I have hazy childhood memories of the Nixon administration, and Reagan was president when I was in high school, so it still seems somewhat miraculous to me that the California Republican Party imploded so thoroughly in a relatively short timeframe. I mean, y’all elect your odd Ahnold, but the state seems admirably resistant to actual fascists, and I respect that. Ever since, I’ve hoped the national Republican Party would follow the Golden State trajectory to relative electoral irrelevance.
I’m aware there are still lots of Republicans in California. Emperor Tang got twice as many votes in California than he did in Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi combined. The state contributes odious nitwits like Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunes to the federal government. But the Trump cult doesn’t hold sway, so such irritants can be managed, sort of like a recurring rash.
Not so in the failed state of Florida, where the scale of the governor’s pandemic mismanagement is coming into view (60K+ dead) and being met mostly with yawns, as far as I can tell. [NYT]
Almost entirely along party lines, Republicans passed four bills on Wednesday to curtail mask and vaccine mandates, the culmination of a three-day special legislative session that Mr. DeSantis called so swiftly it caught even Republican leaders by surprise. The session was urgently needed to combat federal government overreach, Mr. DeSantis argued…
Critics of the governor have said that his fight against mandates resulted in needless deaths. Florida experienced its worst daily death tolls during this year’s summer surge, when vaccines were already widely available.
As cases spiked, Mr. DeSantis fought local school districts and governments that required masks or vaccines, withholding funds, fining them or taking them to court. (Most school districts have now loosened their mask restrictions, in light of the falling virus levels.)
Now DeSantis and his army of sycophants are demanding credit for the falling caseloads, like arsonists pointing to the smoking stumps of a burned-out forest and aggressively requiring praise for saving the trees. And it seems to be working.
It’s not because DeSantis or Florida Republicans have a great communication strategy. The governor’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, is a giggling internet troll who tweets anti-Semitic memes, incites online mobs to harass reporters and tweets and retweets childish bullshit like this for $120K per year:
This isn’t the first time these clowns have gone to the “Brandon” well either. They probably arranged travel to that Tampa suburb today to conduct official business solely because the word “Brandon” gives the MAGAs a transgressive thrill. It’s government by feral middle-school mean kids.
I hope America follows the path of California, but I fear it could faceplant like Florida. Let my failed state be a cautionary tale, fellow citizens, because for all our faults, damn it, we deserve better. Open thread.
laura
As goes California, so goes the nation.
Llelldorin
Speaking as a Californian, we had a few things going for us:
Leto
(WaPo) Trump’s Bureau of Land Management HQ move reduced Black employees, created mass vacancies, report says; Government Accountability Office report also finds headquarters move to Colorado led to ‘confusion and inefficiency’ at BLM
Eolirin
Well, for what it’s worth, rising sea levels will more or less take care of the entirety of Florida in the next, 50 or so years? Give or take. And pretty unavoidably too given how the water seeps up through the ground
Hopefully this doesn’t also become a metaphor for the rest of the country.
bbleh
@laura: I tend to agree. California looks more like the future of the US than Florida does.
Almost Retired
@Llelldorin: Yes, all of this. And not to mention the rapid demographic changes since the 80’s, including the ongoing exodus of grouchy old white people to other states. When it comes to some of our exports, we’re not sending our best. Although some of them, I assume, are good people.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That can’t be understated. Just about ever politician the Cal GOP coughs up and the best can be described as “useless”. That Recall was the Republicans chance to show if they had some serious Republican being blocked in the primaries for not being crazy enough and they had nothing.
Just going by what I saw in the 80s and 90s in Cal the GOP will dominate these other states until enough shoes drop that it sinks in how useless the Republicans are and that will be it for Republicans.
schrodingers_cat
Are they 5? If they want to say Biden, just say it, what is this Brandon nonsense.
Old School
Obviously, we should abolish Florida and transfer all assets, liabilities, and revenue to the United States.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: They make me sick.
Eolirin
@schrodingers_cat: It’s another way to signal belonging to the in group, which is what they’re primarily interested in. Knowing the coded language creates belonging with the cult
ural group. That it creates separation with the rest of society is a large part of the point.EtA:fixed that for myself
sab
@bbleh: That’s not how it feels in Ohio.
In a plebiscite we overwhelmingly passed an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment. The Republican party hacks completely ignored its mechanisms and procedures and came up with their own redistricting plans. The governor and sec of state said it was awful and probably illegal but they signed on with it anyway. It is now going before the legislature but the vote is stalled because enough of the legislators want to hold it hostage to a vote on a bill to abolish all vax mandates in the state.
