With a Supreme Court case looming this week that could strip away the right to mifepristone, an abortion medication used in nearly half of abortions nationwide, the GOP is at a crossroads.
I want every Republican voting to ban or restrict abortions to present proof that she (if a woman) had never had an abortion, was never on the pill, never used the morning after pill, etc. Or, if a man, present proof from all his former and current sexual partners, demonstrating none of them ever got an abortion after getting pregnant by him. Yes, that would be a gross violation of their privacy, because they would have to release their medical records - but so is tracking women's menstrual cycles, demanding they declare when and where they might have gone to get an abortion, and demanding they confess to having one in the first place. So.... since they don't care about my privacy, I no longer care about theirs. You are anti-abortion? Prove it. Show me.
P. S. DeSantis in DaMiddle of the night - that is adorable, I love it!
“This is the clearest demonstration of why the issue isn't abortion, it is about patriarchal control of women by men.”
Of course. It has NEVER been about “protecting the unborn”. If it really were, then the people opposed to abortions would be equally passionately in favor of having birth control readily available, providing neo-natal care to single mothers, sex education, subsidized school lunch programs, etc.
All things which actually prevent unwanted pregnancies and help actual children. All of which anti-abortionist are vehemently opposed to.
“Protecting the unborn” is just the acceptable sounding facade they use to mask their obvious true goal: controlling other people’s lives.
What they claim to be is "pro-life" yet they have no care whatsoever for the life of the pregnant woman when her life is threatened by an ectopic pregnancy or a dead fetus in uterus.
Lets not forget the other governors limiting and criminalizing abortion access-who would go further! Texas Greg Abbott shines his uber ‘anti-life’ agenda every chance hr gets, protecting zygotes but not the children resulting from them. Many Republicans here are beginning to give him the side eye as humans post-utero are gunned down every day while OB/GYN’s are shuttering services out of sheer panic. The foster system in Texas ranks dead last in the country.
There is a red line and by and large Abbott is a toe over it from even his own party’s point of view.
May I suggest that Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and the few remaining of her ilk leave the GQP. Otherwise they will all needlessly go down with the ship and be tarred with the same brush for all eternity.
Get out while you still have some integrity left. If you can not stomach joining the Democrats at least become an independent. Otherwise you are complicit in the pain and suffering being wrought upon our country and it’s citizens.
They have brainwashed themselves thoroughly: they really believe that if they could only explain clearly enough, and ban strongly enough, everyone would recognize that human life begins at conception, and that little, bitty, innocent baby in the womb is more important than anything else in the world. And also why that little, bitty, innocent AR-15 is more important than any breathing human's life.
Abortion is just the beginning. I a mainstream news article the other day noting that legislation was pending in more than 20 states that would limit access to birth control. All six of the Theocon SCOTUS judges were raised as conservative Catholics. Gorsuch changed. In addition to abortion and birth control, and LGTBQ+ forms of sexuality, guess what else conservative Catholics don't believe in - divorce. Buckle up everyone. Abortion was their opening act.
The Originalists BBB had better think twice. Abortion, Contraception, Divorce, none were mentioned in the 1789 Ratification of the United States Constitution . They don’t have a leg to stand on.
The Christian dogma is at stake. The Virgin Mary got impregnated by an angel and Jesus became incarnate at that instant, science be damned. Abortion nullifies the foundation of Christianity and they will have none of it. This is the blue-eyed Caucasian Jesus that ‘lives’ in Trump’s hardcore base.
I don't understand why it's so difficult for them to understand they are free to believe whatever they want, but so am I. If I don't want to believe in a talking snake and virgin birth, it's no skin off their nose. Live and let live isn't all that difficult a concept. 'Mind your own business' isn't said nearly enough in our culture.
Point taken. Still, it’s a belief structure that would crumble if abortion decisions based on viability or circumstances is ever accepted. “Life begins at conception” is a a tenet, in spite of the illogical acceptance of eating eggs as a meat substitute during Lent.
One thing I learned a very long time ago is that Municipal and State, or in my case Provincial elections are far more important to the average citizen than federal one’s are simply because they have the biggest impact on the citizenry. While it’s very important to get out the vote federally, it is even more important to get out the vote for School Board, City Councils, and State Governments, because these are the people who can make your life easy or very, very hard.
