Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
A Capital Idea
Washington, D.C., has been the capital of the United States since 1790. In the intervening years, of course, the country has expanded to the Pacific, and the population has spread southward and westward. So isn’t it time to at least think about moving the capital to another region? Perhaps to a red state? Perhaps to a warm area? Perhaps to a city where it’s possible to drive for more than three minutes without becoming hopelessly lost? I’m sorry, Phoenix, Arizona, but I nominate you.
Now, before you Phoenicians get too upset, think about the upside. The capital rains money on those who live and work with, for or near it. According to most estimates, six if the ten richest counties in the country are in the D.C. metro area. Plus, the Feds already own over 74% of the land in Arizona, so you’re used to them, and there’s plenty of room for shiny new edifices. As for the old ones back in D.C., they’ll become museums and such, and the tourists will continue to flock there. They’ll even be able to get near the old White House again (or, as it would likely be renamed, the White House Museum). We’ll have plenty of time to create jokes about what will be exhibited there.
As for the new capital in Phoenix, once the tourists (and their money) start rolling in, they’ll actually be able to find their way around in a city that makes sense. No more octopus-like tentacles radiating from circles that have been known to swallow up entire families for days at a time. As far as can be determined, Pierre Charles L’Enfant never traveled west of the Mississippi. His handiwork in Washington will, at long last, stop interfering with the business of government. And, speaking of interfering with the government, the change in location will also do away with snow days, which, according to some estimates, cost taxpayers over $100 million each.
And there’s more. Isn’t it about time we addressed the two-centuries-plus unfairness to western Senate and House members who have had to travel tremendous distances between the capital and their constituents? Won’t it be easier for elected officials when they don’t have to choose between keeping their promises to voters and trying to get positive coverage in the Washington Post’s Lifestyles section?
Sure, there are downsides for DC West, starting with an influx of journalists and pundits and lobbyists and lawyers and the various categories of hangers-on that have developed around politicians, but they all have to buy or rent housing and eat at restaurants and have suits made and sit at dark bars.
There’s an oft-repeated story about Ronald Reagan looking out over the beautiful Pacific in his beloved California and remarking, “If the Pilgrims had landed in California, the East Coast would still be a wilderness.” Maybe it’s time to correct that accident of discovery and settlement, and go west, young man. The capital’s current slogan, Justia Omnibus (Justice for All) would simply be replaced by Calor est Arida (It’s a Dry Heat.)
Published in General
Phoenicians? LOL, is that what they call people from Phoenix? I nominate New Orleans. This way when the next great hurricane comes the politicians can be washed way like a great Biblical flood that cleanses humanity from sin. ;)
This Toledoan says move the federal government to Detroit. They were made for each other. Detroit needs the money and the feds need the lesson that Detroit has to teach them.
Butters in #12 is on to something. Most of the commentators have proposed a new city for the Capitol. That’s old school thinking. This is the 21st century. We have electronics, computers, that Internet thing.
Make all Representatives and Senators work from an office in their respective district where their constituents can walk in and talk directly to them. Make them stay close to the people. Make it much harder for lobbyists to visit each office.
Lots of companies and even individual families use Web Ex, Skype or some other Internet based direct communications. That would be a great medium for conducting Congress’s business. Want to know what’s going on in the Senate…join the Web Ex and watch / listen. Want to know what’s up in the House…join the Skype and watch and listen. Or you could go the the Congressman’s office and watch from there.
Just like Amazon, where you don’t need a storefront to do business, you don’t need a Capitol building to run a country.
Hell no. Send it back to Maryland where it belongs. By the way EVEN if the capital STAYS in DC thats my solution to the idiot ” DC Statehood” issue. The Federal District, where no one lives could remain separate, and the rest of the city with the actual inhabitants would get dumped back to Maryland where it belongs….
Interesting idea, but choosing Phoenix is risky. If not for Governor Brewer and other Republicans, Arizona might soon become a Mexican territory again.
Florida is another good example. Tallahassee is very far from the center of gravity.
Arizona, Colorado and Utah are definitely exceptions, along with Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, and probably Minnesota (treating Minneapolis/St Paul as one metro area).
It’s all Maryland. The part of the original D.C. that was Virginia was returned to Virginian jurisdiction when D.C. passed that pesky “no slave trading” law.
How about a nod to modern needs? Let’s recognize the power of the bureaucracies to become a power unto themselves. Bifurcate the political and administrative functions of the government.
Keep the political capital in DC (besides, who wants to box up the Smithsonian and U-Haul it across the fruited plain?) but establish a new, secondary capital somewhere towards the geographic center of the country and systematically move the bureaucracy – and its silent power – to a location where the rest of us can keep an eye on them. This could be the administrative capital of the US.
Now, don’t be piling on. Besides, it will mess up the whole area: not just the collar counties in Michigan, but clear to Toledo as well, just as Washington covers large areas of Virginia and Maryland with government workers and other trash.
I’m liking this idea. Then, we make a limit on the number of people that a Representative can represent, say 30,000. That would make 10,000+ Representatives, and we could cut all the House staff down, since there will be plenty of them to do the actual work.
All in all, there’s something proud & reasonable in Americans’ separation of biggest city & state capitol. How long would any of you have been free otherwise? Then D.C. became a rich man’s world…
As a Phoenician I welcome the idea of constant traffic gridlock, rising cost of living and the MSNBC staff that would move to my city that as much as I welcome John McCain’s run for 68th term as a senator in 2016.
However, I take Pat’s point seriously – the coastal elitism that flows from that cocooned sleepy town never meant to be the center of the universe is long past the point of tolerable. It is close to nothing – and causes tremendous travel expense to the tax payer to get our representatives there. It is easier to strike with ICB missles than it should be, and too densely populated which creates security risks in and of itself. Many other problems exist.
Phoenix is too close to the border, and presents other national security concerns. Plus, it is not centrally located, and creates just as much travel costs as DC does.
I humbly propose, Kansas City, MO. Dead center of the United States is the most logical choice here – red state culture, blue state tendencies, easy to get to for most, equalizes the travel burden on representatives, lots of open land to build security infrastructure, harder for rogue states to hit with ICB’s, lower population that has room to grow. Plus, barbecue.
There, that’s my argument. Unless Jonah Goldberg plans on moving with the DC Capitol, in which case ignore everything I just wrote and mark me a strong “Yea” for Phoenix.
Say no more.