Is there a more tone-deaf politician than Hochul of New York?
And yet, and yet she has a good chance of winning the election. Zeldin also has a decent chance, but it would be an upset because New York is such a deep blue state.
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul claims her GOP challenger Rep. Lee Zeldin is “hyperventilating” over the crime problems in the state.
During a campaign stop Monday at the 72nd Street subway station in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Mrs. Hochul said Mr. Zeldin has been “trying to scare people for fun” over the crime issue.
Bill Clinton was campaigning for Hochul, and this is what he said:
The former president joked that Mr. Zeldin “makes it sound like Kathy Hochul gets up every morning, goes to the nearest subway stop and hands out billy clubs [and] baseball bats.”
Har de har har har.
It’s particularly galling, because Zeldin was attacked during his campaign, and also because there was a shooting near his house:
Zeldin, who is running on a tough-on-crime platform ridiculing Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s support for cashless bail, said his twin 16-year-old daughters were downstairs in the kitchen doing homework at the time they heard gunfire outside just feet away. The girls locked themselves in an upstairs bathroom and called 911.
Zeldin and his wife were not home and had recently left to attend a Columbus Day parade in the Bronx.
Home surveillance cameras showed three people. One wounded victim was seen lying beneath the porch, while another was seen lying beneath a bush just feet away. The third uninjured person moved around the property freely. The two wounded individuals were Joel Murphy and Elijah Robinson, two 17-year-olds, the New York Post reported.
I am somewhat amazed at the low caliber of so many of the Democrats’ candidates this year. And yet some of these people will almost certainly win. Of course, Biden set the standard for that.
“I am somewhat amazed at the low caliber of so many of the Democrats’ candidates this year.”
Normal, well-adjusted people are neither attracted to nor thrive in the current Democratic Party.
Mike
how about the head of the dccc that said his solution to the inflation, was chez boyardee, that’s mild chutzpah, but hochul is chaotic evil,
The low caliber of so many of the donkeys (or should it be jackasses?) is indeed truly astonishing! In his latest piece for AmericanGreatness (“Midterm Reflections”), Bruce Bawer has amusingly referred to the “abominations” running for the Democrats, as well as the “execrable” K Hobbs (against the charming K Lake), and Fetterman “the psychologically-debilitated basement radical”. How any sane person could vote for any of these nonentities is a mystery perhaps never to be solved. The very likable Zeldin may indeed win and make good on his promise to rid Gotham of the loathsome A Bragg.
I think the major complaint that Clinton and Hochul are making WRT Zeldin is that for some unfathomable (and unforgiveable) reason he doesn’t understand that increased crime and social breakdown is a feature and not a bug. (Cf. Chicago, Philly, SF, LA, NO, St. Louis, etc.)
IOW, Zeldin just doesn’t get it.
And so he’s therefore a legitimate target for their contempt and the joking around regarding his politicized, “Repubicans-pounce” alarmism and—essentially—his hysteria and lack of sophistication.
But especially it’s his GROSS DISHONESTY that bothers them…since NOT EVERYONE IS GETTING MUGGED, are they?
(Well, they’re the elites…and they know what’s best…)
Mike:
from what I’ve seen in my life, I’m not sure normal, well adjusted people thrive in either party. I would guess Mitt Romney comes closest to well adjusted in the GOP, but I’m not sure he’s normal. and he lost his presidential bid.
But I will admit the Ds have come up with a lotta freaks.
I remember when ‘after the warning’ one of james burke’s less conscientous efforts came on line, 15 years later, they were running that film as well as ‘earth in the lurch’ as Rush called, in Science class, in my capacity, I tried to raise some doubts, but that’s where mann and oppenheimer’s narrative came into being,
It’s funny that you put it this way. I’m almost always amazed, when it comes to New York state and NYC in particular, at the caliber of voter that keeps pulling the lever for Democrats, especially those with high-visibility profiles like Hochul, or Cuomo before her, or Bill deBlasio. What preference are they expressing? It’s as foreign and unfathomable a concept to me as someone that’s rewarded with some kind of electrical shock each time they press a certain button – and yet, they keep pressing it. Are the alternatives really that bad there?
