Since yesterday, I've seen some grumbling on Green Party Facebook pages about this recent development. Greens are not complaining so much about A. Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and the Sunrise Movement staging a protest rally in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office at the Capitol. What rankles them is that progressive Democrats are misappropriating the "Green New Deal" language that Jill Stein made the centerpiece of her presidential campaigns.
Also seen: Democrats wringing their hands about AOC and Tlaib upsetting the party establishment, virtually assuring that they won't get any committee assignments, let alone the ones they might want. If Pelosi et al. are that invested in bipartisanship and that petty about Progressives trying to shake things up a bit, that will reveal them as the Republicans in Democrat clothing they really are. Are the establishment Democrats smart enough to recognize that, though?
Sure, I would love to see these Democrats give full credit where it's due, tipping their hats to Stein and the Green Movement. If Green New Deal policies actually get implemented in full, without acknowledgment of their architects, I for one won't complain. We need to move forward on averting climate catastrophe with all due haste. Even if the Democratic Caucus adopts it but cannot get it past the Senate, I'll salute them for trying. However, if the Democrats in Congress propose a watered-down version of the Green New Deal, fuck 'em. If they even try to include Cap & Trade language, fuck 'em harder. Starting with a compromise, rather than battling toward one, is exactly why Democrats lose, both on Capitol Hill and in our polling places. On the issue of anthropomorphic climate disruption, science tells us that we have no space or time for compromise. Texas's 23rd Congressional district stretches from San Antonio west to the Rio Grande and up to the eastern edge of El Paso. It is larger in area than several US states. Brewster County alone is larger than Connecticut, but it contains fewer than 10,000 residents. You can waltz across the district without many people to get in your way or try to cut in.
In this century, it has also been one of the state's swingiest: Republicans tend to win, but by slim margins. It is also majority-LatinX, shining a harsh light on the myth that the Texas LatinXes lean heavily Democratic. As of today, in the TX-23 House race, two-term incumbent Will Hurd holds a 1,150-vote lead over Democratic nominee Gina Ortiz Jones. That margin has increased since last week's figure of 689, but it is still well within the statutory amount to justify a recount request. Per the Texas Election Code, the margin must be less than 10% of the winner's vote total, and Hurd's count currently stands at 102,903; chop off the last digit to calculate the recount limit. Some other links to share:
I couldn't resist using that for a headline. (Translation: Sorry, I couldn't think up a cleverer headline than that.) About a week before Election Day, I began earnestly considering transferring (or perhaps expanding) my allegiance into the Movement for a People's Party. I have already signed up to volunteer and should soon receive an organizing packet from the group's membership coordinator. In lieu of a big, momentous announcement of a new direction, this post is my "soft opening." I just hope it works out better than my declaration last summer that I would be working with Lina Hidalgo's campaign and rebooting the county chapter of Move to Amend—neither of which, to my continued bewilderment, actually happened. (This is a great illustration of why I prefer not to make plans.) Of all the progressive post-Bernie spin-offs that I've seen, only MPP has held firm to its doctrine that the Democratic Party is not a friend to Progressives. This is not equal to saying that individual Democratic candidates or voters are all to be painted with the Enemy Brush; however, per MPP, neither corporate party is reformable from within, and neither is not worth our time, money, or labor. Becoming a Brana Bro As if to confirm my lingering suspicions, MPP organizer and spokesperson Nick Brana appeared in a lengthy segment with Jimmy Dore et al Friday, wherein Brana said a lot of things that got me nodding along. Most pertinent of all is this: Whatever joy Democrats and their friends may get from reclaiming a majority in the US House, plus picking up a few governorships, this victory for the Democratic Party and its candidates is not a victory for Progressives, their policies, or indeed for the planet. Everybody's got an opinion the week after the landslide, and the Texas Progressive Alliance rounds up the best (and worst) of them in a ride around the Texblogosphere to celebrate the Democrats' big wins—and mourn the losses—from last Tuesday.
It's also the day following the Armistice Centenary, or the celebration of the ending of WWI, a hundred years ago. As Caitlin Johnstone noted, the best way to thank veterans for their service is to not make any more of them. Here in Texas, at least, no state- of federal-level races from last Tuesday remain undecided. The same cannot be said for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Maine. In those states, it's all down to the three "R's": recounts, runoffs, and Ranked Choice Voting. I didn't cover Georgia in a recent post about the other three states because I don't foresee Brian Kemp's gubernatorial vote total falling below 50%. If Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams does not force a runoff by raking in about 21,000 additional votes while Kemp earns 0, Kemp's victory is assured. However, everyone in Georgia who shapes state policy will know that Kemp cheated or gamed the system in multiple ways, starting with that whole keeping-his-job-as-Secretary-of-State-right-through-Election-Day business. He will not be a legitimate governor. ============ This synopsis of the US Senate race--from January of 2017 to last Tuesday—by Patrick Svitek and Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune is the best ten-minute read on how the most important election in Texas unfolded. RG Ratcliffe at Texas Monthly corrected the knobs at Politico about O'Rourke's shunning the use of political consultants as a reason why he lost. RG also had the best morning-after quick takes. Beto's extremely long coattails for a losing candidate were the focus of many stories: Tarrant County turning purple, Fort Bend and Hays turning blue, the appellate courts flipping, the sweeps in Harris and Dallas Counties.