Sure Lurkalot
I think of 60,000 dead (likely many more if counted) their friends and family, and wonder how their collective karmic pain and suffering hasn’t rained down on the heads of these so-called leaders who kicked them to the curb.
I think I would get a religion if there was smiting. Because I’m at the point where it’s hard to fathom that these people will not pay, and will likely be rewarded, for their malevolence.
LeftCoastYankee
Republican discourse: variations on responding “I know you are but what am I” and yelling “Doody!” loudly.
Kay
@sab:
Mission accomplished for the anti-vaxx idiots- the return of devastating infectious disease outbreaks in children.
We’re not even close to the total death toll. There’s the covid death toll and then the effects of the anti-vaxx covid idiots as that spreads to all vaccines. Think of it as the coming second wave.
TriassicSands
I’ve never been able to understand why anyone wants to live in Florida.
lowtechcyclist
No, far from it.
Yes, the coasts are going to get hit hard. But take Plant City, where my in-laws live. It’s about 45 minutes from Tampa airport, and it’s 128 feet above sea level, according to Wikipedia. So plenty of Florida will be well above the effects of sea level rise for the rest of this century.
The inland portion of the state, along with much of the Southeast, probably should be more concerned with wet bulb temperatures – that as heat and humidity both increase, the climate becomes unlivable for humans.
Eolirin
@Kay: You know I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t just rigid adherence a to an insane ideology but also a concerted strategy to consolidate power by driving everyone sensible out of their states.
Betty Cracker
@Sure Lurkalot: Exactly! DeSantis very publicly and aggressively tried to prevent schools from protecting children and teachers in the middle of a deadly outbreak. He dictated terms to private businesses to prevent them from protecting employees and customers, etc. Maybe he’ll pay a political price — I’m certainly not giving up. But it sure doesn’t look like this horrendous behavior is hurting him much with voters so far. It’s appalling.
Basilisc
Wow, I bet Florida Democrats are (privately) exulting at this huge opportunity. The opposition party, very publicly, in lockstep, badly mishandled a major public health crisis, resulting in thousands of needless deaths, and heavy-handedly intervened in local decision making to kill yet more people. Democrats must be licking their chops at the electoral windfall this is sure to reap them next year! All they have to do is get the word out, knock on doors, keep repeating the same key talking points about Republican incompetence and maliciousness in every available local, state and national forum.
Right? Right?
Or is the learned helplessness just too strong?
VOR
In Minnesota the DOD is sending medical teams to help with a COVID surge which has filled hospitals. Meanwhile the Governor (D) is unwilling to declare new health emergency rules out of fear of GQP pushback, including firing the Health Commissioner. One of the GQP candidates for the 2022 Governors race was a big COVID disinformation source.
bbleh
@sab: Oh when I say “future” I mean a generation from now — I’m basically referring to demographics. Ohio — like PA and WV, from where I most recently hail — skews older and whiter, not unlike a big chunk of the part-time residents of FL, and to my mind, that demographic, while still dominant in some places, is slowly but inexorably fading away, (which IMO is one reason they’re such rage junkies — it’s existential).
Old Man Shadow
Judging Republicans by their actions, it’s clear that human life has no value to them other than as a resource to make money or gain power.
bbleh
@lowtechcyclist: Also diseases, severe storms, and agricultural losses, including in areas still above sea level but where ocean water has infiltrated ground water.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Texas sure seems that way, they would rather burn the state to the ground than be part of the 21st Century.
El Fug
@Llelldorin: I agree with your points. Additionally, our demographics in California are different than most other states. I’d have to look at a state-by-state comparison, but, at least here in Los Angeles, the stunning diversity of people and culture that are just a normal, ho-hum aspect of the place seems pertinent (and, yes, I’m aware of de facto segregation issues and wealth disparity, etc., but, in a sense, focusing *exclusively* on those realities precludes our seeing the forest for the trees).
Frank Wilhoit
@bbleh: People vote their age more than their experience. The worst troublemakers right now are superannuated hippies. Here is a capsule history of the corresponding soundbite, which has been used in all places and times but which modern Anglophones have been accustomed to attribute (wrongly) to Winston Churchill.
In other words, if old people are a problem, it is because there are too many of them, not because these here particular old people right now are uniquely bloody-minded.
gvg
@TriassicSands:
And don’t understand why people want to live elsewhere. I have been to 47 states and enjoyed most of them but I would not want to live there. Even California was to cold and dry. I hate our politics but I love my place. Its home, and I think it is beautiful and mostly comfortable. I really dislike cold, cannot tolerate it so most of the country is a no go. By all accounts my Massachusetts irish grandfather agreed, which is why we are here. I think being poor in a cold climate must have been brutal.
