I voted and lived to tell about it.

Election day is here. As The Who sang, "Meet the new boss; same as the old boss." In a way, of course they're right and in a way they're wrong. Much is at stake in this mid-term election, not least of which is ANC1C07, where Wilson Reynolds runs unopposed. I voted early this morning and was struck yet again with how impoverished we are in the District during the mid-terms.

Of course, I was able to vote for our long-standing "Delegate," Eleanor Holmes Norton. But can she vote in Congress? No. And I voted for the various "shadow" positions that are basically meaningless. Probably the most important undecided race (because Fenty has basically been acting like and been treated like the mayor-elect since he won the Democratic primary) is for D.C. School Board Chair, and if Fenty has his way that position won't be terribly important anyway, if it even exists when he's through.

In the other states, I'm hoping that Casey holds on and beats Santorum in my native state. However, I saw Casey in one of his own political ads, and he talks like someone who's just been beaten about the head and spun in a circle ten times. And that's in a spot that he paid for. In Virginia, it's just a question of whether a racist will be re-elected to Senate. In Maryland, you have to wonder if Bobby "The Purge" Ehrlich will be re-elected or will O'Malley, the Bard of Baltimore, unseat him. Steele or Cardin? Are any of these people actually interested in DC Statehood? No.

So it gets back to the District and its colonial situation. Now you can argue in three different directions on this one. The first is status quo: the Constitution specifically indicates a federal district be under direct authority of the federal government ["To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States"], Federalist 43 argues for the "indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of government" etc. The second is giving DC Statehood (which has been tried before -- both houses of Congress passed the amendment in 1978, but not enough states ratified it before it expired in 1985). The third is to treat D.C. like other U.S. territories by exempting the District from federal taxes -- an interesting prospect that might gather steam in our consumer society that views having more dispensable income to buy their lifestyles as more important than political rights.

I will be watching the television tonight, hoping to see a shift of at least one house in Congress to the Democrats so that BushCo has some competition in one of the three branches.