Denver just had a mayoral election and turnout was abysmal. A LOT is at stake here so it was beyond disappointing. Two candidates will appear in a runoff election - both the worst of all 16 candidates IMO because they had the largest amount of special interest $$ contributions. People really an be their own worst enemies.
Kansas also taught the republicans not to hold the vote for abortion during a presidential election. Too many showed up and voted for their rights. In Ohio they are requiring more signatures to get it on the ballot and planning it for some obscure date that no one normally votes on. Gerrymandering, only affects our representatives in Washington not the state. We need to make sure we vote in every single election.
"It’s a reminder of how GOP politicians inhabit a destructive news and social media cycle where they are rewarded for cruelty and extremism by the base, yet blind to how the rest of the country thinks."
And yet they keep winning, and winning, and winning...don't they? So when I read things like: "The abortion question is a dead loser for the GOP," I am reminded that it never seems to be enough to stop the Dems from shooting themselves in the foot at every opportunity. The GOP is laughably anti-science, and anti-fact, and yet the Dems can't seem to ever figure out how to make something out of that.
You can elect a Democrat but the turn out has to be major! That's what happened in Wisconsin. They're gerrymandered to the hilt, too, but with the registered Republicans who crossed over to vote Democrat and the registered Dems who voted, they were able to make the miracle happen.
Let's not forget the sizeable youth vote in Wisconsin. I see that here, too. The state and local League of Women Voters have made it a priority to mobilize, register, and even get the kids to polling places.
Absolutely correct--gerrymandering is THE tool of choice for the GOP to continue blatantly minority rule.
But that's a perfect example of what I mean: when the GOP has control, it uses it mercilessly. (Remember McConnell laughing, and saying something like: "No, we'd fill it," when asked if the GOP would follow its own rules about refraining from filling a SCOTUS seat when it had refused to even hold hearings for Garland?) So the GOP gerrymanders the shit out of every election map it can. But when the Dems have the opportunity to do the same, they start mewling about "fairness."
It seems to me that always playing the Eloi to the GOP's Morlocks is hardly a recipe for survival--let alone success.
I spoke too broadly above. There is a very active, young, group of Democrats who do run, and on a *very* local level in our town Democrats swept the school board and town council elections. But, this town has a small university (yes, students can and do vote here) and a fairly sizeable liberal population.
Generally, in down ballot local races, if a Republican is unopposed, I skip them. Hopefully, eventually those undervotes will start to be counted.
I guess on the other hand, since we have “all party” primaries with the top two vote-getters running in the final, my district had zero GOP candidates. Pramila Jayapal is my rep. And we aren’t gerrymandered. We’re just one of the the bluest spots on the left coast.
Gerrymandering helped Ohio GOP get super-majorities in legislative seats, but they outright won in the statewide seats too, and you can't gerrymander that.
Governor, Senator, Attorney General, State Supreme Court, it was a solid red sweep.
Why is Ohio going the way of Indiana, rather than the way of Michigan or Pennsylvania?
Gerrymandering is the first step, but aggressive voter suppression is the key to preventing democracy on statewide races (including federal posts like Senate & Prez). The GQP has been banging the drum on "voter integrity" since the Reagan days. Zero basis in fact (as usual for these slime), but they've been repeating the lie so often, and without any fact-checking or pushback (the cowardly mass media simply repeats the lies "as reported on ..."), that otherwise sensible people start to believe them (why wouldn't you want people to verify who they are when they vote?).
Then there are the ammosexuals that throw a hissy-fit if anyone mentions restrictions on buying ammo or guns, but insist that voting demands restrictive ID since it's so important (yet hunting licenses somehow count????).
Because the state is so freaking gerrymandered! Look at Jim Jordan's district, it sprawls all over the place. Look at Licking County. There is a machine behind republican's in this state, starting with Jane Timken on down. Gone are the days of Betty Montgomery.
Challenges to the map are dead with the new chief justice of the state, Sharon Kennedy, she's politically in bed with the Republican machine. I know this because I hosted a discussion in 2020 with Kennedy, Montgomery, and others (including Democrats). The republicans who showed up were all operatives.