It’s a good thing people don’t all want exactly the same place to live or it would be too crowded.
I also can’t explain why the democratic party imploded here around the 90’s. It used to be better.
VeniceRiley
Future wife boosted yesterday and is flying Saturday. The TSA story in the Covid: An Anne Laurie Saga
is giving me conniptions for her getting out of customs unscathed. But at least she has a few days under her belt. And she’ll be the max 2 weeks (and my wife!) by the time we drive to Utah to meet the fam. My 99 year old mother is too fragile to travel. I’m not going anywhere indoors in Utah other than my sister’s house. because I am fully confident that, post thanksgiving, it will be a shitshow there.
cain
@Betty Cracker:
It’s because it seems Floridian rather be out and pandemic be damned. If a mutation is going to happen, it’s going to happen in Florida. In which case it will spread everywhere.
ETA – #30!!! WOWzers!!! The math is 2×15, which gives me the magic #2!
Cameron
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, as far as social skills, they are about 5.
gvg
@Basilisc:
What democratic party? I think there may just be too few left in the organization to take advantage. There are actual democrats running for things, but there doesn’t seem to be a party structure.
Omnes Omnibus
@Frank Wilhoit: My understanding is that there is no evidence that people become more conservative as they age. Instead, for most, the political belief of their youth continue throughout life.
cain
@VeniceRiley:
Congratuations on your upcoming nuptials! :-)
Speaking of which, I’m getting married on Sunday – it’s going to be a Hindu like ceremony, and then a registered court thing later followed by a reception next year.
Ruckus
@Llelldorin:
Decent summary of CA politics of the era.
The biggest thing is that we’ve had a number of decent people in politics and it’s obvious that the democratic way works. It of course takes effort and work but it produces better results, especially as a number of issues work here to somewhat work that out. The population means we are crowded most everywhere but there are good jobs and that is important because it means that while it is expensive it isn’t as expensive as say NYC. It doesn’t snow in most of the state (the populated areas) for months of the year, and having lived in snow country for a decade, yes there is a difference. As a native of CA and having traveled all over this country I can say, there are a lot of nice places to live, but. This is, even with the population, better than many. And the politics is one of the reasons.
zhena gogolia
@VeniceRiley:
@cain: Congratulations to both of you!
VeniceRiley
By the way, the nation has already followed California. It just doesn’t count because of state lines and gerrymandering. That’s why we always have to win by a margin greater than +7%. It’s minority rule, and they’re not shy about abusing power over the majority. Now the idealouges have the courts, and we are in for danger.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Basilisc: Much shorter you: “Why can’t the Democrats make stupid people smart?”
Anotherlurker
@TriassicSands: I tried living in Fl., Bradenton, for 3 years. I thought that the excellent fishing, good SCUBA Diving and fascinating wildlife would be enough for me to grow to like it.
However, when a retiree, someone in my own age group, sidled beside me on the bow of a party fishing boat and asked if he could fish beside me because there were too many “N words” fishing in the stern I knew I made a massive life choice mistake. This was 6 weeks after I moved in to my Bradenton apt.
I tried and tried to make Florida work for me. However, after 3 years of disappointing encounters with bible thumpers, rednecks, gun humpers, religious door knockers and asshole mid-western retirees, I couldn’t take it anymore.
So, during my 3rd outbreak of facial Shingles, brought on by stress, I packed up my car and at the urging of my oldest friend in the world (since Kindergarten!). I moved to the SF Bay Area.
In spite of the expensive housing and the horrible, inhumane, homeless situation, I have never doubted decision.
I recovered my health and revived my career on a part time basis. I still work at a career that I excelled at for 40+ years. I am enjoying myself.
sab
@gvg: My firm belief is that migrants from the Midwest is what ruined Florida politics.
brendancalling
Someone on one of Marsha Blackburn’s threads tried pulling the “let’s go Brandon” thing on me. I just called them a bunch of dorks who think they’re speaking a secret code, and that they’re the kind of people I would have thrown into a locker during high school, or would have beaten up for their lunch money. That’s what they are, though—a bunch of fucking nerds.
Interestingly, there wasn’t a lot of pushback, because every time one of the droolers lobbed it at me, I just responded with “nerd,” and it stopped pretty quickly. Almost as if they KNOW they’re a bunch of loser nerd dorks who deserve to be violently robbed of their lunch money and stuffed into the nearest gym locker til the janitor finds them two hours after the last bell rang.