Can a politician be tone deaf? Yeah, you can be Donald Trump worrying about being out of the lime light attacking Ron DeSantis because DeSantis is making headlines and gaining popularity.
i didn’t get why the press and the dems, (same team) was so eager to support cuomo pere, well compared to bruce babbitt and dukakis, I can sort of understand,
Hochul seems tone-deaf, but then, so is Biden, along with most of the party. They thought they could win by focusing on Jan. 6 and abortion, when most voters seem to care much more about inflation.
Hochul is a clueless ideologue who hasn’t held a real job in decades. She is the product of years of public radio and CNN indoctrination. Her outlook is likely the result of not hearing it or seeing it in the news therefore it’s republican disinformation.
The fact that Hochul, Hobbs, and Fetterman all have a chance to win show that the US has descended into idiocracy. 40% of the population (or maybe higher) are a waste of air and food.
I asked earlier how many NY and NYC dem voters realize they voted for this and how many will vote for it again.
After all, they voted for deBlasio and saw what they got. Not like there wasn’t a warning.
“Low caliber of Democratic candidates”
It’s what happens when they don’t have to try. The media protects them, which works until it doesn’t. The (R) nearly always have a tougher road, so those that make it are often stronger, if more ground / worn down, than the (D).
Hochul—and her supporters—just wanna help…
“NYC police claim man seen on video choking Zeldin supporter was helping her”—
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6315115769112
And like Beschloss says, if American voters don’t vote to enable the Democrats to CONTINUE TO HELP America—or if the Democrats don’t allow themselves to do WHATEVER IS NECESSARY to continue to help America)—then America will be lost. Gone. Disappeared. Poof.
Destroyed by the Republican party.
(And he’s a smart guy! He should know…)
Normal, well-adjusted people are neither attracted to nor thrive in the current Democratic Party.
Hochul, her husband, and her children can pass the ‘normal, well adjusted’ test. Hochul landed in politics faux de mieux. She was involved avocationally as a college student 40+ years ago then discovered at age 26 that she was unsuitable for law practice, for whatever reason. She passed the DC bar exam, but lasted less than a year working for a firm. Whether it was her intellect, her capacity to sort her time between competing activities, her capacity to take the working hours, or a negative reaction to the actual tasks she had to perform, she could not do it. She lands a job as a congressional aide. It’s been inertia and path dependency ever since. The position of Lt. Governor is an insipid one, and Robert Duffy could not be bothered with it anymore. She was willing to take an out of town position (her children now being in school) and it paid satisfactorily, improved her retirement benefits and did not ask for much from her. She merely had to stay on message and not cause trouble. What no one anticipated is that Andrew Cuomo’s foul manners, sexual appetite, unscrupulousness, and general arrogance would finally pique the interest of people in a position to extort a letter of resignation from him. Who is there but the quondam Erie County Clerk.
IMO, what she should have done is confer with people more suitable for the position and come to an understanding with each of them: I stand down and leave office in 16 months if you’ll agree that I get the Secretary of State’s job in your administration. Her time as County Clerk make that the best position for her in state government. With a few more years in state positions, she’d reach the 20 year milestone while also being eligible for Medicare and full Social Security.
Unlike Tulsi Gabbard or Krysten Sinema, she’s not an independent thinker and unlike David Patterson, she’s not someone with occult virtues. Her instincts do not save her. In the course of her life, she moved from a suburban Catholic girlhood, to the student body at Syracuse University, to the social world of Democratic Party minions. It’s doubtful she had any unconventional opinions at all in any of these matrices. I’d put a three digit sum that she’s gotten along rather well in life in part because she had sufficient intelligence to do work assigned to her and she’s agreeable enough to be able to navigate office politics and domestic life without too much friction. Those are her strengths and they are generative of her weaknesses.
The Ds have long failed to understand the importance of executive experience in candidates for executive office. The current crop of Democrats is particularly abysmal, but there was a long term trend towards this.
I asked earlier how many NY and NYC dem voters realize they voted for this and how many will vote for it again.
We have in New York had one satisfactory governor since 1982, David Patterson. As he left office, his approval rating was 17%. New York voters have an enemy. They encounter that enemy when they get up in the morning to shave and / or pluck their eyebrows.
