GOP Red Tide across the nation about to begin
How bad were Democratic losses? It better expressed as how great were Republican wins. The answer is monumental. Republicans control 31 governorships. They control 68 of 98 legislative chambers that are partisan.
While the GOP will not be able to reverse all the relatively progressive legislation passed during the first two years of the Obama administration, they will be able to slow progress substantially. Moreover social issues are back on the tableas well.
The Washington Post article “Republicans in state governments plan juggernaut of conservative legislation” points out exactly what the GOP Red Tide across the states means.
Republicans plan to launch a fresh assault on the Common Core education standards, press abortion regulations, cut personal and corporate income taxes and take up dozens of measures challenging the power of labor unions and the Environmental Protection Agency. …
Republicans in at least nine states are planning to use their power to pass “right to work” legislation, which would allow employees to opt out of joining a labor union. Twenty-four states already have such laws on the books, and new measures have been or will be proposed in Wisconsin, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado, Kentucky, Montana, Pennsylvania and Missouri. …
A new round of the culture wars is also inevitable in 2015. Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List, said she expects that measures to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy will advance in Wisconsin, South Carolina and West Virginia. Missouri, too, is likely to take up some abortion-related bills.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative organization that helps Republican legislators coordinate measures among states, supports moving public pensions from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution system. ALEC considers Oklahoma, which passed a pension reform bill in 2014, to be the model. …
It is true that the Democrats made a colossal blunder when they chose to run away from the President. They paid a heavy price for their lack of spine even in an economy that is on the verge of booming.
But it is the American people that will pay the price as policies that cut taxes will be effected at the expense of services for and investments in the poor and middle classes. Passing the ill-named right to work laws will decimate unions and crater wages. Changing pensions from defined benefits to defined contributions mean an uncertain retirement. Curtailing abortion laws and reproductive services for women mean further loss of women’s economic control of their own lives.
In effect the voters that needed Democratic policies the most stayed home. Voters misled by politicians and and by an unhealthy hate of President Obama sealed their fate into long term economic despair
We can blame Democrats for not campaigning on all of their legislative successes. We can blame Republicans for misleading their base into voting against their own interests. But ultimately every American voter must take responsibility for their own economic story. Elections matter. Every vote matters. If one is too lazy to vote then one should not complain.