Not interested in the present White House contest

I’m not interested in the present bullshit.

Remain focused on the state legislatures, governors and attorneys general. They are the true sources of power in this country. The Supreme Court is 6-3, and Congress is incredibly hamstrung, thanks to the votes and laws of multiple state governments over decades. The balloons which they trial often make it into law or increase in popularity with like-minded counterparts across the country, and then sometimes flow upward into federal policy.

You may fear SCOTUS and what more they may allow, or what Trump will bring if he is elected again, but so many of you live under decades-long dark-red state rule with no option but to wait for demographics to shift in your direction just a little bit more each year, or each decade.

And what has that brought you? Learned helplessness, stuck in the suburbs of some red state, stuck being disappointed by the latest flow of bullshit from your state legislature.

And you pontificate on switching out the incumbent president for another nominee from whatever state while the sand continues to shift under your (and their) very feet.

Learn your history. Get some perspective. Relocate strategically. Plan accordingly.

Why liberals and socialists are reacting with hair on fire

I don’t think it’s a “circle jerk”, as a friend described it, at least not a total circle jerk. I have several thoughts about it.

They’re turning inward and insular because they’re being starkly reminded of the fragility of their appearance-dependent relationship with the nationalized centrist-Esque media and their donors, and they have no seeming refuge atm beyond, what, MeidasTouch? Lincoln Project? YouTubers?

Too many liberals want to be loved by nationalized media, and to keep their current relationship with that same media. Just as they’ve been with the judicial and executive branches of government, they may want to turn against nationalized media for now because things are going bad, but they always come back and never build out their own comparable counterpart to the conservative parallel economy. And their donors, small dollar and large all, are flighty as hell.

And the nationalization of the media apparently happened during the same period as the growth of the local news(paper) desert and the growth of Republican capture of state legislative majorities.

And the center-left are also lacking yet again for a strong bench of unifying personalities from outside the nationalized media to countervail the prevailing narrative, or to even fill a portion of the power vacuum which will be left if Biden withdraws or (worse) 25th-Amendments his remaining (first) term.

We may not have a Macron at the helm, but we also definitely don’t have a (less-problematic) Melenchon to offer an alternative, polarizing populist vision or personality. In leadership, We have a bunch of institutionalists and up-and-comers with the personality or relatability of a wet paper bag outside of their constituencies, none of whom are helping to build the parallel polis to protect their interests and narratives.

So we now see a circle jerk for those who only have (or seek) some distance from the nationalized centrist media and its blowback, not a full-blown parallel polis to buffer them ideologically from centrist blowback in a multitude of ways like what Trump has at his disposal.

Not even pro-Bernie people, as resentful as they may continue to be about 2016 or 2020 DNC, or people further left have built out much of their own parallel polis, unfortunately.

Free advice to Biden’s campaign

In France this week, Macron’s own prime minister, Gabriel Attal, got him to stop talking publicly about the election for the rest of this last week, because Macron, in his 40s, kept firing his mouth off at the political left (especially rival Jean-Luc Melenchon) at a time when that is absolutely not needed.

Macron may have looked at the numbers and decided that it would be better for the RN to grab a majority, appoint a far-right prime minister and try their hand at governing in such a way that the French public would be turned off afterwards.

Attal, OTOH, is actually fighting against this apathy, this resignation to an RN majority, and is not fighting those to his left. He’s actually committing to this “Republican front” strategy, and actually hates the far right more than he disagrees with the far-left. He knows ball.

This “Republican front” may have helped reduce the likelihood of a majority for the far-right National Rally in the runoff tomorrow, as per polls from yesterday. (UPDATE: It did, and Attal announced his resignation effective Monday. UPDATE: Macron rejected his resignation, wants him to stay until after the Olympics.).

If this is what’s needed to keep Biden in the election and keep Dems viable, then do it. Have him talk with a voice assistant at all public events like Jennifer Wexton. Have his surrogates campaign for him instead where necessary.

His actual voice is a worthy sacrifice if he’s that serious about running.

But if you’re going to side with anyone:

• it must be Harris
• you must support Harris completely, with no reservations.

We don’t need primaries

Hot take: French and British political parties do not use publicly-funded, state-ran primaries to nominate their parliamentary candidates, nor do they perceive their nomination contests to be public, mass affairs or extensions of the general election season which should be open to all party members or even non-party members.

Maybe we in the U.S. should reconsider using primaries (closed or open) to nominate our candidates or inviting participation from independents. Primaries add unnecessary expenses and time to campaigns and are incredibly inflexible to quality control concerns.

We really don’t need primaries, let alone open primaries.

Legalize proxy voting

Hot take: Legalize proxy same-day in-person voting.

It may violate the secret ballot, but if you want high turnout without relying upon early voting, drop boxes or the postal service, you’d allow voters to waive their right to a secret ballot and formally, temporarily give their power of attorney to another registered voter.

If you’re the type who wants to know the results on the night of and would rather that people show up on the day of, then proxy voting is the way to go.

France shows that it can work.

Good news from the states so far this year

• Delaware’s legislature passed a repeal of their *statutory* death penalty, which awaits signature. 
• Delaware Supreme Court legalized no excuse permanent absentee voting and early voting, overruling a lower court.
• California will have a total ban on slavery on the ballot in November.
• Wisconsin’s Supreme Court voted on party lines to legalize ballot drop boxes for upcoming elections. 
• Ohio’s Citizens Not Politicians dropped off 730k signatures from the majority of Ohio counties for their amendment to institute a nonpartisan redistricting commission, which now awaits vetting by the Review Board.
• Arkansas voters dropped off 100k signatures for an abortion legalization amendment, which now awaits vetting by the Review Board
• Nevada will have an abortion amendment on the ballot in November
• Michigan and Minnesota passed bans on gay/trans panic defense
• California, Colorado will vote on marriage equality amendments, while Hawaii will vote on repealing language allowing the legislature to restrict marriage to opposite sex couples.
• Maryland and New York will vote on inclusive equal rights amendments. 
• Colorado, Florida, Maryland, New York, Nevada and South Dakota will vote on abortion legalization amendments. 
• Nevada and Oregon will vote on adopting ranked choice voting in blanket primaries. Campaigns in Washington D.C. and Idaho have submitted ballot signatures for pro-RCV measures, and a campaign in Colorado have until August to submit 125k signatures. 
• Florida and South Dakota will vote on cannabis legalization amendments.  
• Minnesota passed a State Voting Rights Act and banned prison gerrymandering.