Hochul is a clueless ideologue who hasn’t held a real job in decades. She is the product of years of public radio and CNN indoctrination.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with working in the county clerk’s office. She was a legislative aide before that, which actually is an exercise in exhausting wheelspinning (which is not, IMO, the fault of the aides themselves). CNN turned into a horror show long after Hochul had chosen her path in political life. NPR I’m wagering has been an influence over many decades, and does so through the avenue of reporting which structures arguments in particular ways.
“I am somewhat amazed at the low caliber of so many of the Democrats’ candidates this year.”
Obama wiped out their bench and it has been deteriorating ever since. Unfortunately, we pay the price for it as they fall apart.
After visiting Syracuse NY I get the impression that the voters I encountered were unthinkingly democrat. It does not matter if the dems entered an Aardvark, you always vote for the Aardvark against the (eeeww!) republican.
how about gretchen whitmer
https://twitchy.com/mikel-313136/2022/11/07/gretchen-whitmer-calls-women-people-with-a-period-in-final-midterm-pitch/
After visiting Syracuse NY I get the impression that the voters I encountered were unthinkingly democrat.
Syracuse is a nice town, or was during my tenure in the area. The Onondaga County executive is a Republican, so the area is competitive, though the core city may not be. Upstate New York used to be Republican by default, with Democrats competitive in the Capital District and greater Buffalo but hardly anywhere else. The Republicans retain an advantage outside the four most populous metro counties. I suspect one reason the Republicans do poorly in state elections in the teeth of widespread and abiding public dissatisfaction is that they do not collectively offer the voters a well-composed alternative to business as usual. Just some mooing about tax burdens.
People care about crime, about wages, prices, and taxes, and about what their children are learning in school.
Mock them for any of those concerns at one’s own peril.
Art Deco – I’m curious. Why did you like David Paterson, or at least think he was satisfactory?
HEY: Newsom. California. Don’t underestimate lefty stupidity.
“Yellow Dog Democrats” have been around for decades.
They’d vote for Hitler, w/Stalin as his veep, if he were the one with the (D).
Plus, also: AOC. ‘Nuff Said?
The counties “removed,” geographically speaking, from the Greater NYC region and Long Island need to form a new state and break away from NY State as presently configured.
Until this happens, Northern and Western NY will always be at the political mercy of the uber-liberal progressive, leftist population dense region in and around NYC and Long Island.
It’s no coincidence that Hochul is in NYC campaigning. Win NYC and you pretty much have it in the bag.
Yep, NYC; home of Letitia James, Eric Adams, Chucky Shumer, Jerry Nadler, AOC.
Check out, by county, the number of blue vs red counties in NY. The vast majority of counties are in NY State are red.
AOC: Nov 1 — LMAO on a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that “Free speech” is actually a [sic] $8 a month subscription plan.
Elon: Nov 2 — Your feedback is appreciated. Now pay $8.
LOLZ. Gotta love Elon.
oh snap,
}}} I asked earlier how many NY and NYC dem voters realize they voted for this and how many will vote for it again.
We have in New York had one satisfactory governor since 1982, David Patterson. As he left office, his approval rating was 17%. New York voters have an enemy. They encounter that enemy when they get up in the morning to shave and / or pluck their eyebrows.
I have not investigated, but, from what I’ve heard, the fact is that NY STATE is actually moderately conservative. They just get drowned out by the loonies in NYC.
This is supported by Dave Leip’s Election atlas…
[Note: In case you never caught it, the merdia switched colors back in 2000… the GOP used to be Blue and the Dems were Red. Back then Red==Marxist, and that was a “bad” thing (How times have changed, n’est-ce pas?)… so they switched colors and made the GOP the “reds” and the Dems the “blues”…. Leip predates that little bit of chicanery, and retains the initial colors used for decades — Blues==GOP, Reds==DEM]
https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2020&fips=36&f=0&off=0&elect=0
Other than Erie and Monroe counties (both quite large, mind you), the majority of the state went for Trump in 2020… except for the immediate NYC vicinity and the outskirts of Albany.
Similarly for the 2018 NY Gubernatorial election:
https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2018&fips=36&f=0&off=5&elect=0
And the 2016 election:
https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2016&fips=36&f=0&off=0&elect=0
A quick examination going back in history shows only twice since 1960 when the majority of the state went to the dems, and that was 96 (Clinton vs. Dole) and 64 (Johnson vs. Goldwater).