Llelldorin
@Basilisc: I’ve noticed that about 2/3 of the time when I think “Why don’t the Democrats just say XYZZY,” when I check they’ve been saying nothing else for months, and have also been running xyzzy.org, and the media has just decided that it isn’t nearly as newsworthy as some parakeet that looks like Elvis.
cain
@Omnes Omnibus:
My theory is that – for the past 3 decades, we’ve had very rapid societal changes that might be harder for some older folks and are left behind. Easy prey for propagandists.
I mean just in the past decade we’ve even been changing how we identify by pronouns. Just fascinating.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: I could never choose to live someplace that doesn’t have snow. And, just in case you want to explain that it is different as you get older, I’ll offer my parent’s who are older than you and feel the same way.
brendancalling
@gvg: That’s how I feel about Nashville. I live in Vermont now, and other than finally being able to see my son on the regular, I truly regret moving to this place.
jonas
I’m just trying to wrap my head around how *tens of thousands of people dying* gets pretty much a collective shrug in a place like FL. Was it all just old people nobody gave a shit about anyway? Were all the deaths concentrated in one region so that 90% of the state’s population doesn’t really know anyone who got sick and died? Do people figure even if their grandparents, an uncle and two cousins succumbed to Covid, it’s still not a big deal? If a bunch of relatives and friends of *mine* died due to the political malpractice of the governor, I’d be pretty damn pissed. But that’s me, and I’m no Florida man, apparently.
sab
@cain: I’m in my late sixties and my husband is seventy. He keeps in touch with his old classmates, most of whom he has known since early childhood. Since we are urban they are almost all Democrats and kind of leftish, even the cops. Every last one of the RWNJs moved down South a generation ago.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain: I remember a conversation with one of my grandfathers who noted that he was born before the Wright brothers flew their first airplane and lived to see men walk on the moon. I don’t buy that this generation of old people switched their politics. I think that the focus was on left wing hippies when they were young, but that, in the end, there weren’t really that many of them. The right leaning olds now were right leaning youth then; they just didn’t get the media attention.
Cameron
@jonas: A lot of the Olds are transplants from the North; they’ve had their shots and don’t give a fuck about anybody else – vote Republican and keep taxes low. I also think the folks who believe that COVID is a hoax/Deep State attack/some other Q garbage are overrepresented here – DeSantis is The Man!
SiubhanDuinne
@VeniceRiley:
@cain:
Huge congratulations to you both, not to mention your future spouses (spice?) Happy happy.
GoBlueInOak
A lotta takes on “why does California now vote Blue” like to trot out the “Wilson and Prop 187” shibboleth but its mostly not true. And it requires zooming the lens closer than “why did CA start voting Blue for President”.
Much like the GOP takeover of our national politics, you gotta focus on the state legislature – and in particular an election that took place well over a century ago – the Election of 1958. Heading into that election, the GOP controlled both branches of the state leg AND every statewide office (Gov, Lt Gov, Treasurer, Controller, Sec of State) – a SOLID Republican state. With one exception: Attorney General – the only Democratic held statewide office – whose occupant was one Pat Brown (AKA Jerry’s dad).
AG Pat Brown would run for Governor in the 1958 election and completely run the tables – both houses of the state leg became Democratic controlled, and every statewide office would flipped to Blue, with exception of Sec of State which was held by Frank Jordan who’d eventually die in office like 10 years later, to be succeeded by…Jerry Brown.
Anyways, after the flip of ’58, Democrats controlled both house of the state leg from then to the present day with only a very small handful of blips: GOP would take both Houses in 68 when Ronald Reagan was elected Governor, but that only last a single two-year term, before Democrats took back both houses. And then State Senate flipped to GOP for a single two-year cycle in middle of Pete Wilson’s governorship. Other than that, Dems ran the leg going back to ’58.
In terms of statewide offices (not including Governor), Dems also generally won those offices far, far, far more than GOP candidates, with a periodic GOP rando taking some statewide office for a short period.
In Governor, prior to Jerry Brown’s second stint in the Horseshoe, it was indeed the usual ping pong Blue to Red to Blue, etc thing that is not at all that uncommon in a lot of states that otherwise have a heavy partisan lean. Much like President, voters like seem to like randomly flipping back and forth for chief executive.
And this all percolates UP over time. The US Senate seat currently held by Alex Padilla has been held by a Democrat since 1968. Over that same time period, the seat currently held by Feinstein has been held by a Democrat for 2/3 of that time period.
And since 1958 – the year Pat Brown turned California Blue – the majority of US House seats in California have been held by Democrats, with the exception of a single two year term when it was 50/50 in 1996-98.
