Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now we just have the crazy chairperson cutting people off after 90 seconds. There are actually two people on the commission with children at home. There is a strong ageist, anti single family home dweller bias. It's also the only ANC that has not moved back to hybrid meetings.

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Do you think everyone should be able to ramble on as long as they want?

Allowing members of the public -- who include the voters -- to speak for more than 90 seconds is not "rambling on as long as they want." Other ANCs have gone to hybrid meetings, as has the DC Council. If the intention is to wait for the "perfect" hybrid meeting, the wait will be an eternity. The perfect can't be the enemy of the good. What is wrong in our Northwest DC ANC is that the chair exercises the complete ability online to cut people off after a minute or two, which doesn't allow for comments and questions on issues that sometimes can be complicated. ANC meetings feel staged, where most commissioners seem very certain in their own opinions and don't appear very interested in hearing public debate.

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Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

On the one hand: if you want to vote in a party primary election, you have to check the box on your voter registration for that party.

On the other hand: if you want to have voting representation in Congress, you have to live somewhere else.

Nope, I'm not seeing the parallels.

We should be making it easier for people to vote, not looking for ways to discourage turnout.

Those are two different issues, aren't they? Issue 1: what are the barriers to voting? Issue 2: why do voters choose not to vote in elections they could vote in? If you're registered to vote, but you choose not to vote in the primary because all of the candidates in your party primary are running unopposed anyway, or because you choose not to register with a party, that's not a barrier to voting, that's a you issue.

No one should have to register with a party in order to exercise their right to vote.

There's 550,000 adults in Washington D.C.

In 2022, Bowser won her primary, the only election that matters, with 62,000 votes.

Seems pathetic that you can win election to be mayor of a major city with barely 10 percent of adults backing you.

Of course, Bowser seems like a massive vote getter compared to people further down the ballot.

Matt Frumin won with all of 8,000 votes.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

On the one hand: if you want to vote in a party primary election, you have to check the box on your voter registration for that party.

On the other hand: if you want to have voting representation in Congress, you have to live somewhere else.

Nope, I'm not seeing the parallels.

We should be making it easier for people to vote, not looking for ways to discourage turnout.

Those are two different issues, aren't they? Issue 1: what are the barriers to voting? Issue 2: why do voters choose not to vote in elections they could vote in? If you're registered to vote, but you choose not to vote in the primary because all of the candidates in your party primary are running unopposed anyway, or because you choose not to register with a party, that's not a barrier to voting, that's a you issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

On the one hand: if you want to vote in a party primary election, you have to check the box on your voter registration for that party.

On the other hand: if you want to have voting representation in Congress, you have to live somewhere else.

Nope, I'm not seeing the parallels.

We should be making it easier for people to vote, not looking for ways to discourage turnout.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

On the one hand: if you want to vote in a party primary election, you have to check the box on your voter registration for that party.

On the other hand: if you want to have voting representation in Congress, you have to live somewhere else.

Nope, I'm not seeing the parallels.

Then you're either willfully blind or extremely disengenuous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

On the one hand: if you want to vote in a party primary election, you have to check the box on your voter registration for that party.

On the other hand: if you want to have voting representation in Congress, you have to live somewhere else.

Nope, I'm not seeing the parallels.

C’mon. You can move 4 miles in any direction out of DC and have better schools, less crime, AND a Member of Congress. You are self-disenfranchising. Next.

Not true for less crime and better schools.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

On the one hand: if you want to vote in a party primary election, you have to check the box on your voter registration for that party.

On the other hand: if you want to have voting representation in Congress, you have to live somewhere else.

Nope, I'm not seeing the parallels.

C’mon. You can move 4 miles in any direction out of DC and have better schools, less crime, AND a Member of Congress. You are self-disenfranchising. Next.

Because having to check a different box on form, in order to be able to vote in a primary election, is just exactly like having to live in a whole different jurisdiction, if you want to have representation with your taxation?

Plus, registered independents in Montgomery County have the same complaint. If it were more important to them to be able to vote in the Democratic primary than to be registered as independents, they would register as Democrats. But instead it's more important to them to be registered as independents. That's their choice.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

On the one hand: if you want to vote in a party primary election, you have to check the box on your voter registration for that party.

On the other hand: if you want to have voting representation in Congress, you have to live somewhere else.

Nope, I'm not seeing the parallels.

C’mon. You can move 4 miles in any direction out of DC and have better schools, less crime, AND a Member of Congress. You are self-disenfranchising. Next.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Open primaries would be a major, major improvement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

On the one hand: if you want to vote in a party primary election, you have to check the box on your voter registration for that party.

On the other hand: if you want to have voting representation in Congress, you have to live somewhere else.

Nope, I'm not seeing the parallels.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

The parallels are quite obvious. How do you not see it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.

No, it doesn't. All they have to do, to be able to vote in the primary, is check a different box on a voter registration form.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

+1

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our ANC treats his constituents' opinions as something to either ignore or overcome, which I don't think is how democracies are supposed to work.

I wish we could just abolish the ANCs.

Their intended purpose was to act as a sherpa for citizens interacting with government.

We need to dramatically expand the Council and abolish the ANC's. Were we going to have a 13 member legislature if we got statehood?

The goal is to have the ANCs act as a lower house and the Council would become the Upper house

Yeah that sounds like a nightmare. I'd rather have Congress in charge.

An attitude consistent with a disrespect for small-d democracy.

uh, what? it's exactly the opposite. dc's government is about as unrepresentative as it gets. most of our officials are left wing nutjobs who get elected in primaries in which barely anyone votes. then, because they got elected with, like, 12 votes, they think they have a mandate to pursue all their craziest ideas. when voters object, they ignore them because they think they know better or because, hey, they were elected, even if 99 percent of their constituents did not actually vote for them.

A big part of the problem is that D.C. has some of the most restrictive rules in the country about who can vote in primaries, which in places like DC is where all the decisions get made.

The rules effectively disenfranchise some 90,000 independent voters.

There's a ballot initiative that would change this, so that we would have open primaries where independents get to vote too. It would also bring ranked choice voting, which would be another big improvement.

The Washington Post editorial board just came out strongly in favor of it. You should support it too. Voters should get to pick their elected representatives, not vice versa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/11/dc-open-primaries-democratic-party/

Those voters disenfranchise themselves.

What? That sounds an awful lot like the arguments some people make to dismiss DC statehood.