This week at progressive state blogs is designed specifically to focus attention on the writing and analysis of people focused on their home turf. Here is the August 26 edition. Inclusion of a blog post does not necessarily indicate my agreement with—or endorsement of—its contents. |
At Bayou Brief of Louisiana, Bobby Mannis writes—If More Millennials Voted In New Orleans, They Wouldn’t Be “The Future.” They’d Be In Charge:
Millennials have the opportunity to decide the fate of every race in New Orleans. In a city with 100,000 young people, where mayoral races usually take 30,000 votes to win, millennial voters can make the difference between a win and a loss.
In 2015, Noa Elliot felt triumphant when her first vote helped elect Gov. John Bel Edwards. At 19 years old, she “felt great and was shocked” to vote in a “more progressive voice for Louisiana.” Noa is a millennial helping to start a pattern of increased voting that will turn how campaigns run.
Millennials are the future, but the numbers suggest that, if millennial turn-out exceeded 50%, our generation would be politically unstoppable in New Orleans. Our political system does not reflect our values, but it has the capacity to. Young people can and will decide the priorities of our communities by electing leaders who care about our needs and then holding them accountable.
When the tides turn and millennials take power through political engagement, a more tolerant, informed, and empathetic world will emerge. Millennials exist in that political space and will be able to champion causes from a timeframe that cannot be matched, creating the world of tomorrow in which they want to live and thrive.
In a representative democracy, we the citizens have the power to decide who leads us. We give leaders we trust the responsibility to make political decisions that represent our best interests. Voting measures public opinion and gives legitimacy to the leaders we elect. In a perfect world, everyone would be informed, engaged, and voting for competent candidates that represent their values. When a mistake is made and representatives fail to serve the public, they can be voted out by the same people who voted them in. This is the beauty of a representative democracy, allowing citizens to pursue day-to-day lives while giving trusted public servants the right to make tough and complicated decisions on their behalf.
However, our representative democracy is failing young people, because young people are failing to participate.
At RI Future.org, Steven Ahlquist writes—Raimondo signs conversion therapy ban bill:
Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo may have ceremonially signed legislation banning conversion therapy for minors in a special ceremony at the State House yesterday, but credit for the legislation’s passage fell on Wendy Becker from Youth Pride Inc (YPI). Becker earned not one, but two rounds of applause for her work and was credited by the bill’s sponsors, Edie Ajello in the House and Donna Nesselbush in the Senate, for guiding the bill to passage.
“I’ve been in the General Assembly 25 years,” said Representative Edie Ajello (Democrat, District 1, Providence). “In fact, in 1992, when I was thinking about running, one of the people I talked with was Wendy Becker. And in that conversation she said, ‘It’s not such a good time for me to run, but I’ll help you if you run.’ And then she went on to ask me to do something as a legislator. Wendy asked me to work on repealing Rhode Island’s sodomy law because she and Mary wanted to adopt children. At that time, in the news, people had read that in Virginia lesbian couples were being denied the opportunity to marry because they wee considered sodomites. They were breaking the Virginia law.
“It took a couple years,” continued Ajello. “I think it was 1998 when we finally repealed the sodomy law. When Wendy Becker came to me again and asked me to work on the conversion therapy ban, I had to say yes. Wendy was just amazing in her running the campaign for passage of this bill. From organizing people to testify to organizing contacts with legislators she did it all. And it really ought to be the Wendy Becker law.
“And the good news is that Wendy and Mary are raising their own children. They are raising them to be active in the community.”
At Blog for Iowa, Trish Nelson writes—Apple Awarded $213 Million:
Apple Inc, the most profitable company in the world, was awarded $213 million from Governor Kim Reynolds and local officials to build a new data center in Waukee that will create 50 jobs.
Under the deal, Apple will receive $19.6 million in tax credits from the Economic Development Authority to create the 50 jobs while local incentives total $194 million.
Many Iowans have expressed concerns over the deal because the incentives mean Apple will get about $4 million for every permanent job created, while the corporation has a record $256.8 billion in cash on hand.
The deal comes the same week lawmakers learned the state’s watchdog that protects Iowans in nursing home facilities would end on-site inspections. Some Iowans also expressed concerns that last year’s K-12 education budget in Iowa was the 3rd lowest in 40 years. Lawmakers are also considering a special session this fall to fix the state’s budget shortfall.
