Let’s Move the Capital. Washington, DC,
Squandered Our Trust.
The American Spectator,
by
James Piereson
Original Article
Posted By: rememberwhen,
3/19/2024 2:39:56 PM
A new capital would signify a new beginning for the nation. Everyone who has seen the play Hamilton knows that the nation’s capital was moved to the present site in the District of Columbia due to a dinner-table bargain in 1790 between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton needed Jefferson’s support in Congress to win approval for federal assumption of revolutionary war debts; in return, Jefferson wanted Hamilton’s support in moving the capital from New York City to a location nearer to the population and geographical center of the country, later carved out between the states of Maryland and Virginia.
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I was going to suggest Midway Island, it would keep the government size down...
17 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
philsner 3/19/2024 2:53:38 PM (No. 1681064)
NIMBY.
14 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Hermoine 3/19/2024 2:57:55 PM (No. 1681068)
Honestly, at almost every state capital in the country. Corruption follows greedy, self-agrandizing, power hungry politicians, lobbyists and bureacrats. Clean up the culture of government - restore it (as much as possible) to a serve as a steward of the people, and the capital will be fine. It's the people, not the location, that is the problem.
21 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Hermoine 3/19/2024 2:58:42 PM (No. 1681069)
Sorry, that should have read: Honestly, LOOK at almost every state capital in the country. Corruption follows greedy, self-agrandizing, power hungry politicians, lobbyists and bureacrats. Clean up the culture of government - restore it (as much as possible) to a serve as a steward of the people, and the capital will be fine. It's the people, not the location, that is the problem.
13 people like this.
Certainly all the bureaucracy should be decentralized. A lot of them will quit, too. They should not be replaced.
17 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
linkay6 3/19/2024 3:11:51 PM (No. 1681084)
I was going to suggest Wichita, KS. But I found Lebanon, KS is more central. Not sure their citizens would want the new capital there though.
8 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Proud Texan 3/19/2024 3:11:55 PM (No. 1681085)
I would add another thing to the discussion. People living in capital cities or metroplexes should not be allowed to vote. The ALWAYS vote to take away from the rest of the citizens they are supposed to represent and work for.
13 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
wilarrbie 3/19/2024 3:18:57 PM (No. 1681095)
Bust 'em up and put major agencies nearest the subjects they serve. And house them in abandoned Walmart facilities. No more marble/mahogany gilded posh palaces.
18 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
MarkTwain 3/19/2024 3:41:05 PM (No. 1681114)
Move it, yes. But who would take it? Any state volunteering for it should be disqualified.
8 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Safari Man 3/19/2024 3:49:39 PM (No. 1681123)
I propose moving DC about 150 miles EAST.
18 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
anniebc 3/19/2024 4:01:25 PM (No. 1681129)
Better yet, drive out all the lobbyists and politicians.
6 people like this.
As a Californian, I suggest NOT moving it here. Too much corruption and idiocy already.
I suggest Tulsa, OK. I traveled there on business and it seemed like a nice place.
This would also clear the Federales out of Occupied (Northern) Virginia.
10 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Gordon Mills 3/19/2024 4:54:49 PM (No. 1681162)
Dallas would be a very good choice.
2 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
VAPMAN 3/19/2024 5:17:50 PM (No. 1681174)
I suggest Nome Alaska. The Iditarod race can bring them their yearly COVID shot.
8 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
padiva 3/19/2024 5:18:14 PM (No. 1681175)
Northern Oklahoma would be good. Just design the Capitol area without any residences. Everyone lives in a nearby state.
Senators in one location and the congress critters in another location.
The greatly-reduced Education Dept goes to the slums of St Louis.
ICE goes to El Paso.
5 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
BarryNo 3/19/2024 5:26:15 PM (No. 1681179)
You don't have to move the capitol, just re-move every un-elected individual who lives there. DC was not meant to be a community. It was supposed to be a shrine and a place where the people's work was done.
Make every non-elective position a temporary work assignment directly responsible to an elected official. No union. Changeable at the whim of the elected official or when that official is replaced. Rotate the responsibility for security and military between the States. Turn the FBI into an agency with no power, but acts as go-between for State Law Enforcement Agencies. The CIA returns to Military Intelligence.with no permanent agents.
6 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
chumley 3/19/2024 6:16:46 PM (No. 1681198)
Build it on an active earthquake fault or at the base of a volcano.
5 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
snakeoil 3/19/2024 6:24:50 PM (No. 1681200)
Buzzards Breath, Wyoming. Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Ducktown, Tennessee. My personal choice would be Fairview, Kentucky the birthplace of our greatest president, Jefferson Davis.
4 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
SkyKing1222 3/19/2024 6:37:06 PM (No. 1681203)
As stated above, doesn’t matter where it is,
What needs to happen is to require all lobbying to be conducted inside the representative’s geographic district.
The East and populated areas would have an advantage, however, it would end the “ One Stop Shop “ of bribery.
Absolutely no lobbying in our Nation’s Capital.
3 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
jhpeters2 3/19/2024 7:26:07 PM (No. 1681228)
If Trump can't eliminate the Department of Education at least he can move the headquarters out of Washington DC to a dusty patch of Nye County Nevada, and how about moving the EPA to Barrow Alaska?
4 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Venturer 3/19/2024 7:41:18 PM (No. 1681240)
Be glad to see them move the Capitol if they move all of the gunmen and liberals with them.
3 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Krause 3/19/2024 8:16:54 PM (No. 1681258)
The D.C. area is corrupt. Too many corrupt people there for too long. If you move it it’ll get rid of the many bad guys.
4 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Geoman 3/19/2024 8:59:28 PM (No. 1681288)
Article 1 of our Constitutions states, " “...Seat of the Government of the United States” shall be a district that is at most ten square miles and separate and apart from the other “particular States." That is why MD and VA carved out DC from their particular states. If Alaska carved off one of its Aleutian Islands to create a new DC within, that would cut down on bureaucrats, Beltway bandits, career politicians, and their hangers-on in the lobbying industry.
2 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Catherine 3/19/2024 10:44:21 PM (No. 1681323)
Stop with the Oklahoma suggestions. This is a peaceful place. I think California would be perfect. It's already a big mess, no one would be able to tell the difference. Or maybe New Mexico, in an arid dry location with nothing around it for fifty miles. But Not Oklahoma.
2 people like this.
How about North Dakota. Most bureaucrats would retire or quit, rather than move there. Most congressmen would stay at home in their district more. Those lobbying would really hate going there.
2 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
skacmar 3/20/2024 12:11:23 PM (No. 1681627)
I agree with Trump's plan. Move each government department to the area of the country where their area of expertise is most relevant. It only makes sense to have the "experts" closest to the areas where they are most needed. For departments like Defense, maybe a central safe location like Colorado or some other area where there is already another a large military presence.
1 person likes this.
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Comments:
An interesting idea. One I favor. How about a new capital on the Kansas-Nebraska border? Close to the middle of the country and not in a Dem-dominated area. Let the wasteland that is DC revert to Maryland from whence it came.