If I may add, the partisan composition of state legislatures over the last 40-50 years has also slid from under the feet of Democrats. IMO, the acts of SCOTUS, the acts of Trump, the acts of the McConnell Senate, the disfunction of the House, they all emanate from the cratering of Democratic majorities in rural seats in multiple state le…
If I may add, the partisan composition of state legislatures over the last 40-50 years has also slid from under the feet of Democrats. IMO, the acts of SCOTUS, the acts of Trump, the acts of the McConnell Senate, the disfunction of the House, they all emanate from the cratering of Democratic majorities in rural seats in multiple state legislatures since the 1970s (thanks in part to the flight toward car-dependent suburbs in the South), as well as the comparative lack of safeguards against gerrymandering until very recently. Democrats have not held the national majority of legislative seats nor legislative chambers since 2010, which was the second time since the end of WWII that Democrats lost that majority.
Nonpartisan redistricting by the states has arrived too little and too late to stop the smash-and-grab raid on federal institutions in the short or middle term, but wherever and however it becomes possible in the short term (like Wisconsin and hopefully Ohio), it may start to curb the rot at the state level where it first started. The resolution will take years, perhaps going into the next decade to resolve.
Finally, going back to the shifting of population from the North to the South, I personally subscribe to the belief that we should be relocating away from the South and toward swing states with a history of organized labor and democratic elasticity, as well as advocating for said blue and purple states to legalize upzoning and allow for housing construction. I say this, btw, as a Georgia resident since 1993.
So I agree that organized labor is extremely key as an institution which must be resolved to creatively challenge government and corporate power, and that both the institutions of federal government as well as the pure insistence upon voting are likely dead to us in the short term. We should be creative in addressing this tyranny, and our creativity should start at the state level: not just voting with our ballots, not just signing petitions, but also helping each other vote with our feet.
If I may add, the partisan composition of state legislatures over the last 40-50 years has also slid from under the feet of Democrats. IMO, the acts of SCOTUS, the acts of Trump, the acts of the McConnell Senate, the disfunction of the House, they all emanate from the cratering of Democratic majorities in rural seats in multiple state legislatures since the 1970s (thanks in part to the flight toward car-dependent suburbs in the South), as well as the comparative lack of safeguards against gerrymandering until very recently. Democrats have not held the national majority of legislative seats nor legislative chambers since 2010, which was the second time since the end of WWII that Democrats lost that majority.
Nonpartisan redistricting by the states has arrived too little and too late to stop the smash-and-grab raid on federal institutions in the short or middle term, but wherever and however it becomes possible in the short term (like Wisconsin and hopefully Ohio), it may start to curb the rot at the state level where it first started. The resolution will take years, perhaps going into the next decade to resolve.
Finally, going back to the shifting of population from the North to the South, I personally subscribe to the belief that we should be relocating away from the South and toward swing states with a history of organized labor and democratic elasticity, as well as advocating for said blue and purple states to legalize upzoning and allow for housing construction. I say this, btw, as a Georgia resident since 1993.
So I agree that organized labor is extremely key as an institution which must be resolved to creatively challenge government and corporate power, and that both the institutions of federal government as well as the pure insistence upon voting are likely dead to us in the short term. We should be creative in addressing this tyranny, and our creativity should start at the state level: not just voting with our ballots, not just signing petitions, but also helping each other vote with our feet.