If you’ve got local elections this fall, don’t forget to vote. And if you’ve got time, get involved. We’ve got a big one coming up here — a county exec raise the Dems have a real chance of winning. If we do it will be the first time in over 30 years. That’s the Trump effect, my friends. This November’s locals are important nationally in a way that most local elections are not. If Republicans take enough of a beating in November, it’s going to be that much tougher for them to keep clapping for Dear Leader.
The most high profile state elections are Virginia. The numbers look great for Democrats right now.
Voters prefer that Democrats control the General Assembly after the election, 53% to 37%, powered by a 17-point advantage among Independents.
Give here to the Balloon Juice Virginia Democratic Legislative Caucus Fund. I upped the goal to 8K. This blog has become a fundraising powerhouse, we’ve raised 535K since August 2016. And I think for the most part we’ve given wisely. Thanks a lot to everyone.
Elizabelle
A Virginian saying “thanks, Balloon Juice!” I remember what a lovely evening November 7, 2017 was.
We can do even better next month. Work it.
Jeffro
We are going to BURY the Virginia GOP next month.
‘Purple’ state my Aunt Fanny (Narrator: Jeffro does not have an Aunt Fanny)
I hope the national Dems – the party in general and definitely the presidential candidates – make a ton of noise about “this is what happens when Dems turn out” and “this is what it looks like when you have free, ie NOT-gerrymandered, elections”!
Marcopolo
I am (and have since June) been giving regularly to the Fuck Gerrymandering Fund (14 flippable VA legislative races).
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.teenvogue.com/story/pod-save-america-crooked-media-fuck-gerrymandering-fund/amp
Remember, if R’s take a pasting at the state & local level in November that puts even more pressure on them regarding impeachment going into 2020.
Every have a lovely day & stay safe. Low battery means I am dead tree book reading for the rest of my service call wait.
mali muso
Another Virginian weighing in here! We can do this together. Headed to another fundraiser for our local Dem candidate for delegate this week.
cain
They will rue the day that they pissed us all off. Time to take all legislatures, kathy!
Wish me luck today, I’m heading for an on site interview, it’s been since May that I’ve been unemployed and hoping to finally break the dry spell.
rikyrah
Good luck, Virginia Democrats!
clap clap clap
cain
Remember, Remember the derp in November.
Jeffro
@cain: Good luck – you’ve got this!
glory b
Pensylvanians, tomorrow is the last day to register to vote in the next election!
Elizabelle
@cain: Good luck Cain. Fingers crossed.
===
I look forward to North Carolina’s voting results in upcoming elections, maybe not immediately in 2020 (but maybe!) They’ve been told to quit it with the gerrymandering, and have a responsible Democrat as Governor — Roy Cooper, who’d been a longtime state Attorney General and the only Democrat elected during the 2016 slaughter.
North Carolina used to have more Democrats in elected office. In the pre-Art Pope days (think Southern fried Koch brother; now calling himself a “philanthropist.”).
Jane Mayer’s New Yorker article: State for Sale, on how NC politics went so bad, so fast.
Georgia is going to be looking good too, in a few years. The GOP can’t keep thieving on the recent level forever.
Catherine D.
New Yorkers, Friday Oct 11 is the last day to register for the November election.
FlipYrWhig
Hark upon the gale!
geg6
@cain:
Good luck. I’m sending good vibes your way.
Mike in DC
So, Dems win big in 2017, 2018, and likely 2019, so of course the media narrative for 2020 will be “Dems in trouble?”
randy khan
I’m not going to be contributing here, but only because we live in Virginia and already have contributed a pretty good chunk for this election. (One of our friends is the Dem leadership in the House of Delegates, so we contribute to her so she can distribute her excess as appropriate – which she does, as she’s in a very safe seat – and to the state Dems as well.)
As DougJ says, a big win this November would send an important signal to Republicans, and particularly in Virginia, where they held a nearly 2-1 advantage in the House of Delegates before the 2017 elections and could end up losing control of both houses of the General Assembly this fall.
H.E.Wolf
Thank you to DougJ for fundraising, and the Democratic voters of Virginia for the blue wave on November 5th!
Postcards To Voters is writing to Democrats in Kentucky to remind them that they can vote straight-ticket Dem on Nov. 5th.
https://postcardstovoters.org/2019/09/13/slate/
Sign-up options are included.
The addresses I’ve received include Hazard, Virgie, Kimper, Phyllis, Stopover, Vicco, and Raccoon, KY.
Writing to far-away fellow Democrats reminds me of MLK, Jr.’s remark about a “network of mutuality”.
cain
Thanks everyone for the well wishes ?
ruemara
Ok, things are going to get much tighter as I hit month 6 without a real job, but I will commit to text banking and postcarding with the local Indivisible group (while ignoring there’s too many Berners in Indivisible, being divisive). I want us to win everything.
