Elections 2022

It bewilders me how people running for government office can denounce the organization that they want to work for before they even get the job.

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Itā€™s really crazy, isnā€™t it? But I guess much like many people who came out of the leftist countercultures argued that the best means of making long-term change is by becoming part of the system and changing it from within, the hard-core anti-government figured the same thing, but in reverse - that they can destroy a system that they see as "evilā€™ from within. Thatā€™s pretty much what the white supremacist movement has done since the 70s and 80s, running candidates for GOP tickets on a sort of modified version of their beliefs that dovetails enough with the GOP dog whistling since the 1960s to get more people to run on their ideasā€¦ and here we are, with Tucker Carlson regularly spewing the Great Replacement theory to his audience on a nightly basis, like itā€™s legitimate discourse and not hate speech.

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And with the reduction of the power of organized labor, doing it through a general strike is impossible. Violence certainly isnā€™t the answer, though so many support that because it helps the masses just wipe themselves out while the upper-classes watch.

I wish I knew what Debs would doā€¦

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One thing that does give me some hope is how many service workers are pushing for unions. The expansion of unions again is a positive political development.

But we have to keep pushing for greater civic engagement and re-building our institutions in a way that positively impacts peopleā€™s lives. Much of what the Democrats have proposed or say they support is popular. If we keep pushing for more progressives and for meaningful reform (both via voting and getting out in support for those policies in other ways - talking, protests, etc), that can be helpful. Self-defense also matters too.

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But how to convince the people that the parties arenā€™t the thing, itā€™s the progress that is?

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Thatā€™s probably harder to see when one party is a regressive party and the other is the party than runs on ā€œprogressā€ but seems to do what it can to hamstring itself.

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11th-doctor-why-cry

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I think it says that even in places considered highly ā€œprogressiveā€ and left wing, there is a shit ton of deep rooted conservativism in the American electorate, especially around issues of race. Frankly, the demands to reform our criminal justice system, which is a deeply racist system that perpetuates an outcome of white supremacy, have run up against the limits of liberals who act as if they are on board with ending their privileges, but would rather maintain their own comfort.

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Itā€™s class, pure and simple, the way I see it. Elitism is definitely multi-partisan. And what with overweening wealth being considered by most people to be the answer to all of their problems, Iā€™m not surprised.

If reading ā€œA Distant Mirrorā€ teaches me anything, itā€™s that in seven centuries, humankindā€™s not changed all that much.

Iā€™m not holding my breath.

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Now to see if heā€™ll align with the left or the right.

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In my state this year we get to vote on two propositions to amend the state constitution.

Here they are:

Proposal 2 would add language to the Constitution that says, ā€œslavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited.ā€ The ballot measure would repeal language stating that persons could be held as servants, slaves, or apprentices with the personā€™s consent or ā€œfor the payments of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like.ā€

Proposal 5 would add language to the Constitution stating that ā€œan individualā€™s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine oneā€™s own life course.ā€

This is in one of the most progressive states in the country, in 2022, and here we are voting on whether or not to have slavery and bodily autonomy.

People who think voting doesnā€™t matter really need to reconsider.

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Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

There are. There absolutely are.

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Yup. By my count, it looks like only 4 states currently forbid it, and itā€™s up for vote in 5 states this year. Which, even if they all pass, still leaves it legal in 41 other states.

https://news.ballotpedia.org/2022/10/11/slavery-and-indentured-servitude-on-the-ballot-in-five-states/

After seeing Roe v Wade overturned, it becomes pretty clear that states need to have clear and specific language in their constitutions, regardless of what the federal law is. That is also a big one this year:

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It has frequently interested me the ways in which society is often held together by polite agreement rather than formal documentation. Clearly we need more of the latter.

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I voted early.

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