The Republicans gained ground in last night's midterm elections, recapturing the House and gaining seats in the Senate. The future House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) wasted no time in affirming that the GOP will try to repeal health care reform.
A full-scale repeal is unlikely in the next two years because the Democrats have retained control of the White House and the Senate. However, Republicans are already making noises about shutting down the government to force the issue. The House controls the nation's purse strings, which confers significant leverage if the majority is willing to bring the government to a screeching halt to make a point.
Don't assume they'll blink. The GOP shut down government in 1995, albeit to its own political detriment. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and his allies have sworn a "blood oath" to shut down the government, regardless of the consequences. The Republicans may actually succeed in modifying minor aspects of the Affordable Care Act, such as the controversial 1099 reporting requirement for small business.
The most significant threat to the implementation of health care reform may be at the state level. Republicans picked up several governorships, and the Affordable Care Act requires the cooperation of states to set up their own insurance exchanges. Hostile governors could seriously impede things.
Mixed results for radical, anti-choice senate candidates
As a group, the eight ultra-radical, anti-choice Republican Senate candidates had mixed results last night. Three wins, two sure losses, and three likely losses that haven't been definitively called. Voters didn't seem thrilled about electing senators who oppose a woman's right to abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
Two cruised to victory: Rand Paul easily defeated Democrat Jack Conway in Kentucky. Paul is one of the most extreme the of a radical cohort. As Amie Newman reported in RH Reality Check, Paul doesn't even believe in a woman's right to abort to save her own life. In Florida, anti-choice standard bearer Marco Rubio defeated Independent Charlie Christ.
Another radical anti-choicer, Pat Toomey, who favors jailing abortion providers, narrowly edged out Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania.
Two were soundly defeated. Evangelical code-talker Sharron Angle lost to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), and anti-masturbation crusader Christine O'Donnell lost to Chris Coons in Delaware.
The last three radical anti-choice senate candidates were down, but not, out as of this morning. Democrat Sen. Michael Bennett leads Republican Ken Buck by just 15,000 votes out of over 1.5 million ballots cast, according to TPMDC. Planned Parenthood launched an 11th hour offensive against Buck because of his retrograde stances on abortion, sexual assault, and other women's issues, as Joseph Boven reports for the Colorado Independent.
This morning, Tea Party Republican Joe Miller was trailing behind incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who challenged him as an Independent, but no winner had been declared. In Washington State, Democrat Sen. Patti Murray maintains a 1% lead over radical anti-choicer Republican Dino Rossi.
Are fertilized eggs people in Colorado?
Coloradans won a decisive victory for reproductive rights last night. Fertilized eggs are still not people in Colorado, as Jodi Jacobson reports for RH Reality Check.
Amendment 62, which would have conferred full person status from the moment of conception, thereby outlawing abortion and in vitro fertilization. It also called into question the legality of many forms of birth control, including an array of medical procedures for pregnant women that might harm their fetuses. The proposed amendment was resoundingly defeated: 72% against to 28% in favor. This is the second time Colorado voters have rejected an egg-as-person amendment.
Blue Dogs and anti-choice Dems feel the pain
Last night was brutal for corporatist Democrats who fought the more progressive options for health care reform and Democrats who put their anti-choice ideology ahead passing health care. In AlterNet, Sarah Seltzer reports only 12 of the 34 Democrats who voted against health care reform hung on to their seats. The Blue Dog caucus was halved overnight from 56 to 24. Nick Baumann of Mother Jones speculated that the midterms would mark the end of the Stupak bloc, the coalition of anti-choice Democrats whose last-minute brinksmanship could have derailed health care reform.
Did foot-dragging on health care hurt Democrats?
Jamelle Bouie suggests at TAPPED that Democrats shot themselves in the foot by passing a health care reform bill that won't provide tangible benefits to most people for years. The exchanges that are supposed to provide affordable insurance for millions of Americans won't be up and running until 2014.