H.E.Wolf
Also, thank you to DougJ for the Guy Fawkes Day reference. “Gunpowder, treason and plot” are a good description of Republican activities lately.
Elizabelle
Have not had a chance to read in full, but looks fascinating. And 3200+ reader comments, so it has hit a nerve. A lot of times, the reader comments are as illustrative — or more — than the original article. (Always the case for David Brooks’ opus.) Anyway:
“Opinion” piece in the FTF NY Times magazine: In the Land of Self-Defeat
What a fight over the local library in my hometown in rural Arkansas taught me about my neighbors’ go-it-alone mythology — and Donald Trump’s unbeatable appeal.
by Monica Potts, who is writing a book on the subject.
We can’t let this happen. These weasels wrap themselves in the American flag, but Benjamin Franklin knew their kind and used his long life to combat the ignorance and provincialism on display here. Fire insurance companies — because in colonial times, everyone’s house could burn. Education. Literacy. Printing services.
Note how Facebook was used to stir up the beancounters.
Goddamned crabs in a barrel. We cannot take anything for granted.
H.E.Wolf
@ruemara:
Sending love, solidarity, and good wishes to you!
The local Indivisibles are very fortunate to have someone of your calibre on their team.
I’ll be off-grid for most of the day. May we all have tailwinds helping us in our endeavors this week!
Matt McIrvin
@FlipYrWhig: “Wherever I hear that song… it reminds me of nothing.” –Jon Stewart upon hearing his alma mater
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: You know something? I don’t give a shit about those goobers. They’ve made their choices.
gvg
Leading up to the 2018 elections, I heard a lot about all the new women’s candidates who decided to run for the first time after Trump was elected. Emily’s list had astonishing numbers. This time around i have not heard anything about that. How are we doing on recruiting new candidates to challange?
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: here’s hoping that Dem candidates at every level talk about that ‘crabs in a bucket’ kind of mentality and the necessity of rejecting GOP frames & false choices.
It really, truly does not have to be this way, America. We could be doing so much more, together, for such small investments.
ruemara
@Elizabelle: You know, fuck them. Sorry for any delicate sensibilities, but they are choosing ignorance, greed and every bad virtue out there to hide their shame & dissatisfaction with their lives. No thanks to one drop of concern. Apologies to their kids, but now they get feel like black America and Native America, stranded while knowing out there, people actually give a flying fuck about their communities and educational system that they’d pay a dollar more in taxes for a qualified librarian and a library system that helps the community out. A loveless, horrid bunch and I am completely past any more attempts to reach these people from their pits of cruelty and resentment.
@H.E.Wolf: Thanks. I think I shall design a series of post cards featuring, of course, my stellar cats being adorable. CAT OUT THE VOTE!
Kent
@Elizabelle: That was an excellent article on life in the small town Ozarks which are becoming older, whiter, and more bitter. Exact same thing is happening here in the rural areas of the Pacific Northwest. Douglas County in Southwestern Oregon voted to close all of its libraries a couple of years ago because….of course. Same place that had the massive anti-Obama rallies when he came to speak after the community college shootings.
I am related to people like this in Oregon, Michigan, Indiania, and Pennsylvania. When I visit these small struggling shit-hole little towns and I hear them say things like “We are going to rise up and take back our country” I just have to laugh in their faces and think to myself: You people are obsese, sickly, and uneducated. You can’t even keep your schools and libraries open and your roads repaired. You are going to organize what? Honestly, they are stubborn as fuck and aren’t going to change their ways. All you can really do is wait for them to die off and maybe educate their kids as long as the kids leave home.
In 50-100 years I expect whole large swaths of this country to essentially revert back to nature because there are really no reasons for towns to exist in so many rural areas when mining, logging, and farming is played out or completely mechanized. It is accelerating most rapidly in the great plains.
Another Scott
Thanks, DougJ!
The DLCC is paying attention as well. – they’re highlighting ~ 35 Virginia legislative races.
Cheers,
Scott.
BC in Illinois
Donald Trump
Emphasis added, but the tweet is real:
I, in my great and unmatched wisdom,
I have never seen anything like this.
Spanky
@Elizabelle: If they bother to vote, these people help elect Senators. At least they’re increasingly vastly outnumbered by city dwellers, even in the wide open West. Let’s have the Dems concentrate on the urban voter, please.
