As long as there are still state Justices not (directly or indirectly) beholden to the GOP, there is hope that the partisan tomfoolery of gerrymandering can be stopped.
Charlie Pierce, at Esquire, stated today that he does have such hope. And, a significant point:
…As for public financing of elections: quite true that American oligarchs will never permit it.
But, worth noting: current members of Congress also have a strong incentive to prevent such a change. As things stand, election to Congress is a virtual guarantee of lifelong wealth (including full medical coverage, no small consideration), and status. A Congress of citizen-legislators? Most of all the goodies of the current system would disappear.
They will fight tooth and nail to prevent such an outcome—no matter what lip service they (the Democrats, I mean) might pay it while campaigning.
Frankly, as insane as Trump has been, that’s just going into lunatic conspiracy theory by a large margin.
If he tried something like that, I think even Ryan and McConnell would express strong disapproval.
I for one welcome rooting out these disloyal citizens and draining the swamp! MAGA!
rifles through a drawer looking for passport
Jesus. I’m only half-joking - both parties seem to be Seeking Kyle in their own messed up ways right now - the right with their literal reviving of Nazis and totalitarianism, the left with their Red-hunting McCarthyism.
As I said on Facebook, it’d be dangerously hilarious to give this guy and Alex Jones some bath salts, and let them talk to each other about the conspiracy theories.
it’s strange I know, but I can think of no better term than McCarthyism to describe the phenomenon of accusing media outlets, Black Lives Matter, Jill Stein, and disaffected anti-government protestors on Twitter and Facebook as “Russian agents.”
I suppose I should qualify that as “centrist liberals” or “neoliberals” although a fair number of social democrats and assorted leftists seem to be drinking the same kool-aid on the Russia issue.
No, she’s a target of the anti-Russian ‘mainstream.’ Because only the divine Hillary never took any direct support from Putin. :rolleyes: Other Russian oligarchs, sure.
It’s hilarious how our political system is so overcome by influence peddling that Russian oligarchs are finding people across the political spectrum to pay off. The RT crowd and folks like Jimmy Dore pretend it’s not even going on, but then they start defending Russian actions in Ukraine. Democrats pretend they’re clean, but they’re not, really; or at least Hillary wasn’t.
And it’s not about Reds. Russia is run by oligarchs now.
There’s an element of truth to it - Trump has ties to Russian mobsters and almost certainly is guilty of laundering money for them.
But the common consensus we seem to have reached is that Trump is some sort of Manchurian Candidate doing the will of Putin, which is just patently absurd. Trump is awful enough without having to resort to crappy plot-lines from a John Grisham novel.
And the Democrats are defying all logic and attacking everyone on the left who mildly disagrees with them by accusing them of being Russian agents. It’s ridiculous.
Sadly, that’s close to the truth. Trump and the Vichy GOPers are sliding down that alt-right slope. The Bob Dole and John McCain - upright, conservative, but sane, wing of the party is disappearing. The alt-right is now the right wing of the party and the center and left are crazy evangelicals, Trump and his sycophants.
I’ve seen a photo, yes. That informs what I’m saying.
Hillary had a lot of money coming from other Russians that weren’t Putin. This isn’t being acknowledged in the present climate; partly because she isn’t in office, and partly because it allows the self-proclaimed defenders of liberalism to pretend that they are the true patriots beset on all sides by that evil foreign interference.
The problem with publicly-financed elections is, how do you decide who gets the public funding? If five hundred crazy lunatic-fringe nuts declare their candidacy, do all five hundred of them get equal funding?