Name: Jake Maccoby 

Occupation: Speechwriter; Runs communications consulting firm 

Hometown: Washington, DC 

Tell me a little bit about yourself. How long have you lived in DC? 

I was actually born in DC, but moved away when I was 3-years-old and lived overseas for awhile. I came back to DC during the summers and then came back to live here, first during the Obama administration for eight years, and then more recently, two years ago I moved back here for good. 

Why did you decide to move to DC? 

DC has always felt like home. I love DC — it’s also where I met my wife. I work in communications and politics and public service, so this was really a natural place for me, but I’ve always loved being here — this has always felt like my place, so I’m glad to be back for the long-haul. 

What do you love most about living in DC?

I could talk about DC forever! I love the history; I love that there’s so much to do; I love the food scene; I love the architecture, the green spaces, the fact that you can see the sky; I love most of all the people — DC is such a friendly, social place. There’s so many interesting people doing cool things that they’re excited to tell you about. It’s the center of everything — it’s where everything happens. But it’s also a place like any other that has cool neighborhoods, great stuff to do, and a culture that’s all its own. I have loved living here, and I’ve certainly loved being back here. 

Could you talk about your own experience being disenfranchised, or in other words, what it has been like to lose the rights you had when you were living in one of the 50 states? 

It’s not great! I’ve been disenfranchised twice — once when I moved here during the Obama administration and then again just a couple of years ago — and it’s rough. I worked on President Obama’s campaign, and then was in the Obama administration at the Department of Justice, and during both of those experiences, you’re making arguments about democracy and opportunity and justice and the basic fundamental rights that everyone in the United States should be entitled to, and then you have no representation — you have no opportunity to have a meaningful voice in the direction of the country. It’s a rough thing to experience — it’s rough for someone like me— I’ve been interested in politics and policy for as long as I can remember, and so when you’re really focused on all of these really critical issues and you talk about democracy, you think about the idea of creating a more perfect union and all this stuff, and then to be at the center of all that and then know that because you live not far from Congress and the White House, it means that you have no representation, it means that you have no autonomy, it means you have no voice in the federal government — that’s a really tough pill to swallow, especially when you’re working in situations that are all about what America is for, what America is about, what America can do, what’s extraordinary about America. When the idea of government is ‘the name we give to the things we do together,’ and then to feel like you’re shut out of that process — you lack the ability to do the things that most other citizens of the United States can do — it’s a rough feeling. 

It’s also just about autonomy. Washington, DC isn’t just the federal government — there are tons of neighborhoods and districts and areas to spend time, and people live normal lives as they do in any other part of the country — and yet because of where we live, we’re treated differently and we’re not given the opportunity to make self-governing decisions in a full and complete way. All of that is really tough — it was tough to do the first time, it was also tough to do the second time having done it before and having lived in other parts of the United States, where I did have representation, and where I did feel like my voice mattered in helping set the direction of the country. 

What does achieving statehood mean for you?

Achieving Statehood is about keeping a very basic and fundamental promise — the truth is, it’s a low bar. It seems like a big thing — creating a new state — but the reality is that it is very simple. This is just about ensuring that the 700,000 people who live in this community — an area that is more populous than two other states — have a voice, the same rights as anybody else who lives just over the border in Maryland, or Virginia, or any other state. There’s no reason that we should be locked out of the democratic process in the way that we are, there just isn’t. The bottom line is that it’s a question of what’s right and what’s wrong — are we a democracy or aren’t we? Are we people who try to create a more perfect union or aren’t we? Are we people who care about representation or not? Those aren’t hard questions — they’re pretty straightforward and they’re pretty simple, and they all end up with the same answer. What you need to be able to do is really think about these questions in a way that isn’t colored by politics and that isn’t about political maneuvering, but is just about what’s right and wrong. Is it right or is it wrong for people to be denied representation? Is it right or is it wrong for people to be able to take control over their own destiny and make decisions for their own community? Is it right or is it wrong that 700,000 people in DC are shut out of the very basic decision making mechanisms that everybody across every other state has access to? It’s a pretty simple answer. It’s just about fundamental promises, fundamental rights, and doing the right thing. 

What do you think needs to be done to get closer to achieving statehood? 

It’s really easy for folks outside DC to ignore the situation because it doesn’t impact them in a clear and tangible way on a daily basis. What people need to be able to do is to get candidates and politicians on the record in support of DC Statehood — this needs to be an issue that people talk about, that people care about — because while it may not impact folks in a tangible way on a daily basis outside of DC, it does impact the country, it does impact the way we’re able to think about ourselves and talk about ourselves. It does impact the ability of all Americans to participate in this country — you can’t have a democracy where a big chunk of people are arbitrarily shut out just because of where they live, it doesn’t work that way. It cheapens our country. It makes us unable to talk about democracy on an international stage. It doesn’t work. 

What people need to be able to do is talk to members of Congress outside of DC. If you live outside of DC, if you know people outside of DC, talk to members of Congress, talk to candidates for political office and ask them whether they’re for statehood for the District, and if not, make them tell you why not; if they are for it, make them commit to being for it, pushing for it, demanding it — that’s how we get anywhere. Ultimately, we need to get to a place where we have enough people who are on the record in Congress who are for DC Statehood, then say we have the numbers, let’s call the vote. This is what needs to happen — we need to get people to commit to being for DC Statehood, we need to get them to explain why they’re not for it if they say they’re not, and we need to support people who are for it to make sure that we get a critical mass. Most of all, we need to keep this as a part of the conversation — this needs to be a necessary policy that people talk about and care about. We talk about social issues, we talk about the economy, we talk about healthcare — there are all sorts of issues that are evergreen, things that matter to people everyday — this needs to be one of those things; make people talk about it, make people take a stand. When folks are in a position to do something about it, make them do something about it. This is all very doable, it’s not hard! We can do this, but we need people to commit to doing it, we need people to talk about it, we need people to be on the record in favor of it before we can make this thing happen. 

Is there anything else you would like to say? 

The bottom line is just that there is no legitimate reason to be against statehood. There are political considerations, there are angles, but there is no good reason to be against it. It’s a civil rights issue, it’s an issue of democracy, it’s an issue of right and wrong — there’s one correct side here, and statehood is it. That’s my take, but ultimately, if we’re going to call ourselves a democracy, if we’re going to look at ourselves as a democracy, if we’re going to feel good about the state of our democracy, then we need to make sure that democracy is available to everybody.