The Republican Party’s plan to rule the state of Wisconsin forever, explained
The Republican Party’s plan to rule the state of Wisconsin forever, explained
Wisconsin’s legislature is gerrymandered to ensure that Democrats will never win it. Republicans have a plan to keep it that way.
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And if we lived in a democracy, that would matter.
But so long as they can pivot enough people to be "apolitical" or "moderate" and disenfranchise others, gerrymandering is enough to stay in power until the country falls apart.
At this point? Anyone who identifies as "conservative" is a batshit insane evangelical with a hard-on for murder. But PLENTY of folk love to call themselves "moderate" or "apolitical" which is the old "I am socially liberal but fiscally conservative so I am going to vote for Bush". And that is assuming they vote at all.
Because republicans don't need a majority. As they are so eager to explain: This is not a democracy. All they need is to maintain power in a few key districts and disenfranchise and fraud the rest. That is literally their strategy and they are pretty open about it. The younger generations lean blue and are hopefully going to stay blue, but 55% (or even 60%) is not enough.
I'll also add on that a LOT of the left leaning nature of millennials/gen z is because of exposure to others as part of college. And there is near constant pushback from all sides about how college "is too expensive and not worth it and doesn't accomplish anything". Which can do wonders for breaking younger gen z/whatever we are calling their kids (tide pod babies?). I mean, even a lot of the "fuck cars, we need walkable cities where everything I could ever want is in a five block radius" crowd are kind of reinventing the idea of a "small town" that you are born to, live in, and die in.
It's a problem because of free movement. I live in GA which us now gloriously purple. Do you know the biggest problem GA has right now? The homesteading movement. A lot of urbanites are spreading from cities. My county (which I just move to lol) was so close to flipping blue they split it in two. And that doesn't matter because I've seen democrat leaning people from the city movement even further past me deeper into rural GA.
To me, this is why they're fighting municipal broadband. I actually fucking hate cities. I've lived in the heart or Atlanta, of DC and more. I hate it. I'd rather a real small town (not bullshit suburbs). I can live here because the town has city sponsored fiber internet. It has made the whole ass area a magnet for tech people. Locals hate it. The city loves that sweet, sweet tax money. And it's like a virus prompting neighboring cities to give it a whirl. But you get just a drop of city folk to move and suddenly a whole district is blue.
That's why this widening divide is a horrible problem. I know a lot of people like me, liberal city haters who are chained to cities for jobs. Some people move because they can, but a lot more people are moving because they have to. My sister lives in bumfuck, GA because that's where she can afford rent and that is a stealth problem for the GOP IMO. Kids are going to show up and gentrify their small towns as broadcast rolls out and remote work is more common
I mean, that kind of speaks to why "purple" is not the major win we like to think it is.
Because people who are strongly liberal/leftist tend to not view "I am going to move to Bumfuck, Arkansas and just get some blackout shades so that I don't see the cross burnings" as being at all an option. Which really sucks. Because raising a family (or just being an older introvert) in a city kind of sucks.
Like, I know a lot of people who did the California->Austin exodus over the past five or six years. And they all claim they are insanely liberal and are going to a bastion of sanity. But... they also make strong statements regarding where tax money should go, got incredibly pissy when a trans friend asked them to not talk about terf-wizards game, etc.
Which is why you won't see someone like AOC getting elected in those "purple" states. We are looking at DINOs and "moderate" republicans like romney. Which... is still a LOT better than magats like trump and desantis. But, at best, that gets us back to 90s/00s levels of "we are fucked".
"Purple" is a battleground state. Which is a hell of a lot better than a solid red state but still benefits republicans with even an iota of charisma (so... not the magats).
Sometimes I see people saying raising a family in a city sucks and oof, man, my experience growing up in the suburbs was a nightmare. Can't go anywhere. Nothing to do. Can't even see friends unless I can convince my parents to drive me.
People I knew growing up in the city had freedom. I was always so jealous.
Maybe it's different if your nearest city is some car hell hole instead of New York.
Apologies for the tangent
There's a middle ground. I'm in a true small city of 10K and I love it. The city is all of 10 miles square. It has all the basics movie theater, most chains, etc. The city isn't walkable, but it is bikeable and I've found that to be good enough. I grew up in a city like this and I wanted that for my kid. We still drive into the local metro maybe once a month, but I don't ever need to go into the metro for basics.
Maybe it’s different if your nearest city is some car hell hole instead of New York.
So, basically every city not on the eastern seaboard, lol.
But I'm not talking about moving fuck all no where. I'm talking about expanding the range impact of cities. We got this way because people all moved to cities. If people spread like a wave away from cities, then the power impact decreases. My town is went from a Christian stronghold where you couldn't drink and everything was closed on Sunday to a place where a Republicans have to battle for local spots and most highly religious laws have been repealed.
Im halfway between 2 major cities. One is the major metro and the other a mid-size city. It used to be very red going 30 minutes away from either, but now we have a sea of purple. And areas are only getting bluer.
Everywhere in GA outside of like 4 cities is bumbfuck, but being I proximity of cities and growing small towns into midsized cities is the way to win. When I was a kid my hometown was bumfuck, GA. Now it's a major city (for GA. I mean it's sub-1 million by a lot) and solidly blue when it used to be very red.
We won't see an AOC type for a long time, but a moderate republican (not a Manchin type) is a way better platform than any republican.
Ignoring the societal and cultural impact of gentrification:
Again. Moving out to bumfuck is just not something that "leftist" people do. It is slowly shifting the local politics but you are still looking at very "moderate" candidates.
What you are describing is basically just urban sprawl. "The Bay Area" extending dozens of miles inland at this point is a good example of this. Also, the entirety of the state of New Jersey relative to NYC (never turn down an opportunity to piss off New Jersey). It is the idea that people move to the city, want to buy a house (or just not live in the city), and move an hour or so away.
And THIS is how you actually stay liberal/progressive. But is also a much longer timeframe and is increasingly impacted by housing prices. Just adding 30 minutes to your commute to buy a townhouse really isn't an option for the vast majority of the country at this point. Which gets you into that mess of "Well, I can either live next to someone with a twenty foot confederate flag or pay rent the rest of my life..." state
And also? Urban Sprawl is a known concept. Gerrymandering stepped up its game to handle it.