At FortBoise of Idaho, Tom van Alten writes—Almost in bipartisan agreement:
Just over a month ago seems like ancient history, but the opportunity of agreeing with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (and Richard Viguerie) about something was appealing. The teaser to this item swimming in the deep waters of my inbox caught my eye, with the punchline that asset forfeiture is wrong. +1 for that.
Thomas called it "policing for profit," and questions its constitutionality, which is worth noting, even if it doesn't do anything to address the problem. (Maybe someday.) This, from Viguerie:
"Asset forfeiture positions police as part of lawbreaking, thieving government instead of friends to the security of our communities. It is unfair to hoist on our police the cross-ideological disdain for asset forfeiture."
Amen, I think. ("Cross-ideological disdain" is... odd.) The AG "would be wise to reconsider and walk back his recent support for this government theft."
The bizarre wind-up to that simple point in Viguerie's mini-screed does nothing to help his argument. Who is he trying to persuade, about what? The "horribly corrupt leftist attorneys general we had under President Obama" are over now, and "an even worse expected choice under a President Hillary" didn't happen. It's too late to complain about Jeff Sessions' abundance of caution in the Russia probe, his supposed "trying to stay beyond reproach." (Also, the "Star Chamberesque" Russia probe, for which "Robert Mueller and his expanding team of Democrat donors have virtually unchecked power." If only!)
Jeff Sessions is not a General. The claim that "American police are under literal assault from radical forces of leftwing [sic] anarchy seeking to disrupt the security of American communities" is a load of horse manure.
At Calitics of California, Brian Leubitz writes—The Republicans Have Reserved Seating for Climate Change Believers:
Yesterday, the Assembly Republicans shifted some deck chairs on the Titanic, and got a new leader for their superminority come next legislative session. Chad Mayes got the boot for acknowledging that climate change was real (while negotiating some odious provisions) and voting for the cap and trade legislation. And so, he has a very special seat at the back of the Republican caucus reserved for heretics.
“Once again, elected Republican legislators have shown that they can’t abide heresy – in this case, acknowledgement that climate change is real and requires real solutions. Mayes, in organizing Republican votes for AB 398, showed more political courage than any member of the federal Climate Solutions Caucus… and lost his position as Assembly Minority Leader. This vote only reinforces our belief that there’s no reasoning with Republicans on climate solutions. The only real solution is to vote them out,” said RL Miller, chair of the California Democratic Party’s environmental caucus as well as the president of Climate Hawks Vote, a PAC building political power for the climate movement.
At this point, the need for Republican votes is rare. Logically, they should seize the opportunity whenever they can. But that would require compromise to achieve some semblance of results on their goals, and the base DOES NOT LIKE compromise
And so Chad Mayes is shifted to the side. And given that the base at home is quite unhappy, he may face a nasty primary challenge next year as well. But the problem Republicans face is that they are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Mayes actually managed to get some pretty unpalatable provisions in the cap and trade legislation that were something of a giveaway to the oil and business lobby. You know, the GOP money people, but his base at home simply doesn’t like negotiating anything with Democrats, especially anything that acknowledges that climate change is real.
But don’t worry about Mayes, he’ll find a nice paycheck somewhere now lobbying for some corporate interest. But the lesson here is clear for the GOP: “No negotiating. We like our irrelevancy and screaming from the cheap seats.”
At NC Progressive Pulse, Rob Schofield writes—NC public schools fight childhood hunger: Let’s hope the Right doesn’t find out:
The latest NC Budget and Tax Center Prosperity Watch reportis out and the subject is extremely timely: childhood hunger and some promising North Carolina public school initiatives to attack it. Let’s hope the programs highlighted in the report are nurtured and allowed to grow. As has been reported on these page in previous years, local conservative think tanks with regular access to the ears of legislative leaders have long railed against supposed “waste” in school lunch programs and the idea — gasp! — that some hungry kids may get fed on occasion even when their families incomes aren’t always below the miserly official levels for eligibility.
Happily, as the report appears to indicate, public officials appear finally to be waking up to the reality that feeding hungry school children — whatever their family income levels — is never a bad thing.
N.C. schools adopt innovative breakfast programs to fight student hunger
It’s back to school time, which means that more than 1.5 million school-age children across North Carolina will enter public school classrooms each school day. While much of the discussion regarding North Carolina’s public schools often highlights what is missing and the various barriers to every student receiving a high-quality education, there are positive and promising things about our public schools that warrant attention.