The main thing fucking up NY is the ones who experience the idiocy the most, the ones in NYC.
The counties “removed,” geographically speaking, from the Greater NYC region and Long Island need to form a new state and break away from NY State as presently configured.
Ideally, what we would have would be ceremonial states and administrative states. Often they would be coterminous, sometimes divergent. The ceremonial state would be an electoral constituency (for U.S. Senators) and a data collection unit. The administrative state would be the geographic unit of provincial government. This plan could be put into effect in two stages. (1) would be to convert a state into a confederation of its grand divisions. There would be a residual common government with some spare functions; that aside, each component would have its own government and go its own way. Element (2) would be a set of interstate compacts between the components of states wherein they incorporate a standing partnership. The legislative body of the standing partnership would be the legislative bodies of the components proceeding by weighted voting and the partnership would have functions specified in the inter-state compact or in an organic law passed by concurrent majorities.
The net result in the northeastern United States might be to articulate New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia into their grand divisions, to retrocede DC to Maryland, and to set up the following standing partnerships: New England (six states), greater New York (consisting of the 19 counties around Manhattan; greater Philadelphia (consisting of 10 counties in Penna, NJ, and Delaware; greater Washington (consisting of DC, two Maryland counties, four Virginia counties, and five stand-alone Virginia munis; the Atlantic, consisting of the residue of Maryland and Delaware conjoined to the Jersey Shore and Pine Barrens; and the residues of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. The three rural counties in northern New Jersey could be conjoined to rPenna. The functions performed by the partnerships would vary according to local factors.
Art Deco is essentially describing Kathy Hochul’s career path as an example of the Peter Principle. I haven’t researched her so I can’t comment on all that, but it doesn’t surprise me to see her desribed as a lucky (or unlucky) mediocrity.
Who knows? She may have been an unremarkable caretaker governess in more sane times with a Democrat party that wasn’t completely out of their minds. But the modern Democrat party requires that its politicians support outright insanity. Almost all Dem pols support everything from heavy handed bail reforms, open borders, gender transition surgeries for children, and economically crippling restrictions on domestic oil and energy production. And any Democrat that doesn’t support such lunacy is cast into the outer darkness (Tulsi Gabbard).
}}} After visiting Syracuse NY I get the impression that the voters I encountered were unthinkingly democrat.
Ummmm, you have to be wary of “biased” sampling, there.
Syracuse is in Onondaga county, one of the other largish counties that went 60-40 for Biden.
Consider, though, that it has Syracuse University as a main feature. This will massively skew any sample you make towards the Left, almost “university-ally”.
Another thing to examine is the seat of government. The county that the state government is in will generally lean left — even in very conservative states.
Example, look at Florida or Texas:
https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/
Florida, once you get north of the Tampa/Orlando axis, there are only 4 counties that went for Biden — Alachua, and Leon plus the two on either side.
The University of Florida is in Alachua, and Leon is home to the state capital AND Florida State University — those are the two most prominent/prestigious state universities in FL.
Now consider Texas… Only three counties other than Houston & Dallas are red once you get away from the border — Hays, Williamson, and Travis.
Guess where Austin, the state capital is?
Right. Those three counties
Guess where the University of Texas is?
Austin, TX.
Q.E.D., you shouldn’t judge a state’s leanings by a sample in a county with a major university in it, nor by the one which has either the state government or operates as a “bedroom community” for it. 😉
}}} Check out, by county, the number of blue vs red counties in NY. The vast majority of counties are in NY State are red.
John, you may find Leip’s atlas useful in making your point — note, of course, my observation (above) that he still uses the pre-2000 coloring scheme, so most of the state is blue (GOP), outside of the big cities, universities, and state government.
Richard Aubrey,
Lemmings do not wonder at what actually lies ahead. So they do not question the direction in which the herd is being led. All that matters is that they are welcome within the herd.
GB. And meantime, they congratulate each other on their special woinderfulness compared to, say, the…fox, wolverine, polar bear.
Um, not. That metaphor isn’t going where I wanted it. Okay. The losers are the people trying to keep the folk heroes–fox, wolverine, brown bear–away from the flock.