Spanky
@BC in Illinois: I believe he stole that from that “I AM OZ!” guy.
rikyrah
@cain:
Sending you positive thoughts :)
satby
@Elizabelle: @Gin & Tonic: @ruemara: I lived among similar people in the rural section of MI, just outside the vacation cottage zone. And they are bitter, resentful folks who despised the “city people” who they price gouged each summer. Their resentment wasn’t tempered a bit by the fact that lots of their kids would leave for college or the military and never came back, it was tripled. Even when Michigan started ripping up paved roads because the anti-tax crowd had reduced revenue so much the roads couldn’t be maintained, they never connected the dots. Most of them are white supremacist Evangelicals. And they’ll never change, even when they have mixed race grandkids. I know them, and I don’t give a fuck about them either, just as they gleefully would restrict and make our lives in our blue states worse to match theirs. We need to make sure that
gerrymandering ends and voter’s rights are protected, and we need to get rid of the unfair representation that allows a minority to consistently overrule the majority of voters.
Kent
@Jeffro: I’m 55 and I’m only really beginning to understand the complete tapestry of racism that is driving this sort of small-minded small town America. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. My wife is from Chile and we visit there frequently and I often do a lot of exploring of smaller towns and out-of-the way places in Chile. My wife’s family also has a house on the coast that we visit frequently.
I’m always struck by how urban and progressive a lot of the smaller towns in Chile are. They have transit services and libraries. Good groceries and restaurants. People dress stylish and urban and take their kids to the parks and are out and about. There is really not at all the same sort of urban-rural divide that one sees in the US where rural people have retrenched. And I’ve come to the conclusion that it is largely about race. Urban and rural Chileans are all pretty much the same in terms of race and ethnicity. The really upper class are, of course, whiter. But everyone is basically Chilean.
Here in the US the rural white population has taught itself to fear and hate every other ethnicity and has built a giant edifice of fear, suspicion, and hatred about cities that is steeped in race. Cities are all about crime and brown people with weird foods and religions who “don’t share our values” I truly think that if American cities were as white as the rural areas you’d basically see none of that. It is really all about race.
Jeffro
@BC in Illinois: did I say earlier that he’ll be calling for his Second Amendment people by Friday? I might have to dial that back a day and go with Thursday.
Holy cow GOP, your orange emperor really does think he’s an orange Emperor. “I will destroy the economy of a fellow NATO member if they do the thing they’re quite likely to do after I ordered our forces out of Kurdish areas as a thank-you for enriching my hotel in Turkey/getting off of MBS’ case/doing what Putin wants”
Please Trudeau and Macron, don’t bomb us – we know we’re acting like a rogue state and threatening a NATO member with ‘obliteration’, but we’ll get it together in time. Surely.
J R in WV
@cain:
Best of luck, remember, be optimistic, it’s free and helps a lot! You can do this!!
Have kicked in some to the VA fund, which we did last election also too. Then after I announce the donation, Wife says “What about Ditch Mitch?” which should be called Ditch Moscow Mitch, I think. So I’ll do that in a little bit.
BC in Illinois
@Spanky:
Yeah, but if Trump is going to go full Oz, he’s going to have to be able to spell not only “great” and “powerful,” but also “beneficent.”
jl
@BC in Illinois: You see it in North Korea. Trump is losing it, and little chance the GOP will do anything about it until their 2020 primaries are over. I’ve read news reports that they are all waiting for some other person to take the first plunge off the Trumpster crazy train. Maybe if they waiting to see if they have a credible fanatic Trumpster challenger in the primary before thinking about jumping, if they judge that a primary is pointless if their loyalty to Trump will doom them in the general election. Then… if they can jump all at once…. We’ll see but foolish to count on it.
Dean Baker in his Beat the Press blog has a rundown today on the failure of Trump’s whimsical trade and tariff wars, despite Trump’s great and unmatched wisdom. Prospects for future success are grim, since a large part of trade deficit is driven by US macroeconomic policy, and that should drive unchanged or increasing trade deficit in near term.
Donald Trump’s Trade War: Report from the Front
Written by Dean Baker
Published: 06 October 2019
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/donald-trump-s-trade-war-report-from-the-front
rikyrah
@Kent:
Would have had socialized everything if not for the racism.
Remember, before 44, the President who came closest to giving us National Health Care was Harry Truman. He went to bed believing that it had been accomplished. What blocked it?
Southerners who knew that if National Health Care was adopted, they couldn’t keep Jim Crow.
satby
@Kent: it is about race, but also class. The left-behinds in rural white America have built a
but the city people they despised up close and personally were predominantly white. Better educated, better jobs so better paid, and usually not obese but fit, healthy and demanding better quality foods in local restaurants. And it’s because of living in the cities where the jobs, minorities and foreign people were. The idea that succeeding in school, uprooting yourself for a better job and life, working hard enough to enjoy the successful life you’ve built: the locals resented it all. And double plus racism as extra levening.
ruemara
@satby: That is where I’m at. All out of Agape at the moment. I’ll try again when we regain control of this 95% fascist country and get it back to 45% fascist.
jl
@BC in Illinois: At least Oz could pull levers to create smoke and mirror effects all the way to the end of the movie, and he could manage a balloon ride that would help other people. Not sure Trump can pull off either trick, certainly not the latter. Trump won’t give anyone but himself any awards or rewards of any kind.