I will say this, Montgomery is pretty disgusted with it all, and that is a woman all Ohioans can support.
I don't understand, please clarify. Are you saying blue voters are staying home rather than voting at all, because the gerrymandered legislative elections are the only ones they care about?
Statewide elections can't be gerrymandered. The statewide total is the statewide total.
More people voted for DeWine than Whaley. More for Vance than Ryan. Down the line, Ohio voted much more red than blue. It wasn't just gerrymandering.
I'm not optimistic that 2024 will be different from 2022.
Blue voters are absolutely not staying home, especially down ballot. Statewide elections, in terms of the House of Representatives are what gerrymandering is all about. The redistricting maps, never resolved by the state supreme court, caused a second, expensive, election. However, the change in the Ohio Supreme Court with Kennedy now chief justice and not Maureen O'Connor is trouble. Thank God O'Connor has made it her mission to attack this issue.
Senatorial candidates, OTOH, are a different problem. Vance won because the Democratic party didn't support Ryan, though he was well supported by voters.
In 2024, if you live in Ohio, you need to do everything you can to return Sherrod Brown to the Senate.
Christina, you've got that right. Brown's chosen opponent, Matt Dolan, is every bit as bad as jd vance. Wealthy by family, he, like all the wealthy, don't want to pay taxes, so they find someone in "their class" to get elected, and maintain this absurd status quo ( I had to, Jay! ). And with the way Ohio has been chopped-up, or gerrymandered, if you will, Democrats don't have a chance in state elections, or federal. Here in Cleveland, it's mostly Dems anyway, so they win, but barely, because turnout is usually around 40% or less. And against the rest of the state, the few Dems from Cleveland can't make a dent in the corruption going on daily in Columbus. Not sure how much longer I'll remain an Ohioan, sadly.
As someone who grew up in Ohio, I can tell you that state has been reliably Republican with very few exceptions for almost all time. Admittedly, when I was growing up, it was a different kind of Republican party, but rust belt economics have created a bitter and impoverished electorate. In my home town (population on my 16th birthday, approx. 16,000), we had well-paying factory work available from multiple major national and international corporations, such as Timken Roller Bearing, PPG glass, Continental Can Corp., Cooper-Bessemer Corp., and an internationally known designer and builder of bridges. Passenger AND freight rail stopped there. None of these survive, and the town has become a bedroom community for Columbus. If you don't own a farm or have a good college degree, the choice of employment is sparse and low-wage. SO - Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin - all these states used to have good economies; the American dream was alive and well, and moderate Republicans ran on economic and governance issues. The groundwork has since been laid for grievance politics, and the blueprints drawn by Gingrich, et. al. have been followed and borne fruit. I no longer live there - and I won't.
DeSatan, as my nephew in grad school and his friends call him, appears to make his moves not to get votes, but to get funding from the dark monied world of the Opus Dei/Federalist Society coffers. It is the money he is going for, not the votes, assuming that the person with the most money gets the most votes. That may have been true in the past, but with a unified message the Dems are pulling in the lead. Banking on the losing appeal of anti-abortion absolutists, they have their winning issue. I think they should throw in the potential loss of birth control to make clear to voters how bleak things are under the Republican Right! However, they need to get the youth, particularly college students who live away from home, to register to vote in the most effective place, and to figure out how to vote from where they are staying.
Why are we not seeing huge protests in Florida, Texas, Ohio, etc?
When Florida's 6 week ban passed, Nikki Fried and other big names blocked the street and got arrested, but I don't see any pictures of a large crowd supporting them.
Every single public appearance by DeSantis, Abott, and friends should be drowned out by angry chants, but that's not happening.
The populace seems demoralized and passive.
They didn't turn out in 2022 (not those states) and they aren't turning out now.
You are not seeing large protests in Ohio, but I suspect that is because of a lack of media coverage. They are happening in Columbus at the State House; everything from women's marches, to LGBTQ+ support, to demands for gun safety legislation.
I can't speak for turn out in Texas and Florida, but I can speak to it where I live. In the past three elections it has been quite heavy, both in early voting and on election day.