Schools serve as community assets that not only teach students to read, write, and do math, but they also help address other barriers – such as access to health services and food insecurity – that impede the development of healthy, vibrant, and smart students.
The importance of the role that schools play in addressing child hunger is clear. One out of every 6 North Carolina households, and 1 in 5 North Carolina children, face food insecurity, meaning these families do not have access to adequate food needed to ensure that children are healthy, academically successful, and have sufficient early childhood development. For our public schools, this translates into more than half of North Carolina students returning to school this year being eligible for subsidized school meals.
At SC Progressive Blog, Becci Robbins writes—Offensive monuments: should they stay or should they go?
Since white supremacists terrorized Charlottesville and shocked an addled nation, there is growing demand to take down offensive monuments in public spaces. Pressure is building in South Carolina as well, so we thought it time to revisit the SC Progressive Network‘s position, drafted after the Confederate flag was moved off the State House grounds and amid subsequent calls to remove the Ben Tillman statue.
Our position remains that instead of removing offensive monuments we reinterpret them to accurately reflect the state’s painful history. As we said in 2015, “taking them down will not change the past, nor will it help future generations understand and change the institutionalized racism they inherit. We support telling the truth about our former ‘heroes’ with additional plaques that explain their role in using race and class oppression to retain wealth and power.”
This is a teachable moment, a chance for a deeper look at these edifices we usually pass by without notice. Instead of erasing history, we should expand our understanding of it. When and why were the monuments erected? Whose interests did they serve and at what price? And who, really, are these figures occupying places of honor on the State House lawn? Chances are most South Carolinians don’t know.
We understand that our position is not shared among all of our members or allies, and we respect those who disagree. There isn’t a single valid way to respond to the assault on our shared values of equality and fairness. But whatever your beliefs, please don’t let your outrage misdirect your energy. There is critical work to be done in South Carolina to address the sources rather than the symptoms of our problems.
Our State House is littered with statues honoring the architects of systemic racism, codified in our very constitution. But we cannot wave a magic wand to make the monuments disappear. In fact, only our lawmakers can take them down, and then by an unlikely two-thirds vote, thanks to the Heritage Act they passed to ensure their enduring control.
The question activists must ask ourselves is not whether offensive monuments should come down, but how much time and energy are we willing to spend to that end.
At Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger writes—Retired Sturgis History Teacher Says Racists Want to Bring Klan Back to South Dakota:
Retired Sturgis history teacher Charles Rambow often speaks about the dark history of the Ku Klux Klan in the Black Hills. His master’s thesis on the Klan and 1973 article on the Klan’s popularity in South Dakota in the 1920s were sparked in 1970 when his mother gave him what turned out to be a Klan robe from his grandparents’ participation in the racist, bigoted movement.
Rambow tells KSFY his concerns about the present resurgence of white supremacist rhetoric:
“It was an organization of hate.” Charles Rambow is concerned about the rise of white nationalism he is seeing and is worried history is now repeating itself in the worst possible way.
He is two generations removed from active Ku Klux Klan members in his own family and says decades later their legacy is still tough for him to reconcile. “Yes my grandmother and grandfather were good people but they should have never been involved in the Ku Klux Klan.”
Charles Rambow tells me he doesn’t believe the Ku Klux Klan has any active chapters in South Dakota right now.
But he does say there are white supremacists in the state who hope to re-establish the Klan here; so far they have been unsuccessful [Brian Allen, “A History of Hate: The Ku Klux Klan in South Dakota,” KSFY, 2017.08.28].
Rambow notes that the 1920s Klan boom was fueled in part by the 1915 movie Birth of a Nation, an exercise in racist historical revisionism that celebrated the Confederacy. We now have an occupant of the White House who revises history and celebrates monuments to the Confederacy. Keep an eye on white-sheet sales….
At Delaware Liberal, El Sonambulo writes—The Speculative Attorney General Political Thread:
Because politics abhors a vacuum. Who do you like? Who do you think will run on both sides? Who do you want to tout? This is the place for it.
I’ll start. I don’t know who will run, but I do believe that there is one prospective candidate who is clearly the most qualified. And, not for the first time, I’m in total agreement with Rufus Y. Kneedog. That person is Kathy Jennings. What people tend to forget is that being an effective AG requires being an effective administrator. Nobody in Delaware has more experience in ensuring the smooth operation of a Department of Justice than Jennings. While working for Matt Denn, she was responsible for all state prosecutions and, according to the News-Journal, ‘supervise(d) a staff of more than 250 people’.