If the wolverine gets into the other end of the flock, we have an edgy, hip, vibrant situation.
Art Deco:
NY State (and other states) should split up in the same way W.Virginia split off from Virginia.
True, that was a Civil War era move, but a “new” state emerged.
No reason why this cannot be done today, minus the Civil War part.
If several states split up, we would have more “red” states in the USA.
For example, Eastern Wa and Eastern Oregon, Western/Northern NY, Southern Illinois, etc.
NY State (and other states) should split up in the same way W.Virginia split off from Virginia.
Not strictly necessary. Alternative methods obviate reapportioning the Senate.
If West Virginia were still incorporated within Virginia, you wouldn’t split it off. The largest urban settlement is greater Huntington, which has about 100,000 people in it, north of 1/3 of them over the border in Kentucky and Ohio. The second largest is greater Charleston, with about 62,000. The state’s population has seen no net growth since 1937 and the employment-to-population ratio bounces around 0.50 (the national mean is 0.60); if I’m not mistaken, the only place in the country with a more sclerotic labor market is Puerto Rico. It’s not nearly as poor as it’s made out to be, but it is true that real income per capita is about 20% below the national mean.
F wrote “I would guess Mitt Romney comes closest to well adjusted in the GOP, but I’m not sure he’s normal…”
My opinion is that he’s kind of a mess. Just remembered his father, George, dropped out of the presidential race due to blowback from him saying he had been “brainwashed” about the Vietnam War.
Nonapod wrote “[Hochul] may have been an unremarkable caretaker governess in more sane times…”
which made me smile, thinking of a Mary Poppins type.
Re lemmings: everyone knows about them charging off cliffs. I’ve read that they don’t really do that, but a film maker (I think Disney) staged that to spice up a documentary.
“Is there a more tone-deaf politician than Hochul of New York?”
Given “Biden”, Pelosi, Clinton, the Squad, the media—all of those jokers and fabulous confabulists, in fact—THAT question may actually NOT be as rhetorical as one might be led to believe(!)…
…OTOH, is that really a problem…if everyone’s deaf…(or playing deaf!…or elevating deafness to the highest ethical plane)?
“Fetterman campaign sues Pennsylvania to count undated, misdated ballots”(!!!)—
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/fetterman-campaign-sues-pennsylvania-count-undated-misdated-ballots
In re the debate (well, consensus) that Democrats continue to vote D against all sane reason.
Manhattan Contrarian’s daughter, Jane Menton, posted this recently. It’s very long and I won’t even try to summarize the situation she is discussing, but just quote the pertinent excerpt:
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-10-28-nyc-hates-its-middle-class-homeowners
LIV is too kind a label for some people.
@ Barry – Well, since you mentioned him…..
https://clips.substack.com/p/michael-beschloss-aint-nonpartisan
Steigerwald posts the two interviews in full, and there is a lot of interesting information in both of them, especially about JFK and FDR.
Whether or not Beschloss was “partisan” in the strict meaning of the term (he certainly is now), he certainly had firm opinions about his subjects, both pro and con.
Well, not that I really wanted to…but..OK, as long as we’re talking about the guy, he may well STILL(!) consider himself an even-handed non-partisan…
…AND/OR…
…he may well consider himself a true American patriot(!)…
…which is precisely why he believes that the Republican Party (in its current incarnation)—IOW anyone who does not support “Biden”—must be obliterated.
You see, being a Presidential Historian is so…easy!
File under: Yep, “I always keep my critical eye in check…”, i.e., if I can remember to…
(Actually, I don’t really blame him. I’ll, once again, haul out my no-evidence-based theory—who needs evidence, anyway?—that the COVID virus/vaccine/drama made a lot of people, if not practically everyone(?), more than quite a bit nuts (YMMV); and that this, together with that additional potent amphetamine, MEGA-TDS, has become a toxic combination that has pushed a lot of those people over the edge.)
Art Deco
Its not a nice town anymore. At least not according to my cousin who lives in Manlius. There are plenty of pols that call themselves Republican, but, what they implement bears no resemblance. After speaking with a wide variety of folks, and granted it was a small group, I still got the impression of Dem or nothing.
Its not a nice town anymore.
The homicide rate has doubled in the last 15 years. Still in better shape than Rochester.