THIS!! France, Israel, Ireland - they get HUGE turnouts when they want their governments to know how they feel. Here, you might see 100 or so. Unless, of course, the police shoot some criminal; THEN, you'll see thousands come out. It makes no sense. Sure, we need to make sure people are all treated fairly, but folks, it starts with who we elect! And the laws they pass, and the laws they OBEY! What we have in this country right now should have us out in the streets by the MILLIONS! I've tried, but the meager turnouts make those of us who do show up look like whiners and complainers, and the local media just ignore us. THIS is what needs to change, if we are ever going to see real progress in our country. The people we elect need to know We The People are watching.
I’m concerned here in NC, Jay. I wrote to Senator Tillis asking very specific questions about reproductive healthcare, and got back “I will always protect the sanctity of life. Life is God’s greatest gift” along with a list of the bills that he’s sponsored to make life harder for women.
With the party switch by Cotham, the GOP has a supermajority that can override Gov Cooper’s vetoes.
But overall, the climate that I observe in liberal Durham is complacency, of not wanting to talk about politics, “we’re sick of all that negative stuff.” Granted, I’m 65 and around mostly older people. But it’s concerning to me. It seems many people in NC think the legislature learned their lesson after HB1, the bathroom bills. Now, with a resurgence of Moms for Liberty, book bans, and anti-trans activism, I wonder what they think they can get away with.
I want every Republican voting to ban or restrict abortions to present proof that she (if a woman) had never had an abortion, was never on the pill, never used the morning after pill, etc. Or, if a man, present proof from all his former and current sexual partners, demonstrating none of them ever got an abortion after getting pregnant by him. Yes, that would be a gross violation of their privacy, because they would have to release their medical records - but so is tracking women's menstrual cycles, demanding they declare when and where they might have gone to get an abortion, and demanding they confess to having one in the first place. So.... since they don't care about my privacy, I no longer care about theirs. You are anti-abortion? Prove it. Show me.
P. S. DeSantis in DaMiddle of the night - that is adorable, I love it!
^^^ This is the clearest demonstration of why the issue isn't abortion, it is about patriarchal control of women by men. Well said.
Also men can inseminate a woman well into his old age. Not one of them is complaining that Viagra hasn't been put on the table for discussion.
“This is the clearest demonstration of why the issue isn't abortion, it is about patriarchal control of women by men.”
Of course. It has NEVER been about “protecting the unborn”. If it really were, then the people opposed to abortions would be equally passionately in favor of having birth control readily available, providing neo-natal care to single mothers, sex education, subsidized school lunch programs, etc.
All things which actually prevent unwanted pregnancies and help actual children. All of which anti-abortionist are vehemently opposed to.
“Protecting the unborn” is just the acceptable sounding facade they use to mask their obvious true goal: controlling other people’s lives.
What they claim to be is "pro-life" yet they have no care whatsoever for the life of the pregnant woman when her life is threatened by an ectopic pregnancy or a dead fetus in uterus.
Exactly. They show the lie to their “pro-life” claims every time they support one of these vicious laws.
(And every time they vote down school lunch programs. And every time they oppose gun controls. And every time they...)
What a wonderful comment.
Lets not forget the other governors limiting and criminalizing abortion access-who would go further! Texas Greg Abbott shines his uber ‘anti-life’ agenda every chance hr gets, protecting zygotes but not the children resulting from them. Many Republicans here are beginning to give him the side eye as humans post-utero are gunned down every day while OB/GYN’s are shuttering services out of sheer panic. The foster system in Texas ranks dead last in the country.
There is a red line and by and large Abbott is a toe over it from even his own party’s point of view.
May I suggest that Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and the few remaining of her ilk leave the GQP. Otherwise they will all needlessly go down with the ship and be tarred with the same brush for all eternity.
Get out while you still have some integrity left. If you can not stomach joining the Democrats at least become an independent. Otherwise you are complicit in the pain and suffering being wrought upon our country and it’s citizens.
And Rep. Mace, don’t declare you caucus with the GOP. Be truly Independent. Vote on the merits of each individual Bill.
They have brainwashed themselves thoroughly: they really believe that if they could only explain clearly enough, and ban strongly enough, everyone would recognize that human life begins at conception, and that little, bitty, innocent baby in the womb is more important than anything else in the world. And also why that little, bitty, innocent AR-15 is more important than any breathing human's life.