In Summer 2009, Former DNC chair Howard Dean predicted that the Democrats would be penalized at the polls if they failed to deliver tangible benefits from health care reform before the midterm elections. That's why Dean suggested expanding the public health insurance programs we already have, rather than creating insurance exchanges from scratch.
Sink, sunk by Scott
Andy Kroll of Mother Jones profiles Rick Scott, the billionaire health clinic mogul, corporate fraudster, and enemy of health care reform who spent over $50 million of his own money to eke out a very narrow victory over Democrat Alex Sink in the Florida governor's race.
Apparently, many Floridians were willing to overlook the fact that Scott had to pay a $1.7 billion fine for defrauding Medicare, the largest fine of its kind in history. Scott also spent $5 million of his own money to found Conservatives for Patients' Rights, one of the leading independent groups opposing health care reform.
Pot isn't legalized in California
California defeated Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana for personal use. David Borden of DRCnet, a pro-legalization group, writes in AlterNet that the fight over Prop 19 brought legalization into the political mainstream, even if the measure didn't prevail at the polls. The initiative won the backing of the California NAACP, SEIU California, the National Black Police Association, and the National Latino Officers Association and other established groups.
So, what's next for health care reform? The question everyone is asking is whether John Boehner will cave to the extremists in his own party and attempt a full-scale government shutdown, or whether the Republicans will content themselves with extracting piecemeal modifications of the health care law.
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On July 14th, Green Change announced the campaign for a Green New Deal, a 10-point program to create economic prosperity together with ecological sustainability.
Since then over 100 candidates for elected office at all levels have joined the Green New Deal Coalition.
The Green New Deal Coalition will cut military spending, create millions of green jobs, and revive the economy by protecting the planet we depend on.
Green Change is inviting all candidates, individuals and organizations that support a prosperous, sustainable future for America to endorse the Green New Deal.
Read the call for a Green New Deal and sign on today.
To date, 11 candidates for governor, 11 candidates for US Senate, and 33 candidates for US House of Representatives have joined the Green New Deal Coalition.
All agree on the need to cut military spending, fund green public works, ban corporate personhood, pass single-payer health care, restore progressive taxation, ban usury, enact a revenue-neutral carbon tax, legalize marijuana, institute tuition-free public higher education, change trade agreements to improve labor, environmental and safety standards, and pass sweeping electoral, campaign finance and anti-corruption reforms.
These candidates represent a clean break with the failed policies of the past that have led America down the road to economic and ecological disaster.
The Green New Deal promises a brighter tomorrow for America – one that combines the New Deal’s promise of freedom from economic hardship with decisive action to protect our planet.
You can help build the movement for real change by endorsing the Green New Deal today and asking candidates for elected office to join you.
On Friday, May 14th 2010, I got the chance to sit down with Neill Franklin, the Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
Neill Franklin, LEAP's incoming executive director, is a 32-year law enforcement veteran who spent more than two decades with the Maryland State Police (leading the drug division's education and training) and then moved to Baltimore PD. Like a character from HBO's "The Wire," Neill could tell you stories of colleagues being gunned down in the line of fire, as he did in this Washington Post op-ed.
Full, Unedited Interview (highlight clips below the fold)
On Friday, April 23rd 2010, I got the chance to sit down with Dale Sky Clare, the Executive Chancellor of Oaksterdam University and the Spokesperson for Control and Tax Cannabis 2010. We talked about the upcoming ballot initiative to legalize cannabis in California.
Survey USA has a new poll on the California ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational usage. It shows the initiative favored by a strong majority of the state's population, with 56% in favor and 42% opposed.
This is positive news, but there is reason to be cautious. The poll shows a huge age gap between voters under 35, and the rest of the population, in terms of support of legalization. Further, the bill heavily oversamples the younger voters who are much, much more in favor of legalization that the rest of the state. Check out these crosstabs:
Survey USA postulates that young voters will turn out at even higher rates than they did in 2008, much less 2006. That simply isn't going to happen. Voters under the age of 45 decline by 10% as a percentage of the electorate from Presidential to midterm elections (and voters over the age of 45 increase their share of the electorate by 10% in midterms). When the crosstabs of the Survey USA poll are redistributed according to the 2006 age percentages of the California electorate, support for legalization drops from 56% to only 51%. Numbers like that make the campaign for legalization in California a real nailbiter.
