I lived in Washington DC. The last thing it needs is a Trump ‘rescue'
In the world of Fox News, right-wing radio and Republican political conventions, San Francisco is synonymous with gay people while DC is a dog whistle that signifies blacks, crime and corruption. When Trump announced a federal takeover of the city this week, putting its local police force under his control, he said he was rescuing it from 'crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor – and worse!'
'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals,' claimed the Republican president.
But he was lying. The Democratic mayor of the overwhelmingly Democratic city, Muriel Bowser, pointed out that violent crime in DC was at its lowest level in more than three decades last year. Yet Trump is sending in the National Guard to crack down on crime and clear the city of homelessness.
It's all a bit absurd. But, really, this is just Trump singing a very old tune that most Republicans can hum along to. Why? It's just another volley in his time-tested tactic of throwing red meat to his base to distract them from thinking twice about, say, his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein or his on-and-off bromance with Vladimir Putin.
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The bad news is that his move is probably legal. DC is a political anomaly. It's not a state, but it's not inside a state, either. It was created by land taken from Maryland; Congress gave itself the power of governance over the area and has a standing committee to control its budget.
DC has always been the butt of jokes. JFK famously quipped that it was a city of 'southern efficiency and northern charm'. But DC has grown and is now at the centre of one of the largest (and wealthiest) metropolises in the US. It has a population bigger than several states; campaigners for statehood are quick to point out that, with the full federal workforce on hand on a typical weekday, it's bigger than several more.
Yet DC was given no senators; Congress grudgingly gave it three presidential electoral votes in 1961, and a single member of the House of Representatives in 1971, but only as a 'non-voting delegate'.
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