Unfortunately, I increasingly find myself wondering if Republican legislators are attempting to troll their Democratic colleagues and the press, or if they are simply not educated in basic civics.
For the uninitiated, trolling is the deliberate act of saying or posting something controversial with the intent of upsetting others.
Following a House hearing on D.C. statehood, South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds (R) expressed his objection to D.C. statehood tweeting, “The Founding Fathers never intended for Washington D.C. to be a state.”
Of course, the Founding Fathers never envisioned the State of South Dakota, either. Long after all the Founding Fathers were dead, South Dakota was admitted to the Union in 1889.
As a United States Senator should know, the 13 original states, based off the first 13 British colonies, were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
A United States Senator should also know that the Founding Fathers only allowed for white men to hold power. While some of the Founding Fathers may have wrestle with the concept of slavery, there is no doubt that most of them owned slaves and all of them allowed slavery to persist and grow.
While it is undoubtedly true that the Founding Fathers were visionaries and created the groundwork for the America we know today, they made many decision based on sexism and racism that resulted in immeasurable suffering and death.
If Senator Rounds was being transparent, he would admit he is against D.C. statehood because he knows the Republican Party of today can not win on the issues. Instead of doing the hard work of convincing voters that Republicans have the best ideas to make America continue to grow and prosper, Senator Rounds wants to prevent more Black and Brown American citizens from voting.
According to the latest census figures, D.C. is almost 50% Black and around 11% Hispanic, compared to South Dakota which is around 2% Black and 4% Hispanic.
If Senator Rounds wants to spend his time antagonizing the left and engaging in virtue signaling, he should resign from the Senate and join Fox News as a contributor. In the meantime, he should focus on doing the job he was elected to do by working with his colleagues to make American a more equitable and just union.
Comments