self-made billionaire with zero slaves.

Bottom line: I don’t pretend to have all the answers here, but the path to a more perfect union starts by asking the right questions.

Even the ones that are hard to answer.

And to do that, we need people to know the facts.

PS: while we’re amending the constitution, geographic-district-based representation is a poor reflection of popular will, bicameralism only makes sense when you don’t follow one-person-one-vote, the presidency is too powerful, and felon disenfranchisement is indefensible

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