Barack Obama as colonial master

[kpete]

Barack Obama as colonial master

Sandy Levinson


..........................

The City Council of DC has voted to spend the tax money of its own citizens to help pay for abortions of presumably poor and vulnerable women. Whatever one's views on abortion, there's no doubt at all that what John Marshall once called a "sovereign state" could choose to spend its own tax dollars on such a public policy (unless, of course, the Court holds that fetuses are "persons" protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, which not even Scalia has advocated). Only a colony, without any rights that the administering power need respect, could be prevented from passing such a program.

And that is exactly what Barack Obama and congressional negotiators decided to make clear. Forget the craven Congress; Barack Obama betrayed not only his contituents in DC, but also his ostensible and ostentatious devotion to "democracy" around the world by acquiscing to the denial of self-government to the District of Columbia. He should be completely ashamed of himself, as should any Democrat (or, more to the point, "democrat") who votes for the "compromise." Perhaps they should vote for it anyway; after all, there would have been no Constitution in 1787 without a willingness to collaborate with slaveowners and submit to the extortionate demands of small states re allocation of power in the Senate, and maybe (but only maybe) the Constitution was worth such compromises. I obviously find this an open question. But we should have no illusions about the character of the President's disregard for self-government by Washingtonians. From his perspective (albeit, no doubt, with genuine regret, like the Walrus and the Carpenter vis-a-vis their oysters), they are mere colonists, to be ruthlessly dismissed when other political interests demand it. Change we can believe in, indeed!

the rest:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2011/04/barack-obama-as-colonial-master.html

[Imagevision]

1. "Change we can believe in" just the other day Bernie Sanders said the same thing

[ProSense]

2. Another disingenuous criticism.

"Barack Obama as colonial master"

That's some title!

Barack Obama betrayed not only his contituents in DC, but also his ostensible and ostentatious devotion to "democracy" around the world by acquiscing to the denial of self-government to the District of Columbia. He should be completely ashamed of himself, as should any Democrat (or, more to the point, "democrat") who votes for the "compromise."

Levinson after being reminded that this has been a part of all previous budgets.

I'm sure that Joe is correct that other (Democratic) Presidents have accepted similar riders. I'm not accusing Obama of being uniquely bad in this respect. It is simply that some of us really (and naively) did expect him to be much more committed to certain values, including the importance of home rule.

Actually, I'm in substantial agreement with Mr. DePalma that returning most of the District to Maryland and Virginia would be preferable to making DC a brand new state, not least because it would simply entrench yet one more small state in the Senate. But the present situation really is untenable, even if one doesn't live in the District.

I am (genuinely) curious if Congress would feel free to engage in the same power play if Puerto Rico (altogether surprisingly) adopted the District's policy of financing some abortions through locally-raised tax revenue.

# posted by Sandy Levinson : 7:07 PM

DePalma is the site's resident RW troll.

If Congress had actually done its job and passed the 2011 budget when Democrats had the majority, this CR would have been a non-issue.

[msanthrope]

3. Is Sandy Levinson so ignorant of history that he thinks part of DC goes back to VA?

Yes, yes he is....