Dems control Michigan right now too and aren’t wasting any time
The 2018 Gerrymandering ballot initiative is playing out exactly how it should. It really shows why the GOP fights so much against voting rights.
The trouble with single-party rule is when they get too comfortable. MA has been essentially a single-party state for a long time now. Rather than continually doing good (or bad or anything at all) the legislature has grown lazy and corrupt.
The MA state legislature is one of the least transparent legislatures in the nation. Many legislators are firmly in the pocket of corporations and special interest groups. Our public transit is actively crumbling. And they have sent hardly anything of consequence to the governor’s desk this year.
Single-party rule - no matter the party - is bad news. Which makes it all the more unfortunate that they were able to FUD the ranked-choice voting initiative out of existence in 2020, so there’s no end in sight.
I’ll take that any day over having my girlfriend’s rights at risk because suburban soccer moms fell for CRT BS and decided to elect a christo fascist looney tune governor of VA. Because of them it’s now illegal to watch porn without submitting photo ID, they derailed our weed legalization, they’re pissing away the state’s massive surplus to help rich people and they keep trying to ban and undermine abortion rights.
Meanwhile in Mass you’ve got legal weed, actual efforts to address inequality, women’s rights perfected and among the best standards of living in the country? Count me in. It’s not like mad transit is miracle down here, the metro is horrendous.
There’s no state in this country that’s free of major corruption at this point. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a red blue or purple state, corruption is everywhere, and there are basically zero moderate republicans. I’ll take corrupt secular governance any day over these crazy fundamentalists, who are apparently very electable even in a light blue state and even more corrupt than most Dems
Of course, sorry I didn’t mean to imply that things aren’t relatively better here. I just get wary when someone talks about how good single-party rule would be for them.
Certainly yes, we have legal weed and nobody is making us register with a government I’d when we wanna look at porn.
However, many - or even most - efforts to address inequality are not real or effective.
The greater Boston area is one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country. The city itself is largely out of reach for folks not in tech, biotech, or finance. Meanwhile it has a very rich history of discrimination and segregation that continues to this day with no end in sight. Meanwhile, NIMBY “progressives” continue to vote down proposals for new housing - affordable or otherwise.
Lots of folks being priced out of most of the state and moving down south. And kots of folks wanting to move up here, but can’t make the numbers work.
Republicans also pushed back against the Democratic talking point that it was a major tax break, with Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson arguing: “It’s disingenuous to say it was the biggest tax cut ever. It was a wealth transfer to certain groups.”
I guess republicans only have problems with that when those “certain groups” are disadvantaged folk instead of the already wealthy.
Sounds like they are dog-whistling pretty loud.
Democrats control Oregon, and the place is rapidly going to hell. Extremely high cost of living, rampant homelessness, high taxes, tax money being wasted on superfluous traffic lights instead of actually helping people, and so on.
Clearly, more is needed than to just elect any old Democrats and call it a day.
Sorry, argv_minus_one, we Oregonians and Massachusettsers aren’t allowed to note all the things wrong with our states because we get weed and abortions.
I get how it can feel a little inconsiderate for us to gripe in the presence of folks in states where their rights are newly under attack. But also maybe there’s a reason both of our states have high costs of living, low rates of diversity, and pretty bad housing crises?
I get how it can feel a little inconsiderate for us to gripe in the presence of folks in states where their rights are newly under attack.
Legal weed and abortions aren’t worth much to people who live on the street and are too poor to afford them.
But also maybe there’s a reason both of our states have high costs of living, low rates of diversity, and pretty bad housing crises?
What do you think it is?
I feel this so hard lately. Probably going to end up leaving the state because of it. I lean anarchist/anti-authoritarian but I’ve been heavily considering moving to a red state. Or at least a purple one. And I’m transgender so don’t even start with that stuff, I know. >.>
This state has made me despise democrats.
That’s the terrifying thing. Live in a blue state, and you starve on the street while the landed gentry laugh and shoo you away. Live in a red state, and you get murdered by angry cultists if you’re lucky, or imprisoned and enslaved if you’re unlucky. Very few places are actually safe to live in. And heaven help you if you need health care.
New “blue” states like Minnesota and Michigan are doing a lot of good for their citizens and cementing their blue status for years to come, but old school blue states have this NIMBY mentality that prevents fixing problems, and it is ruining WA, OR, CA, MA, and NY, all of which have big housing shortages that CAN be easily fixed with new housing, but perennial zoning laws written 50 years ago to protect housing values are generating homeless situations. Red states have these NIMBY laws too.
Yes, something important to remember about Oregon specifically is that there were really explicit exclusion laws up into the 1920s to stop black people moving there. We think of Portland and hippie bookstore taco garage vegan ice cream shops and whatever but it’s still a very non-diverse state to this day (something like a 2% black population).
So I think the overwhelmingly white demographic combined with a rural area that is still quite racist and conservative, are what make Oregon a weirdly behaving blue state.
Not every state is sitting on their hands. California (at least) is doing something about it.
In Sept. 2021 Newsom signed California legislation with $1.75 billion in funding for additional housing. Besides the cash infusion it tries to make it easier to deal with NIMBY zoning issues. That’s obviously not enough and there’s more legislation in the works with lots of different proposals to increase available housing.
Minnesota Dems should share the wins with other states, make it clear what it’s like living under progressive policies. It sounds like they have made some tremendous non-incremental policy changes. I love it.
Definitely proud to be a Minnesotan right now!