They need to explain that.
To ignore the will of the people will hopefully oust these extremists .... so very important that younger people get out and vote.
I am very encouraged to see youth turnout the highest it has been in generations in the last three election cycles.
I sincerely hope that the Republican Party becomes MORE extremest. All the better to oust the b*st*rds.
I think that they will actually head this way. And it will be very dangerous and ugly.
I think they will when this debt ceiling thing comes back around soon.
Agree, on this path they are likely to destroy themselves. Good riddance!
Abortion is just the beginning. I a mainstream news article the other day noting that legislation was pending in more than 20 states that would limit access to birth control. All six of the Theocon SCOTUS judges were raised as conservative Catholics. Gorsuch changed. In addition to abortion and birth control, and LGTBQ+ forms of sexuality, guess what else conservative Catholics don't believe in - divorce. Buckle up everyone. Abortion was their opening act.
The Originalists BBB had better think twice. Abortion, Contraception, Divorce, none were mentioned in the 1789 Ratification of the United States Constitution . They don’t have a leg to stand on.
The Christian dogma is at stake. The Virgin Mary got impregnated by an angel and Jesus became incarnate at that instant, science be damned. Abortion nullifies the foundation of Christianity and they will have none of it. This is the blue-eyed Caucasian Jesus that ‘lives’ in Trump’s hardcore base.
I don't understand why it's so difficult for them to understand they are free to believe whatever they want, but so am I. If I don't want to believe in a talking snake and virgin birth, it's no skin off their nose. Live and let live isn't all that difficult a concept. 'Mind your own business' isn't said nearly enough in our culture.
Just an aside. Traditional Christian dogma says Mary was made pregnant by God/Holy Spirit...not an angel.
Point taken. Still, it’s a belief structure that would crumble if abortion decisions based on viability or circumstances is ever accepted. “Life begins at conception” is a a tenet, in spite of the illogical acceptance of eating eggs as a meat substitute during Lent.
One thing I learned a very long time ago is that Municipal and State, or in my case Provincial elections are far more important to the average citizen than federal one’s are simply because they have the biggest impact on the citizenry. While it’s very important to get out the vote federally, it is even more important to get out the vote for School Board, City Councils, and State Governments, because these are the people who can make your life easy or very, very hard.
Denver just had a mayoral election and turnout was abysmal. A LOT is at stake here so it was beyond disappointing. Two candidates will appear in a runoff election - both the worst of all 16 candidates IMO because they had the largest amount of special interest $$ contributions. People really an be their own worst enemies.
Denver will get the mayor is roundly deserves. I hope they enjoyed their apathy.
Sad but true.
Kansas also taught the republicans not to hold the vote for abortion during a presidential election. Too many showed up and voted for their rights. In Ohio they are requiring more signatures to get it on the ballot and planning it for some obscure date that no one normally votes on. Gerrymandering, only affects our representatives in Washington not the state. We need to make sure we vote in every single election.
Gerrymandering is done for state-level districts and can severely affect the makeup of state legislatures in many states.
"It’s a reminder of how GOP politicians inhabit a destructive news and social media cycle where they are rewarded for cruelty and extremism by the base, yet blind to how the rest of the country thinks."
And yet they keep winning, and winning, and winning...don't they? So when I read things like: "The abortion question is a dead loser for the GOP," I am reminded that it never seems to be enough to stop the Dems from shooting themselves in the foot at every opportunity. The GOP is laughably anti-science, and anti-fact, and yet the Dems can't seem to ever figure out how to make something out of that.
It would help tremendously to keep Republicans from winning to eliminate gerrymandering. A Democrat can't get elected in my district in Ohio.
You can elect a Democrat but the turn out has to be major! That's what happened in Wisconsin. They're gerrymandered to the hilt, too, but with the registered Republicans who crossed over to vote Democrat and the registered Dems who voted, they were able to make the miracle happen.
Let's not forget the sizeable youth vote in Wisconsin. I see that here, too. The state and local League of Women Voters have made it a priority to mobilize, register, and even get the kids to polling places.
Absolutely correct--gerrymandering is THE tool of choice for the GOP to continue blatantly minority rule.