I have not investigated, but, from what I’ve heard, the fact is that NY STATE is actually moderately conservative.
It isn’t. About 65% of the population lives in the Downstate counties. The Republicans remain vigorously competitive on Long Island, in Rockland County, and on Staten Island. These three jurisdictions account for about 30% of Downstate’s population. They are inconsequential in the other 70%. The preferences of the statewide electorate usually break 5-3 in favor of the Democratic Party.
Republicans retain something of an advantage Upstate, though less thoroughly than they used to. The trouble with the Republican Party Upstate is that it is vacuous.
It’s a Democrat Empire state now. As in Star Wars type empire.
It’s a Democrat Empire state now. As in Star Wars type empire.
Horse left the barn a century ago. The prosperity of the Republican Party in New York over the period running from about 1918 to about 1974 was crucially dependent on two factors: (1) voters disgusted with Tammany Hall voted Republican and (2) an indifferently apportioned legislature. Prominent Republicans prior to 1975 included Jacob Javits, Louis Lefkowitz, Nelson Rockefeller, Malcolm Wilson, Kenneth Keating, John Lindsay. Wilson and Keating might be described as ‘programmatic temporizers’ rather like Susan Collins. The rest were liberals, though the Ripon Society element did have a somewhat different vibe than the mainstream Democratic Party. Did not have the clubhouse and union hall element.
The only Republicans elected statewide since have been Edward Regan, whose disposition was technocratic in essence, Alphonse d’Amato (greaser), and George Pataki (snide and sociopathic, and the issue of d’Amato’s patron-client network). The appeal of d’Amato and Pataki was frankly baffling and another indicator of the New York electorate being its own worst enemy. The last time Repubicans won a statewide contest was in 2002. Not many impressive Republican candidates. Among the few have been Harry Wilson, the candidate for comptroller in 2010 and Lewis Lehrman, the candidate for governor in 1982.
My new post is about political opinion and political persuasion:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/68576.html
Can a politician be tone deaf? Yeah, you can be Donald Trump worrying about being out of the lime light attacking Ron DeSantis because DeSantis is making headlines and gaining popularity.
Actually that quip was directed at DeSantis’ latest campaign video, which was indeed sanctimonious.
Here is the ad and some commentary on it
I agree the timing was not the best.
Art;
The point to establishing new states is to provide residents of “unrepresented” counties a voice in how their states should governed.
Each new state would receive two US Senators, a few members of the US House of Representatives, and each new state would receive electoral college votes.
Unlike the Federal presidential elections, in which the electoral college provides low-population states more influence in the election process than their population size would indicate, there is no version of an electoral college in any state election process.
Thus low population counties essentially have no say in their political process because a far-away densely populated area essentially determines the politics of the entire state.These high population density city regions oft times have ZERO in common with any part of their state more than 50 miles away.
This situation exists in NY, Wa, Or, Illinois, the non-coastal areas of Calif., etc. – just to name a few.
W.Virginia’s population exceeds that of the Dakota’s; does that mean that the Dakota’s should not be states or should be “incorporated” into more populous states? Should the electoral college votes of the Dakota’s be eliminated?
And so what that W.Virginia – and a bunch of other states have smallish populations?
The point you make on this meaningless.
And anyway, what is the problem with re-apportioning the Senate?? It sure could use a face lift.
The US Senate today is a joke.There are no real debates held – all is pre-arranged in back room deals. US Senate elections are greatly influenced by how much $$$ are contributed by OUT OF STATE big money political partisans.
And check out the “geometry” of congressional districts; it’s a total joke.
The addition of a bunch of new “red” states would be greatly beneficial to how this nation is governed and it can be done real easily without the unnecessarily complicated, convoluted , Rube Goldberg political /administrative contraption you support.
Is there a more tone-deaf politician than Hochul of New York?
There is Beto running in Texas on a California platform.
“Deaf” is involuntary. But the deaf can read. For many, enough volume gets through. How about “indifferent “?. Or does not think it politically useful?
There is Beto running in Texas on a California platform.
Good point.
The point to establishing new states is to provide residents of “unrepresented” counties a voice in how their states should governed.
You can do that, but there comes a point where further subdivision is suboptimal either due to the total population and productive base being below a certain threshold or the population being too dispersed to support certain services in house.