Did Prop 187 help turn California even MORE solidly Blue, such that we now have Democratic supermajorities in our State Leg and the CA State GOP is basically a total and not just a partial joke? Sure. But is it the entire story? No. Is it even the central story? No.
And in addition to the story of Pat Brown – there’s a whole other equally interesting phenomenom of “why do White people in California vote differently than White people elsewhere?”
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article119870398.html
C Stars
@jonas: I think they just see it as inevitable. I am acquainted with a couple of older Floridians (parents of a friend) and they are Evangelicals who just always vote for Republicans. There really isn’t any critical analysis of how they are being served by these politicians; it’s just what their church tells them to do so they do it. They’re not bad people, but they are looking for the easiest path in terms of how they think about the world. When Hurricane Maria/Trump incompetence devastated their home country, when their friends die of Covid…it’s just a sad thing that happened. Nothing that could have prevented any of it.
VeniceRiley
@cain: That sound lovely! We aren’t having a crowd either. It’s just not safe. Perhaps when I get to England we can gather a reception. Congrats to you!
UncleEbeneezer
@Anotherlurker: I don’t think CA is much different from FL once you get away from the cities and their major suburbs. But our elected officials and governance are better. The people though, just as much trash as anywhere else. I think it’s really more a matter of distribution rather than quality that makes differences between states. And of course states that elect people like DeSantis/Abbott, the people feel emboldened to let their racism flags fly rather than keep it more on the down-low.
Phylllis
@Anotherlurker: Bradenton is my hometown. I haven’t lived there in over thirty years. When I was home about ten years ago for my high school reunion, I was riding around town with a couple of classmates, reminiscing, you know, ‘I remember this, I remember that’. My contribution was “Oh yeah, I remember now. I hate it here.”
lowtechcyclist
@Frank Wilhoit:
@Omnes Omnibus:
This. The hippies and protesters of the 1960s were a very visible minority, but we were a minority of our generation.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
You used the right word, nonsense. And yes they are like a school room of 5 yr olds, with parents who don’t actually give a hot damn about them because mentally they aren’t much older than 5 themselves. Governing is actual work, has a purpose other than collecting a paycheck, is an actual responsibility, it’s not being Jr HS class president. It has actual consequences. Like tens of thousands of deaths that could mostly be avoided. Sure we’ve had a lot of Covid deaths in CA, more than there should be. But FL has 21.5 million population, CA has 39.5 million. Covid deaths FL 60,486, CA 73,614. FL death rate is .3 percent, CA .2 percent. A 50 percent difference in a pandemic deaths. That is not insignificant. For all his BS he’s killed 50 percent more people, he’s responsible for that.
CaseyL
Wow! Two weddings among the Jackalariat! Congratulations, @VeniceRiley: and @cain: !
Regarding the politics of GQP-dominated states… well, there seem to be many different varieties of Why and How Long, Oh, Lord.
Many of those states (OK, NE, IN, and the Deep South) seem to me the kinds of places where the best and brightest young people leave. Moribund economies, bad infrastructure, lousy education, why stay if you have a chance to leave? So the ones remaining become a more concentrated variety of insular and stupid. They’re going to become what they were before FDR: backwaters, albeit dangerous and predatory backwaters.
Texas and Florida are anomalous to me because they have decent economies and are attracting new residents.
The idea that Texas would have turned Blue long ago but for gerrymandering and voter suppression – I’m not sure how true this is, considering what I’ve heard about large swaths of the Latino demographic, which seems to be genuinely Right Wing. (The long-time Latinos regard themselves, and seem to be regarded, as “white,” politically.) Plus a lot of the Californians moving there seem to be moving there because California is thoroughly Democratic and Texas is Right Wing; IOW, they want Texas to stay Texas, and have no interest in changing it to be more like California.
(This also seems to be the case for many of the people relocating from places like Washington, New York, and other mostly-Democratic states to places like Idaho and the Carolinas: they want the “conservatism” as much if not more than they want the lower cost of living.)
Florida suffers from a bit of that same phenomenon, people moving there because they know they can let their bigoted, ignorant freak flags fly, plus “nice” weather (if you like heat and humidity), plus lower housing costs. Add to that the RWNJs moving in from Central and South America, primed to respond to the Socialist oogabooga, and I don’t see Florida going Blue any time before global climate change washes away its coastal cities (and certainly not after!).
IOW, like is relocating to like. The personal is political, and vice versa, on a really huge scale.
Maybe BiF and BBB will make a difference, but the issue is social and religious as much as it is economic, so who knows.
