Did any war backfire more than the ACW?

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It may take a constitutional amendment but at least the part of making DC's representatives having voting rights in the House like those of any other district should have gathered a big consensus. It puzzles me why not, maybe it's a too red or too blue of a district, I don't know.

As to raising DC to a state-equivalent for senatorial representation purposes I don't think its size is that big of a deal because at least Wyoming is less populated than DC. That's the Brazilian (and others) solution. There are other solutions like pooling all diverse non-states in one big senatorial electoral area or just pooling the Pacific territories with Hawaii's electoral area, DC with Virginia or Maryland's area and creating a new one that pools PR with the USVI...

All this if one wants to preserve a symbolic federal capital like Falecius suggested but if more like you don't think of it as a big deal... then there you go...
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There wouldn't be a consensus on giving DC representation in the House. In any case handing the city over to Maryland or Virginia would be MUCH easier and quicker. Give one the capital and the other a couple of billion dollars in compensation.
 
Paraguayan War. The Leader of Paraguay wanted ocean access for his ports to improve his country. So he started a war to get the necessary land.

Wound up losing 60% of the total population of Paraguay in the process. Not 60% of just the army, 60% of the total population. The country was ~520,000 people, and around 300k died. The opponents only lost about a third that number.
 
Because it isn't a state. Statehood gives rights and obligations which territories don't have. Believe me the easiest, quickest, most sure way of getting DC representation is to give it to Virginia or Maryland.

Except it's not going to get handed over to either, as Virginia has no claim (they took back their part of DC in the 1840s), and Maryland doesn't want another major pocket of urban poverty that DC would be. The extra representative isn't worth it.
 
Because it isn't a state. Statehood gives rights and obligations which territories don't have. Believe me the easiest, quickest, most sure way of getting DC representation is to give it to Virginia or Maryland.
I can believe you, but it still sounds odd to me.
 
The American War of Independence. All that bother over taxation and they end up with the IRS....

Google IRS + history + founding

Independence in 1783
IRS in 1863
Allowed to expire in 1870
Re-established in 1913

133 years no income tax!:p

The trouble wasn't with taxation, so much as it was with the decision to immediately start enforcing the old anti-smuggling laws as of 1763. In two years, a massive trade imbalance flooded Britain with colonial coin, causing a deep economic depression in the American colonies. But all this money went to private British commercial interests, not the British government. Therefore, as far as Whitehall was concerned, they hadn't seen a brass farthing. So when they started clamoring for "just payment for services rendered", the economically depressed Americans completely freaked. And Sam Adams, the failed brewer and poor businessman, became a Founding Father.:rolleyes:
 
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