Here's an update on the CA-34 top-two Congressional race mentioned on this blog a few days ago. The turnout is a little less appalling, up over 100,000 total votes at this point. Green candidate Kenneth Mejia's count is at 25.98% and rising as the absentee tally continues.
βIn case anyone needs reminding, to most of the voting world, a 74-26 margin looks like a slaughter. For a minor-party apparatchik, a 26% showing against a corporate-party incumbent is pretty damn impressive.
As a bonus, a little ways down the San Diego Freeway, the Blue Wave appears to have wiped out Republican former surfer Dana Rohrabacher in CA-48. Once upon a time back in the 1990s, Rohrabacher was something of a moderate, at least on social issues, but he has moved rightward with the rest of his party. Apparently his Orange County district hasn't kept pace with that rightward migration. In 2016, he won re-election by a comfortable 58-42 margin, even while Hillary Clinton won it with 48% to 46% for What's-His-Face.
Arizona
While the Democratic Hate Brigade has been raining toxic Tweets upon Angela Green for "spoiling" the Senate race in Arizona, they may be missing the real story. Late vote tallies now put Democrat Kyrsten Sinema ahead by 9,000 votes, 0.5%. Green, the Democrat-turned-Green, a week before Election Day, halfway through early voting and after she had already bagged about 30,000 votes. Sinema, the Green-turned-Democrat, may just hang on to flip John McCain's long-held Senate seat. Meanwhile, AZ Central has posted another article about Green's not-entirely-by-the-book run, from her switching party affiliation last year to her write-in primary campaign to the headline-grabbing belated withdrawal and endorsement of Sinema. It contains a little more detail than last week's piece. Colorado Green activist Gary Swing, now the avatar of the Boiling Frog Party, has posted a lengthy Facebook status about the Angela Green kerfuffle, with a link to a lengthier blog post of his from 2015. This is Part III of the DBC Green's digestion and eructation of the 2018 General Election. Part I covers statewide and legislative races in Texas; Part II, races for Harris County government offices.
This time out, we'll look at Congressional races, governorships in the Lesser 49, ballot measures of interest to Progressives, and a few other topics. I also invite you to spend 15 minutes with Mike Figueredo, who sums things up from his progressive viewpoint in this installment of The Humanist Report. (Content Warning: Much more than usual for him, Figueredo refers to the Democrats as "we." Although he despises corporate Democrats, he has the same inner-Democrat force-of-habit reflex that I have.)
This is Part II of a series that I started yesterday. Part I looks at elections for statewide and legislative offices in Texas. Part III looks at the broader, nationwide picture.
Whether the old guard in Harris County likes it or not, the county has a new chief executive. It also has a Commissioners Court with a Democratic majority for the first time in decades, Democrats in nearly all executive positions, and Democrats presiding over the courts. But the face of this evolution/revolution is County Judge-elect Lina Hidalgo. Congratulations to Ms. Hidalgo, her campaign team, and a county Democratic Party apparatus that has returned from the mostly-dead. Check out these election results (PDF), and then compare them to 2014's. (Also check out the new-jack HTML version of the results page.)
We could add to the headline above: Surprised (Even Somewhat Pleasantly) but Not Shocked. In looking over some results from last night, the push and pull of the various emotional vectors had me numb but buzzing this morning.
UPDATE: Here are links to Part II and Part III of this series. As of this afternoon, the buzz has subsided a bit. Now comes the sober task of processing it all. It will take a few entries and at least a couple of days to put it all together, because beyond the confines of this blogspace I actually have a life. Herewith, we present the first of these entries, examining statewide races and the composition of the next Texas Legislature. We will focus on Harris County and some results for progressive candidates and issues in other states in subsequent posts. Disclaimers Before I dive in too deeply, I offer these two disclaimers:
Inspired by PDiddie's lead-in, I'm going to open this week's Texoblogosphere post with a bit of opinion.
dbc sez: Given the environmental records of the Clinton and Obama administrations, all Democratic candidates for public office running against a candidate from the Green Party should drop out of their respective races and endorse the Green. Dr. Tribe, you are a very smart man, but this is a very stupid tweet. Real Greens do not sign up to run for office just so they can drop out after early voting has begun.
|
Blogging Sporadically since 2014Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics. Categories
All
Archives
April 2023
|