Ruckus
@Old Man Shadow:
BINGO!
Don Quijote
@Basilisc:
It makes no difference…
What you don’t seem to understand is that the “tears of a liberal” are the world’s most valuable commodity as far as they are concerned.
Ohio Mom
@sab: You beat me to this. We Ohioans were quite clear that we wanted an end to gerrymandering and our vote meant nothing. The implications of our vote being completely ignored are scary.
For those living in other states, the law is, If Democrats do not approve the new district map, it can only be in force for four years instead of ten.
Whoop-de-do. Thanks to how much it is gerrymandered, the state legislature will be just as Republican in four years, when they can produce yet another gerrymandered map — and correct any inadvertent “mistakes” they made the first time.
I’m not even sure a Democrat in the governor’s office would help this — it could be that any veto could be overidden by the overwhelmingly Republican statehouse.
lowtechcyclist
@gvg:
There’s got to be some sort of official party structure, even if there are hardly any people manning it anymore. But if that’s the case, you and a handful of like-minded people could start showing up at whatever meetings they still have, and take it over.
I doubt that’s the reality, though – but it might be possible at the county level. Attend a meeting or two, and see!
Geminid
@GoBlueInOak: I associate Pat Brown with the increased development of California’s higher educational institutions. This may well account for it’s successful tech industry. I remember reading voter analyses in the 1970’s that showed a tendency for more of the college educated to vote Republican instead of Democratic. I think this has reversed now, and some political scientists use this as a factor in their election modeling. Do you think that factor contributes to Democratic strength in your state?
thalarctosMaritimus
@cain: Congratulations! Wishing you all happiness!
Ohio Mom
@zhena gogolia: Second on the congrats — wishing all four of you every happiness and the fortitude you’ll need for the inevitable rough spots. Health and prosperity too!
thalarctosMaritimus
@VeniceRiley: Congratulations! May you have love and joy together for many years to come.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It’s also Cal business have embraced racism is bad for business. Work is a bigger part of people lives than politics. That’s like to push Texas to the blue too, my sister works remotely for a company in Texas and they’ve been counseling the wingnuts about zipping it at work.
Ruckus
@gvg:
Because CA used to be a republican stronghold. Ronnie, Arnold… 50 yrs ago my congress rep was a John Burch Society member. One of the main changes was that the republican party is stuck in one gear. The party of hate and money. They are the party of don’t, you can’t, give me money. There is a better way, a far better way. CA found that way, at least a large enough segment did. We live in a democracy and having the party of you can’t absolutely does not work in a democracy. Look at the history of our conservative side of government. When has it ever worked? It is selfish, restrictive, the opposite of a what a democracy stands for
BTW you’ve beat me, I’ve only been to 46 of the states.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
The NASCAR nut job crowd was chanting “Fuck You Biden!” and the sportscaster made up “Let’s Go Brandon!” because Fuck is still a banned word on broadcast TV, and Brandon just won the race and was being interviewed. He probably didn’t really care they were disrespecting President Biden, it was probably Faux sports…
All stupid, all the time!
sab
@Ohio Mom: There are a some of things that make me slightly hopeful.
The school board elections this month seemed to go for the normal people not the anti-maskers.I think there are a lot of people, especually parents and grandparents who are quietly seething. We just want our kids safe.
There are some old Celeste people who have been inspired by the Lincoln Project to start a superpac to publicize the utter corruption of the Ohio Republican party: Electronic Classroom and First Energy. Kay has been saying for years that the corruption issue is important.I hope these guys know what they are doing and are successful.
From what I have seen so far, Tim Ryan seems to be running a pretty good campaign for Senate and the potential Republican opponents are a collection of hacks and clowns. There isn’t a Rob Portman among them.
The Pale Scot
@Sure Lurkalot:
Can’t fix Stupid
Gravenstone
Appalling as it may be, 60k dead is still < 0.3% of Florida’s 2021 population. So yeah, it’s likely a large helping of “no one I know got sick/died”. How very Republican. If it doesn’t affect them personally, it’s not real.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh I know, some people like snow. Hell I like snow. I really do! I just don’t like to have to shovel it to get in and out of my driveway. I don’t like that my heating bill in the winter rivals that of my food bill. The real issue is that I grew up someplace that I could see snow, and it’s beauty, but I didn’t have to deal with it to the degree that it ruled my life. Considering the population of CA and that most of us don’t live in snow country, it seems that I’m not alone…..
eclare
@VeniceRiley: So, so true. Pretty much every urban area, even in my blood red TN, votes like CA. But it doesn’t count.