So Oz 1 Trump 0.
jl
@rikyrah: @satby: Racism in the US drives a huge amount of our politics and social decision making. It permeates everything. I was thinking the other day how we still operate on the ‘one drop’ rule for deciding what race any person is, which is become increasingly silly given the increase in mixed race population.
But, in terms of winning elections and driving the racists back into hiding, I don’t see the point in worrying about it too much. We only have to sway a thin slice of the 2016 Trumpster vote to crush them politically in 2020. And I think that is best done by sending the Trumpster group the exact same message as to everyone else. Those who have ears to hear will hear, and they can save themselves. Those that don’t, well, forget about them, they have decided to condemn themselves to fear and hate and defeat.
Kent
@satby:
Honestly I think it is more about race than class. I have driven around cities with my rural fundie relatives. What do they notice and comment on? It isn’t the Paneras and Starbucks and polished upscale neighborhoods that illustrate urban prosperity. It is any hint of grafiti or garbage, or Spanish language signs, or any run-down neighborhoods that might be…gasp…[black]. Stuff like taco trucks and carnicerias makes them nervous. They notice and comment on all the stuff that feeds into their pre-conceived notions of cities being full of crime and garbage and dark people who don’t “belong” and don’t share their “values” and who are changing the country. And when a Mexican grocery opens in some abandoned storefront in their pathetic small town it is a sign that the wrong values and wrong people are coming in from the cities.
Why do you think Trump has been screaming so much about MS13 and the caravans of death?
Fair Economist
@Kent:
I think a lot of that is from cars. People in the US are almost completely dependent on cars; in other places much less so (Chile has less than a third the rate of cars per capita as the US). The problem is that cars are expensive – very much so. Their direct costs – ownership, gas, insurance, and maintenance – chew up 10-20% of national income – but this is much more oppressive in a rural area with lower incomes and greater distances. In addition, there are a lot of indirect costs – it’s much more expensive to build for cars, because you need all this parking, and buffer zones with landscaping between moving cars and everything else, plus they kill a lot of people and maim even more. For non-wealthy rural areas, the cars just suck up everything – time and money – and of course that money heads off to the headquarters of the car and oil and insurance companies, leaving the rural areas broke.
Kent
@Fair Economist: I think you are right to an extent. Cars are definitely a scourge here. But the parts of Chile that we tend to frequent are fairly affluent and cars are pretty much everywhere. It is much more Euro though. People drive much smaller and more economical cars. You don’t see any of the ridiculous big trucks or SUVs that are common here. And the streets are narrower and less accommodating to cars. Parking is more of a hassle, even for ordinary errands like going to the grocery store in smaller towns.
But there is also just a much different attitude in rural areas. People dress in fashionable black clothes and just act a whole lot more urban. There is absolutely no sense of redneck country culture that is anti-urban. You get that some in Mexico I think with all the rural ranchera music and culture. But not in Chile. At least not nearly so much. And I’m convinced that race plays a huge factor. Countries in which the ethnic composition between rural and urban areas is pretty much homogenious don’t seen to have that same great divide. Loot at the difference between the UK with Brexit and a country like say Finland which isn’t full of immigrants. Small towns in Finland have a much more sophisticated feel to them than small towns in England.
schrodingers_cat
@Kent: Correct me if I am wrong but you seem to be saying that existence of immigrants makes the rural folks racist.
H.E.Wolf
@ruemara:
I’m supposed to be out the door already… taking a quick moment to thank you for this:
YAS! VICATORY!!
Maybe we can send each other a postcard through one of the front-pagers…
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
That is a really good point about Truman, and I don’t know much about the history of National Health Care. Did not know he’d attempted it.
But I do recall that Truman is a president who was much better regarded in the years after his presidency. I think his popularity was low at the time because poll respondents didn’t want to say “never did like that man — he integrated the Armed Forces.” Historians burnished his reputation, looking at what he had tried and attempted.
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military.
Elizabelle
FDR had already begun the process. From the link above:
Kent
@schrodingers_cat: Not at all. But: (1) immigrants are pretty much the only people of color who show up for jobs in rural America. Not many blacks are moving to rural Nebraska for meatpacking jobs, and (2) immigrants are the only people of color for whom it is still acceptable to yell about. If you want to yell about black you have to use code. Like Crime and rat infested Baltimore.