Comments by "wvu05" (@wvu05) on "Ben Shapiro's Brain Melts Trying to Figure Out DC Statehood" video.

@MrShanester117 You mean like the fact that we have two Dakotas because Republicans wanted more seats? I don't see Republicans trying to make one Dakota.
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@FuddlyDud I am not arguing that the Dakotas should be one state. I am pointing out hypocrisy. As far as your "best argument against statehood," DC as at the mercy of the federal government for just about everything. The federal district was also supposed to be no greater than ten square miles, so that didn't work out as planned, either. The only reason people oppose DC statehood is fear of democracy. Maybe instead of lamenting that it be an automatic two Senators, maybe try to win the people over.
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@rockstarburne You are aware that Columbia wouldn't be the smallest state, right?
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@FuddlyDud How would "one state be more powerful"? You can always redefine the federal district in a way that the people of Columbia can have their statehood apart from the federal district. This is an argument against democracy masquerading as a concern for Constitutional government.
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@FuddlyDud Other than being farther away when trying to plan a trip, it wouldn't matter to me, because there is nothing to the thought experiment. People don't "think like Harrisburg" for the PA legislature, and that is not a slur, either. Even in Texas, the Lege doesn't think at all like they are influenced by the good people of Austin. Just say, "I like taxation without representation if I don't like how they'll vote" instead of doing such gymnastics. You're going to throw your back out.
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@rockstarburne Yeah, and how many of those people will still buy once the ocean rises?
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@FuddlyDud My point was to apply the fallacy that the federal government will be dominated by what people of the area want by looking at what happens when people already can vote who live in the capital. I used Harrisburg and Austin as examples, because people who live in state capitals can vote. The federal district wouldn't get its budget decided by Columbia, and they would only be one vote in the House out of 435 and two out of (depending on the extent to which statehood is granted) 102-112. And Madison, like so many of the Founding Fathers, was weary of "too much democracy," so any argument he made against democracy is best taken with a grain of salt.
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Hedoesthatbecause hethinksitmakeshimsoundsmart buttheproblem withthat isthatif itisnotnatural, youmakepauses atthe mostawkwardplaces.
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@dukedematteo1995 If Ben Shapiro really cared about states that existed as a partisan power grab, why isn't he complaining that the Dakota Territory got split in two before it was granted statehood? Shouldn't he be demanding that they be combined into one state? Projection isn't just for movie theaters.
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@rockstarburne Has only won the majority or plurality in one national election in the last eight but somehow managed to hold three terms sounds pretty unpopular to me.
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@dukedematteo1995 I want every territory to get either statehood or independence, no matter how the chips may fall. Unlike the right, I actually support democracy.
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@dukedematteo1995 So, that's why they are also pushing for Puerto Rican statehood, which is a fairly conservative place?
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@dukedematteo1995 Justice is justice. And they didn't become states in the 1870s. If he really cared about partisan power grabs, he would have demanded that Garland get a vote, Barrett not get one because people had already started voting, and he would oppose efforts to make it harder to vote in ways where Democrats are less likely to have the requested documents. Just because you oppose something that benefits Democrats for partisan reasons (instead of, I don't know, trying to actually win over the people of Columbia) doesn't mean that others only support it for partisan reasons.
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@dukedematteo1995 When it comes to local elections, they tend to vote for the conservative party. Maybe if the right would get out of its own way instead of antagonizing people who might otherwise support them, you wouldn't have this problem.
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@dickdrapper5491 Look it up. The Democratic and Republican parties are not even figures in local elections. The leading party is the party of the right.
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