But that's a perfect example of what I mean: when the GOP has control, it uses it mercilessly. (Remember McConnell laughing, and saying something like: "No, we'd fill it," when asked if the GOP would follow its own rules about refraining from filling a SCOTUS seat when it had refused to even hold hearings for Garland?) So the GOP gerrymanders the shit out of every election map it can. But when the Dems have the opportunity to do the same, they start mewling about "fairness."
It seems to me that always playing the Eloi to the GOP's Morlocks is hardly a recipe for survival--let alone success.
Even if they can’t win, I hope they freakin RUN. Unopposed seats give we the people no voice at all. The last thing Dems should do is gag themselves.
I spoke too broadly above. There is a very active, young, group of Democrats who do run, and on a *very* local level in our town Democrats swept the school board and town council elections. But, this town has a small university (yes, students can and do vote here) and a fairly sizeable liberal population.
Generally, in down ballot local races, if a Republican is unopposed, I skip them. Hopefully, eventually those undervotes will start to be counted.
I guess on the other hand, since we have “all party” primaries with the top two vote-getters running in the final, my district had zero GOP candidates. Pramila Jayapal is my rep. And we aren’t gerrymandered. We’re just one of the the bluest spots on the left coast.
You have no idea how lucky you are. Kudos to your communities!
Gerrymandering helped Ohio GOP get super-majorities in legislative seats, but they outright won in the statewide seats too, and you can't gerrymander that.
Governor, Senator, Attorney General, State Supreme Court, it was a solid red sweep.
Why is Ohio going the way of Indiana, rather than the way of Michigan or Pennsylvania?
Gerrymandering is the first step, but aggressive voter suppression is the key to preventing democracy on statewide races (including federal posts like Senate & Prez). The GQP has been banging the drum on "voter integrity" since the Reagan days. Zero basis in fact (as usual for these slime), but they've been repeating the lie so often, and without any fact-checking or pushback (the cowardly mass media simply repeats the lies "as reported on ..."), that otherwise sensible people start to believe them (why wouldn't you want people to verify who they are when they vote?).
Then there are the ammosexuals that throw a hissy-fit if anyone mentions restrictions on buying ammo or guns, but insist that voting demands restrictive ID since it's so important (yet hunting licenses somehow count????).
Because the state is so freaking gerrymandered! Look at Jim Jordan's district, it sprawls all over the place. Look at Licking County. There is a machine behind republican's in this state, starting with Jane Timken on down. Gone are the days of Betty Montgomery.
Challenges to the map are dead with the new chief justice of the state, Sharon Kennedy, she's politically in bed with the Republican machine. I know this because I hosted a discussion in 2020 with Kennedy, Montgomery, and others (including Democrats). The republicans who showed up were all operatives.
I will say this, Montgomery is pretty disgusted with it all, and that is a woman all Ohioans can support.
I don't understand, please clarify. Are you saying blue voters are staying home rather than voting at all, because the gerrymandered legislative elections are the only ones they care about?
Statewide elections can't be gerrymandered. The statewide total is the statewide total.
More people voted for DeWine than Whaley. More for Vance than Ryan. Down the line, Ohio voted much more red than blue. It wasn't just gerrymandering.
I'm not optimistic that 2024 will be different from 2022.
Blue voters are absolutely not staying home, especially down ballot. Statewide elections, in terms of the House of Representatives are what gerrymandering is all about. The redistricting maps, never resolved by the state supreme court, caused a second, expensive, election. However, the change in the Ohio Supreme Court with Kennedy now chief justice and not Maureen O'Connor is trouble. Thank God O'Connor has made it her mission to attack this issue.
Senatorial candidates, OTOH, are a different problem. Vance won because the Democratic party didn't support Ryan, though he was well supported by voters.
In 2024, if you live in Ohio, you need to do everything you can to return Sherrod Brown to the Senate.
Christina, you've got that right. Brown's chosen opponent, Matt Dolan, is every bit as bad as jd vance. Wealthy by family, he, like all the wealthy, don't want to pay taxes, so they find someone in "their class" to get elected, and maintain this absurd status quo ( I had to, Jay! ). And with the way Ohio has been chopped-up, or gerrymandered, if you will, Democrats don't have a chance in state elections, or federal. Here in Cleveland, it's mostly Dems anyway, so they win, but barely, because turnout is usually around 40% or less. And against the rest of the state, the few Dems from Cleveland can't make a dent in the corruption going on daily in Columbus. Not sure how much longer I'll remain an Ohioan, sadly.