The Pale Scot
@lowtechcyclist:
Since FL rest on a bed of porous limestone, salt water intrusion into the groundwater will render FL unlivable long before the sea level rises any substantial amount.
For what it’s worth, I’ve settled on 2036 as the year everything goes pear shaped. Simply, reinsurers will refuse to take on coverage for climate change related charges. It’s not going be a series of horrific catastrophes. It will LoL, GEM, Swiss RE etc making the choice to not provide coverage for upcoming said catastrophes.
Capitalism doesn’t work without insurance
PS/ Federal flood insurance cancelations will follow soon after
bbleh
@Frank Wilhoit: @Omnes Omnibus: @cain: @Omnes Omnibus: @lowtechcyclist: concur w/O2 & ltc — they’re superannuated squares, who thought everybody but them was having lots of fun and sex, and they’re still pissed about it.
Ruckus
@GoBlueInOak:
Your comment is good but I’d argue with your concept of a century. Because if 1958 was over a century ago I’d be over a century old, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not. It is over half a century ago, but not an entire one.
Soprano2
Open thread, so completely off topic, but they found the body of a woman from a crazy case in my area that I cannot believe hasn’t made the national news yet. The FBI got some pics of a half-naked woman in a cage from an anonymous source, which led to the arrest of two men. Today they’ve confirmed that body parts found on one of the men’s property belong to the woman who was in the cage. Oh, and that guy’s house was burned down by someone after he was arrested, and they had bombs on the property. It’s got everything – a woman in a cage, cannibalism (!) and murder. How has this not made the news yet? Seriously…..
eclare
@Soprano2: That is gruesome
GoBlueInOak
@Ruckus: Sorry typo – meant to write “well over half a century ago”
NotMax
@Soprano2
Enhanced LARPing.
//
Soprano2
@eclare: Yep, that’s why I’m surprised it hasn’t been covered more widely. That article confirmed the rumors about cannibalism that have been circulating since the news about this case first broke here in August. Awful, awful stuff that happened not in a big, scary city but out in the middle of nowhere!
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, they are 5, and they think it’s “oh so clever” that they can say “fuck Biden” without actually saying a curse word. It’s a silly inside joke.
GoBlueInOak
@Geminid: The Democratic Party strength in CA goes back to well before the much more recent cultural shift of college voters voting Blue and non-college voters voting red.
I think to a degree, the Tip O’Neill truism that “all politics is local” still holds, if not in the immediate shoe leather door knocking way that Tip meant.
IMHO, its dangerous to overlay a single analytical frame over the sociopolitical dynamics of a country as big and diverse as the U.S. I do find some of those maps that political scientists have come up with to describe broad regions of the country a lot more useful, like this one:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/opinion/urban-rural-united-states-regions-midterms.html
California had a long history of xenophobic exclusion dating back to the days of the Chinese Exclusion Act and such. But it was also as much a “libertarian” / “libertine” culture – like much of the West – such that a lot of the “angry white people” baggage you see in the Deep South and Rust Belt just doesn’t apply. Its not to say it isn’t here – it just at a point stopped being so deep. I mean – Oregon is a very white state that had a long history of being a deeply racist sundown STATE – and yet…
Also, if there is anything that in part seems to define the Blue/Red divide its urbanization. More urbanized an area, the more it seems to vote Democrat. (and that goes back a long way – all the way to the late 19th century urban machine days in New York, Philly, Boston, Chicago, etc – Team Blue has long been “Team Immigrant”, even when Team Blue was also Team Dixiecrat)
And California is a HEAVILY urbanized state. Despite being the largest argicultural state in the country, the vast bulk of the population lives in urbanized areas. We have a LOT of mid-sized cities in CA that anywhere else would be amongst the largest cities in their respective states.
Anaheim for example is only the 10th largest city in the state – but its bigger than Pittsburgh, St Louis, Newark, St Paul, Lexington and even Honolulu. And almost as big as Cleveland and New Orleans.
Oakland is only the 8th largest city in the state – but its still bigger than Minneapolis, Tampa, and Tulsa – and almost as big as Miami.
And in between all these mid-sized cities are a LOT of urbanized suburbs. The joke about L.A. is that is not city but an overgrown suburb – which is partially true. But its also indicative of what a really large portion of the populated parts of California look like.
geg6
@TriassicSands:
Seriously. I’ve been there dozens of times and I still don’t understand the attraction. At all. I only went because of either business or because of relatives. As of now, I plan to never go back.
eclare
@NotMax: Ha! My cousin is into that in a big way, even bought rural property for just that purpose. Hopefully no “enhancements,” but he’s always been a bit odd.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: One of my second-grade classmates was fond of explaining carefully that “Dick” and “strip” were not naughty words and had perfectly innocent meanings and then chanting “Dick, strip, Dick, strip”. The whole thing reminds me of him.
geg6
@C Stars:
I’m sure you want to think they are good people. But they aren’t.
