Well, again, only persons registered in one of the two corporate sponsored parties are permitted to vote in primary elections, in my state. Since the Democratic Party here is tremendously larger than the other, voting in their primary has less effect.
At the national level, this has meant, for example, that my voting in the Republican primary was critically important to electing Chris Coons, a Democrat. (This would be a better example if Coons had lived up to expectations, but at least we got Castle out.)
At the local level, again, my Republican state representative is significantly better than his Democratic counterparts; he supports the public school system that Democrats have spent decades dismantling, he opposes the racist school-to-prison pipeline and zero tolerance policies Democrats built, he supports LBGT rights, etc. and he welcomes constituents to visit him in his home to relay their causes and concerns.
All that being said, I rarely vote for Republicans other than in primaries; I’ll happily vote for the good ones, but they are rare (as indeed they are in the Democratic Party). I mostly vote 3rd parties and independents so that someday when my fellow citizens wake up, they’ll have other choices on the ballot.
You tell me; am I complicit in Republican chicanery? Am I a collaborator, or is it the people voting for slightly-less-horrible Democrats because they’ve been propagandized to believe voting outside the two party system is a wasted vote? Given the choices available to me, am I doing evil or good?
That’s a very complicated question, that everyone has to work out for themselves.
What you’re doing is entirely defensible; ain’t nothing wrong with tactical registration and voting, especially as it doesn’t require any real party membership. And you’re probably aware that I don’t see the establishment Dems as offering any real solution to the problem.
But I wasn’t referring to you; I was referring to the people you were describing. People who, for whatever reason, chose to support the rise of the GOP and the Trump Presidency.
I’m sure that most of them think of themselves as good people. I’m sure that many of them are perfectly pleasant to their neighbours.
But that has been the case in the past as well. The fanatics were always a minority; they came to power on the support of many “decent” people.
OK, I see what you mean. It’s that whole “if you vote ethically you’re throwing your vote away” brainwash. American elections are a Prisoner’s Dilemma; everyone’s convinced that their neighbors are horrible and will never vote outside the two-party system, and they end up supporting fascism.
I went to a funeral last week that was a Who’s Who of NRA bigwigs, police officers and Republican Committee apparatchiks. I’m told that the only reason Wayne LaPierre wasn’t there was that the deceased had been fairly open with his disdain for LaPierre (can’t confirm any of that, but I had it from a trustworthy source).
I borrowed my wife’s electric car with the big Bernie (well, actually, Birdie) and Hillary stickers on the back, and parked it so nobody could possibly approach without seeing it.
Sadly you cannot foist this onto republican leadership on aNY level because it is people like you who have voted in these republican politicians and leadership. Sorry the onus is on you to make a change.
I believe it may be something that voters will have to undo themselves via ballot initiative. If CO is a “blue” state only when it comes to presidential and senatorial elections, a ballot initiative that results in the legislature being able to levy new taxes could be a nearly impossible uphill struggle.
TABOR is not just state law - it’s actually in the state constitution. Legislators are powerless to raise taxes without statewide referendum. Attempts have been made to repeal and occasional tax bills have passed but it’s a really high bar to cross. That was a deliberate part of the amendments design. As you can imagine, most ballot initiatives that raise taxes fail.
Check @anon81034786’s reply to @anotherone. Michigan operates the same way - constitutional changes enacted by ballot initiative can only be undone by ballot initiative.
Actually, I certainly can. I vote in every primary, and I didn’t vote for a damn one of these idiots. (And “people like you” is not a phrase I ever use, by the way.)
I can “foist blame” on the Democratic leadership, too - if they were willing to support a candidate that my fellow Americans would actually leave the sofa to vote for, those evil Republicans wouldn’t be in office.
These are not issues of the rank and file voter. The professional political leadership has driven and propagated the failure of the two-party system.
It’s not a strike, but a walkout. Most teachers are using their vacation days to lobby the legislature to meet voter-approved spending for schools under amendment 23 and to fix PARA.
PARA, is our civil servant pension. Our republican treasurer has been working to undermine the program’s performance and screwing a lot of people in Colorado. This obviously hurts a lot of teachers, and they are rightfully angry.
Amendment 23 was passed by the voters to increase funding to schools by a specified amount each year until a sunset. During the economic meltdown, the legislature found a way lower funding for schools across the state. The teachers are fighting to raise funding to the levels voters intended.
They’re also asking for Colorado to raise per-student spending to the national average. However, any additional funding will be a decoupled action for the legislature. The best the government can do is put a bill on the November ballot asking for the new tax. Under TABOR, they cannot increase taxes without voter approval, which makes it hard for teachers to pressure for anything beyond 23, and PARA.
All of these issues are going to be problematic with November looming, and a Republican Senate.It will be hard to get bipartisan support (and it will have to be even to reach the governor) to fix an issue most conservatives will oppose. No rural republican up for election in November wants to be seen caving to union pressure.
The teachers have a big fight on their hands, and I wish them luck. Honestly, a strike might make sense, and this could be the first steps toward one.