Each new state would receive two US Senators, a few members of the US House of Representatives, and each new state would receive electoral college votes.
There’s an impediment with that inasmuch as the additional representation generates resistance from extant states. Best to evade that complaint and accomplish other objects.
Unlike the Federal presidential elections, in which the electoral college provides low-population states more influence in the election process than their population size would indicate, there is no version of an electoral college in any state election process.
The electoral college was a compromise constructed to gain the assent of competing interests. There’s no need to replicate it unless the sort of ad hoc concessions incorporated within it serve to bring two sides to an agreement.
Thus low population counties essentially have no say in their political process because a far-away densely populated area essentially determines the politics of the entire state.These high population density city regions oft times have ZERO in common with any part of their state more than 50 miles away.
It depends on the settlement patterns within the state in question and how influence is distributed among politicians from different areas. North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, and New Jersey have roughly similar populations, but very different distributions. I should note that settlements of different size categories are the locus of service provision for their respective hinterlands. While the culture of the resident population does differ, they do trade with each other.
This situation exists in NY, Wa, Or, Illinois, the non-coastal areas of Calif., etc. – just to name a few.
The difficulty you have is that in New York and Illinois, > 60% of the population lives in one metropolitan settlement distinct from the rest of the state. You see this in smaller states such as Hawaii and Rhode Island. That’s not the case in Washington state, though you can argue that the cultural gulf between SeaTac and the rest of the state is large. California’s problem is that it’s behemothic.
W.Virginia’s population exceeds that of the Dakota’s; does that mean that the Dakota’s should not be states or should be “incorporated” into more populous states? Should the electoral college votes of the Dakota’s be eliminated?
And so what that W.Virginia – and a bunch of other states have smallish populations?
West Virginia has some peculiar problems which the Dakotas do not have. The Dakotas are missing some pieces which might be supplied by an interstate compact with Minnesota.
And anyway, what is the problem with re-apportioning the Senate?? It sure could use a face lift.
It’s malapportioned by design. My concern has been stated multiple times: you reapportion the Senate, you get into a dispute you can afford to forego. The point should be to improve the quality of provincial government. This can be had through other avenues, avenues more flexible than breaking up extant states.
The US Senate today is a joke.There are no real debates held – all is pre-arranged in back room deals. US Senate elections are greatly influenced by how much $$$ are contributed by OUT OF STATE big money political partisans.
And check out the “geometry” of congressional districts; it’s a total joke.
Well, were we to return to election by state legislatures, Senators might do things with purposes in mind other than placating campaign donors. Of course, there are trade-offs with whichever system you choose.
The addition of a bunch of new “red” states would be greatly beneficial to how this nation is governed and it can be done real easily without the unnecessarily complicated, convoluted , Rube Goldberg political /administrative contraption you support.
The purpose is to produce units of provincial government which take account of settlement patterns while avoiding a reapportionment of the Senate. It’s not convoluted and it is not unnecessarily complicated. It requires two steps: a revision of state constitution which reconstitute the state into a confederation of its grand divisions and the conclusion of interstate compacts which allow the establishment of a corporation which functions as a common government with a discrete book of business among combinations of these grand divisions (Downstate New York / Northern New Jersey; the 10 counties around Philadelphia; the 12 county-level jurisdictions around DC, and the residues of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland left by these adjustments).
When Democrats are never vetted by the press, a lot of mediocre and idiotic candidates rise to prominence. A conservative blogger in DC in the late 90s pointed this out.
Also explains why national D leaders are so dishonest and so corrupt. When politicians get a pass, the most corrupt win. After all, they have so much inventory to sell. With no downside to corruption we should expect those without a conscience or moral compass to be most successful.
Face the facts; your liberal neighbors love crime and hate you. And it’s personal.
Dad was from Poland. Fought the Nazis, survived a Commie slave labor camp and came home. His loving neighbors murdered his best friend in that town because he was a Jew.
Dad never forgave Poland for that. Viewing the eagerness of my classmates and relatives to condemn those who disagreed with vaccinations and masks to the point of proposing denial of health care and disenfranchisement, I see that that kind of viciousness is here. And I feel the same way about them that my dad did about Poland.