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: Holy shit, that sounds out there even for MO!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Soprano2: I would be surprised if that’s how educated people sound to these dimwits;
MAGA Dimwits “We need to get CRT and SJW out of school libraries Libertard.”
Liberal Elite “Yes, we need to go back to the classics like Huck Finn and Grapes of Wrath.”
MAGA Dimwit “yes, the classics, by why are you smirking?”
Geminid
@GoBlueInOak: Thank you for answering. That’s very informative.
J R in WV
@GoBlueInOak:
I was born in 1950, and I’m 70 right now — so not over a century ago by any measure. It was in the last century, the 1900s, rather than the 2000s but that still doesn’t make it a century ago.
It makes it 62 years ago. Or thereabouts, give or take a year depending upon when in a year things happened. Maybe 62 years and 2 months?
I’m done here, tho!
LongHairedWeirdo
Now, now, NYT. I know this suggested alteration merely puts the news in line with observable, objective reality… but that’s what *big* newspapers do; if you keep eating all your vegetables, you’ll grow big and strong, so you *too* can report actual facts *and* ask to go potty when you need to. You’ll be surprised at how much easier it is to report the truth when not pissing your pants over being called “partisan”, or worse, “liberal”.
LongHairedWeirdo
@jonas: The people they trust the most tell them that, sure, people are dying, but the *real* crime would be *politicizing* the protection of the citizenry.
If only those evil DEMO(N)crats would stop pushing masks, and vaccines, and social distancing, and science, and (finger quotes, and sarcastic tone, are *required*) “saving lives,” (end sarcasm/quotes) we wouldn’t have to care about tens of thousands of people dying!
We could just blow it all off, like Republicans. Dereliction of duty is something that only occurs if a Democrat is failing to do something a Republican wants! And face it, Republicans only care about “protecting people” by fighting wars that don’t actually protect anyone, but oh, doesn’t the military look *pretty* in dress uniform, and isn’t it *amazing* how good prosthetics have gotten! See, Republicans *do* support the military; they’ve made sure that lots of military folk get such amazing technology to replace missing limbs.
StringOnAStick
In other “Brandon” news, I heard about Halloween in the neighboring redneck town from a friend who lives there. The local merchants had set up a trick or treat for kids in the core business district, and one place (a tattoo and piercing parlor) had the owners on the roof in pirate costumes, tossing candy to the kids. The “pirates” told the kids to come back at 5:30 when they would be “dumping tons of candy”, so the kids did but they refused to dump any candy until they led the kids in a rousing chorus of “Let’s go Brandon”. Way to politicize a kidz holiday, jerkoffs.
Professor Bigfoot
@brendancalling: I left Nashville 42 years ago and haven’t looked back. I’ve gotten used to the cold in northeast Ohio, but have come to really love it here. (The swing toward wingnuttery is at least partly driven by gerrymandering, as evidenced by my own Congresscritter, the odious Bob Gibbs)
All I miss about Nashville is food and family.
LongHairedWeirdo
@StringOnAStick: Time was, tattoo and piercing places would have realized that you don’t crap on the heads of the weirdos by voting for people who are opposed to actual freedom.
It really sucks to see other weirdos voting against their own interest in safety. (PS: you don’t really think those 2A assholes give a damn about you, once you’ve given them their “trump for dictator” tats, do you? I mean… you’re not *that* stupid, are you?) (Yes, I went there. It really is stupid to give people who think “freedom” means “I get to do what I want, and FU” (which isn’t shorthand for “Furman University”). If a love of “freedom” just means “I love being able to hurt people without anyone saying there should be consequences for harming them,” y’all are in the firing line, too.)
tokyokie
@CaseyL: As somebody who grew up in Oklahoma, I can attest that the smart ones get the hell out. Of the Merit Scholars in my graduating class with whom I’ve kept up, one’s a psychiatrist in the Bay Area, one’s a lawyer in Dallas, one’s an economics professor in Arizona, one’s an astrophysicist at the Godard Space Center, and one’s a cardiologist in St. Louis. Unfortuantely, this means that the dunderheads who never left town do the planning for class reunions, and last time, they couldn’t find the economics professor, even though his father has lived in the same house since 1959, has a distinctive surname, and has a listed phone number.