On the plus side, as with marriage equality, the massive generation gap on marijuana legalization shows that it won't be very long before marijuana is legalized in California (and elsewhere). Even with 2006 turnout estimates, 55% of Californians under the age of 65 approve of legalizing marijuana. With young, socially liberal voters replacing older, socially conservative voters in the electorate every year, over the long-term these are culture wars that conservatives simply cannot win.
This is another example of how, even though it is not expressed in the dramatic terms of the 1960's, the political gap between the generations in the United States has never been larger. Underlying this gap is a massive generational divide on ethnicity and religion. To put it as bluntly as possible, younger Americans are way, way less white Catholic and white mainline Protestant (two groups that I collectively term "white traditionals" in the chart below) than older Americans. Take a look at the rapid ethno-religious change the country will experience because of this gap over the next two decades:
Projected Ethno-religious % of Electorate, Presidential Elections 2008-2032
Group
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
2028
2032
White Evangelicals
24%
24%
24%
24%
23%
23%
22%
White Traditionals
37%
35%
33%
31%
29%
27%
26%
Non-Christians
20%
21%
22%
23%
25%
26%
27%
Non-white Christians
19%
20%
21%
22%
23%
24%
25%
Currently, there are roughly twice as mainly white Catholics and white mainline Protestants as non-Christians. In twenty years, the two groups will be roughly the same size. That will result in a dramatic shift in social attitudes in America. The widespread legalization of marijuana, along with real marriage equality, will be just two of those changes.
For decades, the U.S. government has spent tens of billions of dollars, sent thousands of nonviolent offenders to prison, and propped up a black market that fuels violent organized crime at home and abroad.
All this for the sake of marijuana prohibition.
It’s time for a new, more sensible approach.
Tell your Governor and state legislators: it’s time to legalize and regulate marijuana.
We know how prohibition works from history class: alcohol prohibition in the 1930s didn’t reduce alcohol abuse, but it did turn a regulated industry into an illegal black market that enriched violent gangsters like Al Capone.
The harm done by prohibition goes beyond gang violence. Thousands of Americans have been imprisoned for no other offense than carrying a small amount of marijuana.
Invasive search procedures and racial profiling have become commonplace, creating mistrust between law enforcement agents and the communities they serve.
Billions of tax dollars are wasted on an ineffective policy that solves nothing.
Legalizing marijuana will cut down on violent crime, reduce unjust imprisonment, repair civil liberties, restore trust between civilians and police, and replace wasteful government spending with new tax revenues.
It will also help American farmers, who will be able to cultivate marijuana as well as the versatile and environmentally friendly hemp crop.
It’s time for a marijuana policy that makes sense.
Tell your Governor and state legislators to sponsor legislation to legalize and regulate marijuana today.
As I sit watching the Senate (and, unfortunately right now, Holy Joe Lieberman) debate the amendments to the Stimulus Bill on C-Span 2, I spend most of the "quorum calls" toodleing around the net looking at recent events and searching for job openings in any of the fields that I'm capable of (I lose my adjunct teaching position in June and I've got to find something, at least part-time, to take its place.) One of the things that stands out in recent events is the issue raised by Michael Phelps photographed smoking pot with a bong.
I know this primary has mostly been about identity politics, but for those of us who are trying to base their vote in who is going to be more progressive, we need to latch on to every peice policy of policy promise we can. On that note, the Washington Times is reporting that Obama conformed that he supports the decriminalization of marijuana.
This is especially relevent here at Open Left because as Matt Stoller has repeatedy noted, the war on drugs is one of the 5 untouchable symptoms.
Subject: End the War on Drugs
Factoid: There are 1 million people put in jail for doing what Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George Bush have done.
Marijuana is America's largest cash crop, and it is responsible for around 225,000 arrests a year ... Simply put, why do some people go to jail for marijuana and cocaine, and others run for President?