As someone who grew up in Ohio, I can tell you that state has been reliably Republican with very few exceptions for almost all time. Admittedly, when I was growing up, it was a different kind of Republican party, but rust belt economics have created a bitter and impoverished electorate. In my home town (population on my 16th birthday, approx. 16,000), we had well-paying factory work available from multiple major national and international corporations, such as Timken Roller Bearing, PPG glass, Continental Can Corp., Cooper-Bessemer Corp., and an internationally known designer and builder of bridges. Passenger AND freight rail stopped there. None of these survive, and the town has become a bedroom community for Columbus. If you don't own a farm or have a good college degree, the choice of employment is sparse and low-wage. SO - Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin - all these states used to have good economies; the American dream was alive and well, and moderate Republicans ran on economic and governance issues. The groundwork has since been laid for grievance politics, and the blueprints drawn by Gingrich, et. al. have been followed and borne fruit. I no longer live there - and I won't.
DeSatan, as my nephew in grad school and his friends call him, appears to make his moves not to get votes, but to get funding from the dark monied world of the Opus Dei/Federalist Society coffers. It is the money he is going for, not the votes, assuming that the person with the most money gets the most votes. That may have been true in the past, but with a unified message the Dems are pulling in the lead. Banking on the losing appeal of anti-abortion absolutists, they have their winning issue. I think they should throw in the potential loss of birth control to make clear to voters how bleak things are under the Republican Right! However, they need to get the youth, particularly college students who live away from home, to register to vote in the most effective place, and to figure out how to vote from where they are staying.
I sure hope so! Awaken the GIANT, the people's voices and our rights!! I pray the GOP of lunatics has finally gone too far!!
How certain are you?
Why are we not seeing huge protests in Florida, Texas, Ohio, etc?
When Florida's 6 week ban passed, Nikki Fried and other big names blocked the street and got arrested, but I don't see any pictures of a large crowd supporting them.
Every single public appearance by DeSantis, Abott, and friends should be drowned out by angry chants, but that's not happening.
The populace seems demoralized and passive.
They didn't turn out in 2022 (not those states) and they aren't turning out now.
What is the evidence they'll turn out in 2024?
You are not seeing large protests in Ohio, but I suspect that is because of a lack of media coverage. They are happening in Columbus at the State House; everything from women's marches, to LGBTQ+ support, to demands for gun safety legislation.
I can't speak for turn out in Texas and Florida, but I can speak to it where I live. In the past three elections it has been quite heavy, both in early voting and on election day.
THIS!! France, Israel, Ireland - they get HUGE turnouts when they want their governments to know how they feel. Here, you might see 100 or so. Unless, of course, the police shoot some criminal; THEN, you'll see thousands come out. It makes no sense. Sure, we need to make sure people are all treated fairly, but folks, it starts with who we elect! And the laws they pass, and the laws they OBEY! What we have in this country right now should have us out in the streets by the MILLIONS! I've tried, but the meager turnouts make those of us who do show up look like whiners and complainers, and the local media just ignore us. THIS is what needs to change, if we are ever going to see real progress in our country. The people we elect need to know We The People are watching.
The biggest irony is that the party that wants to "increase the domestic supply of infants" are making it harder to do that.
I’m concerned here in NC, Jay. I wrote to Senator Tillis asking very specific questions about reproductive healthcare, and got back “I will always protect the sanctity of life. Life is God’s greatest gift” along with a list of the bills that he’s sponsored to make life harder for women.
With the party switch by Cotham, the GOP has a supermajority that can override Gov Cooper’s vetoes.
But overall, the climate that I observe in liberal Durham is complacency, of not wanting to talk about politics, “we’re sick of all that negative stuff.” Granted, I’m 65 and around mostly older people. But it’s concerning to me. It seems many people in NC think the legislature learned their lesson after HB1, the bathroom bills. Now, with a resurgence of Moms for Liberty, book bans, and anti-trans activism, I wonder what they think they can get away with.