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The Laboratories of Democracy: US state and local politics

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    The Laboratories of Democracy: US state and local politics

    The title comes from a famous Justice Brandeis opinion that counseled a certain deference by the Supreme Court to laws passed by the states, given their ability to pioneer legislation that proved useful.

    Let's start with Idaho

    https://twitter.com/1oldmaid/status/1445586906566127620?s=20
    Last edited by ursus arctos; 06-10-2021, 12:34.

    #2
    Ordered the national guard to the southern border of Idaho? The border with Utah?

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      #3
      The Mexican border (which Idaho of course doesn't have).

      Comment


        #4
        Meanwhile the governor of Arizona has been forbidden from using federal pandemic funding to fund anti-masking programs!

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          #5
          Our putz of a mayor

          https://twitter.com/reuvenblau/status/1446266163579719680?s=21

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            #6
            In the OP, how did you manage to make that tweet link so when I clicked it it took me away from this site, ua? That never happens, always opens a new window.

            (Why should De Blasio pay for police protection?)

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              #7
              1) No idea. When I click on it, it opens a new tab. I thought that behaviour is controlled by browser settings.

              2) He doesn't pay for police protection when he is on city business or on holiday. The established rule is that "spending a month in Iowa in a quixotic quest for the Democratic nomination for President" is neither.

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                #8
                The term that comes to mind for him is doofus. It just fits so well.

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                  #9
                  We voted today (as we aren't sure that we will be in the city on Election Day), and I thought it might be interesting to others to see what choices were on the ballot in NYC in an "off year" election (i.e., one in which only local offices are being filled, no Senators, no Congresspeople, etc.)

                  The offices being contested are:

                  Mayor, Comptroller, and Public Advocate - all of which are city-wide races and will be won by the Democratic nominee easily

                  Borough President and District Attorney - borough (county)-wide races that will be won by the Democratic nominee easily

                  City Council Member (one of 51) - a Democrat who held the seat for years is running to fill it again and is virtually unopposed

                  Civil Court Judges - three candidates for three seats - the Civil Court is the trial court for relatively small non-criminal matters (involving USD 25,000 or less)

                  Supreme Court Judges - two candidates for two seats - the Supreme Court is (confusingly) the trial court of first instance for primarily civil and (some) criminal matters; it is not an appellate court

                  Five ballot proposals - Redistricting, Adding Environmental Provisions to the State Constitution, Liberalising Voter Registration, Liberalising Absentee Voting and Increasing the Civil Court's threshold to USD 50,000

                  No one is going to stay up late to find out the results on the first Tuesday in November, but we will have our second Black mayor.

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                    #10
                    Staten Island is ever more a place apart

                    https://twitter.com/samuelsokol/status/1455865333898780676?s=21

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                      #11
                      https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1455732488697958402?s=21

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                        #12
                        OK. Let’s keep this out of the Biden thread.

                        The Virginia result is bad for Democrats given that Virginia has trended blue recently. But it’s not nearly as bad as made out, just because of where Virginia sits in the electoral cycle. Also, it’s bad for Virginians, but not utterly disastrous because Terry McAuliffe shouldn’t have been running and the odds are that Youngkin will have a self-preservation instinct and will probably govern more like a Larry Hogan (if not a Phil Scott or Charlie Baker) Republican, rather than like, say, a Greg Abbott one.

                        New Jersey looks close now, but will probably finish with a fairly comfortable win for the Democrat - it looks like outstanding votes are all going to lean Democratic. If you were judging by Biden’s 2020 numbers it will look bad, but again this is a state where no Democrat governor has won re-election for a very long time.

                        The Boston result is good, I think. The most bizarre thing is that whoever won wasn’t going to be a grizzled machine politician (male) of Irish heritage, who’s paid his dues figuratively, and literally in hand-outs to various mobsters around the city. Boston is changing.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post

                          could ye give Staten Island to New Jersey or summat?

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                            #14
                            We've tried.

                            Though their joining New Jersey would make the chance of NJ electing Republican Senators considerably more likely than it is now, which would be bad for everyone.

                            As it is, they have their little reactionary exclave that has very little influence on life outside its borders.

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                              #15
                              The Boston result is encouraging for exactly those reasons, but it also demonstrates that the city's politics are a generation behind the city's reality when it comes to change.

                              The GOP also looks likely to have taken back control of the Virginia lower house, though the upper house remains Democratic, which likely means gridlock.

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                                #16
                                The DSA appear to have made slight progress in various municipal contests, particularly Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, but Buffalo demonstrates the challenges faced in relation to the overall party machinery.

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                                  #17
                                  The "DSA means uncontrolled criminal mayhem in the streets" line of nonsense has proven to be very effective in a number of places

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                                    #18
                                    There were a number of interesting state and city ballot, particularly in policing matters - is there a site that gives a round up for all of these, UA?
                                    I see Larry Krasner got re-elected - I missed that he'd won the primary, which was the real election.

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                                      #19
                                      Ballotpedia is your best bet for comprehensive coverage

                                      https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page

                                      Ballot Measure summary

                                      https://ballotpedia.org/2021_ballot_...ection_results
                                      Last edited by ursus arctos; 03-11-2021, 15:42.

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                                        #20
                                        It does seem that outside of the most liberal places, the New Culture War arguments appear to be making some headway among people who don't understand them. The two strands now are "The communists have taken over schools and are teaching Critical Race Theory which is something about making everyone hate white people but I can't precisely pin it down" and "liberals want to completely disband and remove all law enforcement and leave us in a world of lawless chaos".

                                        The first one appears to have been particularly strong in Virginia where McAuliffe made what seems to me to be an uncontroversial statement - parents shouldn't dictate what schools teach, that should be done by schools - and was twisted into people believing that taking parents out of school curriculums would leave them free to train the stormtroopers for the upcoming race war.

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                                          #21
                                          The problem is that the nonsensical caricatures are very useful in motivating the reactionary base and scaring a few "moderates", while opposition to them is not similarly motivating for opponents.

                                          Thus the turnout differences that decided the Virginia Governor's race.

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                                            #22
                                            The worrying turnout thing from Virginia is that it was a high turnout election (for an odd-year gubernatorial race). If high turnout races are bad for Democrats that means that Trump's absence from the ballot isn't driving down engagement from the Trumpy Base. In some ways, that's my biggest negative takeaway from last night.

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                                              #23
                                              Terry McAuliffe is a complete zero, though. You'd have to think Northam would have retained the governorship.

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                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                                The "DSA means uncontrolled criminal mayhem in the streets" line of nonsense has proven to be very effective in a number of places
                                                what this probably does best is convince Republicans to hold their nose and vote Brown, who they probably hate in every other circumstance (not least given that he’s corrupt as shit). He already has 5,000 more votes than he got in 2017 and Mail-ins haven’t even been counted yet.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by Discordant Resonance View Post
                                                  The DSA appear to have made slight progress in various municipal contests, particularly Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, but Buffalo demonstrates the challenges faced in relation to the overall party machinery.
                                                  And Somerville, MA. I think half the city council are DSA members now, which gives me some pleasure given my estranged cousin, who thinks I’m worse than Hitler for listening to Chapo Trap House, lives there.

                                                  But this is the problem, you can’t do crap without local organisation and the Democratic hierarchy is going to protect their turf. Brown’s almost certainly won, sad to say he was completely right to just ignore the primary vote as 10,000 cranks.

                                                  Socialists are going to need to figure out how to square this circle. I don’t think there’s one magic solution.

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