212 Comments

Thanks for this.

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Lots of people airing very legitimate complaints about their state's Democratic Party, so I thought I'd drop a teensy tiny speck of sunshine from the red state of Ohio.

There was no drama waiting for anyone in the state legislation after the midterms. Republicans, of course, won majorities in both houses, and the election for the new Speaker for the House of Representatives was going to be nothing more than a formality, or, better, a coronation.

Speaker in all but name gets a challenger. Challenger, along with sixteen loyalists, cut a deal with the Minority Leader for the Democratic Caucus's support. The vote comes, and the Challenger wins.

The Republicans went berserk. They claimed the Speakership required a majority of the majority party's votes to win. They came this close (holds fingers apart the average length of an erect Republican penis) to having a Pope in Avignon situation with dueling Speakers both claiming legitimacy.

Now, Challenger is absolutely no better than the guy he beat, just another rightwing Trumper asshole, and the Republicans have accepted him because they're sheep and he's no different than the shepherd they expected.

But the Minority Leader, Allison Russo, wielded her caucus like a precision instrument and publicly pantsed this guy in front of the entire state, and he never saw it coming.

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I'm hoping to see Vos in Wisconsin get his just desserts.

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"...that would have made public the criminal records of young people between ages 13 and 18 who are accused of a violent crime—but only in Caddo, East Baton Rouge, and Orleans."

Wait, what?

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It's Louisiana, racism is basically a way of life there and has been since America's founding, it simply never went away. Even the minorities there seem to have given up on changing that.

It could still be worse because it isn't Florida, but Louisiana isn't shy about trying for the bottom championship.

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I think Florida is terrible. But in many ways Louisiana is already more racist, and it’s about to get much worse.

I would suggest Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are the three worst states in most categories. Arkansas is their biggest challenger. Florida and the Carolinas are more like the 5th through eighth worst. Truthfully they are not much different than Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, or Texas, Idaho, or the Dakotas.

Gawd I’m happy I don’t live in any of them. No pretty mountain outweighs living among racist and antisemitic asshats.

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It’s like that everywhere in the US. Other states just hide it more.

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Go check out RT Mann on Twitter. LSU department heads already resigning. He was previously a press secretary for Kathleen Blanco. He had decades in Democratic Politics and was in the Manship School at LSU. I live in Texas, but I’m an LSU alum, I still get the Baton Rouge Paper and listen to tons of BR sports media. I want to preface this by saying that even though I live in Texas, I constantly receive texts, emails, fundraising info for Dems in Georgia and Colorado and Michigan and Arizona. I’n always down to phone bank. But, Louisiana is near and dear enough to me that I’ll go knock doors. I got NOTHING from the Louisiana Democrats. Nothing. In fact, I have hundreds of left-leaning friends in Louisiana. Nobody was talking about it.

I’m not just saying this - this is a common theme I’m hearing from Louisiana Dems. The head of the party did not organize. They did nothing. NOTHING. Shawn Wilson was not a bad candidate at all. It really seems like the Democrats in power and Jon Bel Edwards were more concerned with going after MANDIE Landry, an unrelated progressive state representative from NO, than they were with Jeff Landry. In fact, there were signs that said “No More LANDRYS” implying Mandie was just as bad. So, they threw money behind a moderate challenger and Mandie DID win big.

It’s a MESS. I’m genuinely scared for Louisiana right now. I live under a former AG who is ruling Texas as a jurist. If Louisiana wants to join a race to the bottom, they have a big head start. It’s really sad.

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Yeah they are really serious about closing in on that big lead of Florida's.

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I live in SC, so i feel your pain. It sucks that the poorest people in the reddest states won't vote to change things. In my state, if people voted we could probably turn it blue again.

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A 610,000 - 241,000 margin doesn't seem to be a turnout problem.

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Well, certain people are motivated to vote for Republicans because they want to hurt those they feel are undesirables. You know, like the people in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. And they didn't have to be "inspired" for it.

Democrats need to always be voting, because civil rights are always able to be rolled back in the USA (or any colonial construction).

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I think the Democratic Party should pay some more money for door-knocking campaigns. We can't expect volunteers to donate hours of their free time for free, especially if these volunteers are poor. I would donate money specifically to the Democratic Party if I knew that the money would be spent on canvassing.

I suppose it's nice to pay for political ads, too, but maybe there are a lot of people in Louisiana who don't have any access to TV or the Internet. Or newspapers. Or who don't belong to any community organizations at all. Where are the black churches that do such good work getting out the vote in other states? Are African-Americans in Louisiana leaving their church communities? Have African-American church leaders in Louisiana all turned conservative, to the point where they don't bother suggesting to their congregations that they might want to vote against obvious white supremacists running for governor in their state?

There has to be SOME explanation for so many people in Louisiana being SO out of touch and SO disengaged from the whole political process that they feel either that they have no choice to make or that their votes don't matter.

And I for one am NOT going to jump to the convenient conclusion that nonvoters are "just dumb." Lots of dumb people vote in every election; they're called Republicans. How can we motivate people to vote if they're not dumb enough to be Republican?

How did Stacey Abrams and her grand assembly of dedicated organizers energize Georgia voters and achieve all those recent historic successes? Can we replicate this in other states? We really need to.

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See what I posted.

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He looks like you could insert him into any portrait of evil people from history and he would fit right in.

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Doesn’t he?

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Texas used to have a lot of uncontested races including for judges. It's coming back, but you all want everything reversed in 10 minutes while doing nothing but bitching.

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i don't know i feel like a lot of us have been doing a lot of shit (and money) to help R states. and not really bitching.

i do however, think this is the last gasp. and dear god i hope so. i'm utterly sick of making calls/knocking doors/ writing fucking postcards for (me) WI, IN, NC and MI.

(ok, yeah i guess i'm bitching...)

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Landry made crime the main issue, despite the fact that as attorney general, HE was in charge of controlling crime in LA. Pitiful turnout, particularly from NOLA. You'd think that people would get riled up and vote against a guy who is always bashing on the Crexcent City but I guess after Edwards, folks don't think that a Democratic governor will do anything for them.

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"An estimated 36 percent of Louisiana’s three million registered voters showed up for the primary"

So, Landry's 51.5% of the vote only represents 18.5% pf the electorate. He better not talk about a "mandate"

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He will.

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He got more than twice as many votes as the next guy. That's a mandate.

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"No lectures, either, just listen."

If we listened, what would we hear? That women overwhelmingly want to retain control over their reproductive health? That marginalized LGBTQ citizens shouldn't be demonized? Thar expanding Medicaid coverage will improve health outcomes? If citizens want these things, but are unwilling to vote for the candidates who will actually give them to them, I don't know what the answer is

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"Waguespack" sounds like a retro playground insult from the late eighties that would get you into trouble if you said it on TV now.

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scott waguespack alderman 32nd ward chicago.

MY FUCKING costco is in the 32nd ward.

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'Everyone Wague Spack tonite'

I remember that hit!

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Isn't that how you talk to a Japanese bull?

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Or something used in a body shop

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I voted, but I know a lot of people who would have voted Democrat thought that there would be a run-off. Stupid, but there it is.

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What the ever loving fuck. I swear the stupid never stops gobsmacking me upside the head. I learned my lesson in that arena in 2016 and will never underestimate the stupid again but fuck this is crazy ramming stupid in the ass.

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Yeah.

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