County Executive Matt Meyer recently appointed Jennings as his Chief Administrative Officer. So, perhaps the timing would not be optimal for her to run. However, the time really wasn’t optimal for Denn to leave the Lieutenant Governor post to run for AG. My one question regarding Jennings is whether she is a candidate at heart. Maybe she prefers to be an administrator. However, should she choose to run, she would be a formidable candidate. And she may already be fed up with having to deal with Karen Hartley Nagle, so maybe the door’s open.
At Blogging Blue of Wisconsin, Ed Heinzelman writes—Paul Ryan Still Hasn’t Had a Real Town Hall Meeting:
But he knows how to pretend he has! From his email on Friday (which includes a link to the coverage of his controlled CNN town hall that even limited attendance by the media):
“The people of Wisconsin are my employers and you elected me to focus on your problems.”
Paul works for you – that’s why he regularly meets with businesses, families, and students across Southern Wisconsin to talk about the issues you care about and what he can do to help solve your problems. At his most recent town hall event in Racine, Paul answered a wide range of questions from constituents. Here are some of his answers about President Trump’s strategy in Afghanistan, Foxconn’s move to Wisconsin, tax reform, and the recent events in Charlottesville.
And then here’s the link to his preferred CNN Town Hall coverage: Ryan talks issues with voters during CNN town hall meeting
It’s been reported that Speaker Paul Ryan hasn’t held any real town halls (in over 600 days) because he doesn’t want protestors brought in from other districts…he just wants to speak with his own constituents. Well I am sorry to say that he no longer has that luxury. Unlike Rep. James Sensenbrenner or Rep. Gwen Moore…who are simply members of the House…Rep. Ryan is the Speaker of the House…and he now represents ALL Americans in the U.S. House of Representatives. Maybe he’s just not up to the task?
At SaintPetersBlog of Florida, Mitch Perry writes—Citing TECO tragedy, Kathy Castor wants OSHA to upgrade power plant worker safety:
Citing a recent newspaper investigation which revealed that Tampa Electric Company ignored special guidelines to prevent workers from being injured at its Big Bend Power Station, Tampa’s U.S. Representative Kathy Castor is calling on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to take steps to increase worker safety at power plants.
Five men working at TECO’s Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach died June 29 after suffering massive burns when a molten substance called “slag” gushed out of a tank when they working to remove a blockage.
A Tampa Bay Times investigation found that TECO abandoned rules that it had put in place after a similar situation in 1997 and resumed the risky procedure that caused the accident.
Citing that story, Castor writes that she “strongly encourages” OSHA to “act swiftly to develop clarifying rules that would prevent future accidents.”
“The Department of Labor may want to consider commencing the rule-making process to protect workers from these slag tank maintenance related injuries and the many other instances where workers have to choose between their safety and the threat of discipline or dismissal.”
The Times also reported last month that over the past two decades, more workers have died at Tampa Electric’s power plants than at those run by any other Florida utility.
“Tampa Electric is actively cooperating with OSHA and supporting its investigation,” TECO spokesperson Cherie Jacobs said on Thursday.
At Blue Jersey, vmars writes—If Menendez is Convicted, So Should Trump Be:
NJ Senior Senator Bob Menendez is on trial as I write this is for calling two government agencies and seeking to intervene in favor of a supporter. He has pleaded not guilty, and there is a chance (especially given the overturning of Sheldon Silver’s corruption conviction) he will be found so. But there is also the chance he will be found guilty of using his public office to interfere with the federal government to help a financial and political supporter.
If he is convicted, then a grand jury must immediately be impaneled to look into President Trump’s interference in the Department of Justice’s investigation into Sheriff Joe Arpaio,
“The president asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions whether it would be possible for the government to drop the criminal case against Arpaio, but was advised that would be inappropriate… After talking with Sessions, Trump decided to let the case go to trial, and if Arpaio was convicted, he could grant clemency.”
“So the president waited, all the while planning to issue a pardon if Arpaio was found in contempt of court for defying a federal judge’s order to stop detaining people merely because he suspected them of being undocumented immigrants… His effort to see if the case could be dropped showed a troubling disregard for the traditional wall between the White House and the Justice Department, and taken together with similar actions could undermine respect for the rule of law, experts said.”
And also when Trump tried to intervene into the FBI’s investigation into Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia during the election. [...]