Learning about our government through baseball

The seventh game of the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, known as the World Series, will be played tonight, with the Washington Nationals playing against the Houston Astros. In the first six games, the Astros won the three played in Nationals Park in Washington, DC, while the Nationals won the three played at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. Tonight’s game is to be played in Houston, which perhaps does not bode well for the Astros.

Why am I writing about this? Because while hearing so much about the world series, something about which I had never given much thought is the status of the nation’s capital, Washington DC. Although the District of Columbia has a larger population than two states (Wyoming and Vermont), because it is not one of the fifty states, it has no senators and only one delegate with limited voting privileges in the House of Representatives. Delegates have a marginalized role in Congress and their constituents are not represented in Congress in the same manner as most citizens. 

  

There are currently six non-voting members of Congress: a delegate representing the federal district of Washington DC., a resident commissioner representing Puerto Rico, and one delegate for each of the other four permanently inhabited US territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.

The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1961, entitles the District of Columbia to three electoral votes, the same number as that of the least populous state, in the election of the President and Vice President.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who has served since January of 1991 and is next up for reelection in 2020, is the Representative for the District of Columbia’s At-Large District. I have heard her name many times but never realized just what role she plays.

The District's lack of voting representation in Congress has been an issue since the capital's founding in July of 1790. Numerous proposals have been introduced to change this situation, including legislation and constitutional amendments, returning the District to the state of Maryland, and making the District into a new state. All such proposals have been met with political or constitutional challenges, and there is no indication that this will be remedied any time soon.

Whatever may be its ultimate identifier, we know that Washington, DC is here to stay because they have a major league baseball team! Who would have thought that an interest in baseball would lead to a lesson on our system of government?

Love,

Rebecca