Happy New Year 2026!

By: Miriam Edelman

Happy New Year! It is officially 2026, a milestone year for the United States. This upcoming July, the U.S. will turn 250 years old. We will be celebrating the U.S.’s independence, which occurred after colonists were subjects of taxation without representation.

Our nation is the world’s oldest democracy. It is also the world’s sole democracy whose capital’s residents do not have voting representation in the national legislature or true home rule. As attorney Wade Henderson said:

“Voting is the language of our democracy. Without it, the citizens of the District of Columbia are the silent voice in the wilderness, spectators to democracy, right in the shadow of the very governing institutions that serve as a shining beacon to the rest of the world.”

Let’s honor patriots and colonists by ending D.C. resident’s centuries-long taxation without representation. Let’s finally fix the lack of real democracy by making D.C. a state. It is way past time.