The Right has hijacked Congress and State Houses. Now it’s coming for the cities

Jackie22

Well-known Member
Location
Northeast Texas
[h=1]This is infuriating, the Koch Bros are everywhere.....more people need to be aware of their shenanigans, they are evil and destroying our country. [/h]Few ideas are more powerful in US politics than local control. The South rallied around states’ rights during the Civil War. Conservatives rage at the federal government for meddling in local matters.

But when local control favors progressives, it turns out to be “a form of collectivism” rather than a cherished conservative principle.

That’s what Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently called the trend of city-level bans on plastic bags, fracking and tree-cutting. They form “a patchwork quilt of bans and rules and regulations,” Abbott said, “that are eroding the Texas model” and turning the state into California.

Texas legislators have responded with proposals to preempt local laws, including a bill that would prevent local governments from issuing any ordinance that “conflicts with or is more stringent than a state statute or rule.”

Such bills blocking progressive laws are growing in popularity across the United States, especially in GOP-controlled legislatures. Last year, for example, when Oklahoma City debated raising its minimum wage to $10.10, the state legislature passed a law preventing cities from enacting wage increases.



THE REST:

http://billmoyers.com/2015/05/28/gop-alecs-war-cities/

Bytheway, "collectivism" is a John Birch Society term (now known as the Tea Party). They HATE anything that is for the public good and they hate anything publicly funded and they hate public commons - they call that "collectivism". Most normal people just call it Democracy.



 

I guess 'uninformed' means not far left in thinking. The US structure has always been from the local, bottom up, towards the top end, which is national. Now though, with the extreme far left thinking they should be in charge of everything, the effort is to try to get 'top down' as the only way to go. So I guess I am not sure about some of these state actions over city actions at all. It seems to me that if a local agency wants to be tougher than the next higher, that should be OK.
 

I guess 'uninformed' means not far left in thinking. The US structure has always been from the local, bottom up, towards the top end, which is national. Now though, with the extreme far left thinking they should be in charge of everything, the effort is to try to get 'top down' as the only way to go. So I guess I am not sure about some of these state actions over city actions at all. It seems to me that if a local agency wants to be tougher than the next higher, that should be OK.

Do you ever just say left rather than "far left"?
 
Do you ever just say left rather than "far left"?

Somewhat of a 'personal' attack from you Jim.

I guess I could say just 'left' for many folks on this forum, but some are really 'far left' or worse. And for the current US government, it is definitely 'far left' in most of it's actions. Which is one reason I think Hillary has a chance to win. She does not, has not, represented the far left thinking of some. She definitely is left, just a Bill Clinton was as he tried to make the US a better place to live. Some of Bill Clinton's good moves have been canceled by the current government. Clinton was trying to get the lifetime and longer unemployed inspired to go back to working. Yes we do have 'left' and 'far left' to consider in this country.
 
Somewhat of a 'personal' attack from you Jim.

I guess I could say just 'left' for many folks on this forum, but some are really 'far left' or worse. And for the current US government, it is definitely 'far left' in most of it's actions. Which is one reason I think Hillary has a chance to win. She does not, has not, represented the far left thinking of some. She definitely is left, just a Bill Clinton was as he tried to make the US a better place to live. Some of Bill Clinton's good moves have been canceled by the current government. Clinton was trying to get the lifetime and longer unemployed inspired to go back to working. Yes we do have 'left' and 'far left' to consider in this country.

Personal attack??? Bob if I ever posted my thoughts about you, THAT would be a personal attack. You make me laugh.
 
Do you ever just say left rather than "far left"?

I haven't really seen ANY "FAR" left people on this forum.. Don't know who they would be. I personally am a moderate and always have been. But I suppose to someone so entrenched in Right Wing dogma.. anyone with somewhat progressive thinking is "FAR" left.
 
I haven't really seen ANY "FAR" left people on this forum.. Don't know who they would be. I personally am a moderate and always have been. But I suppose to someone so entrenched in Right Wing dogma.. anyone with somewhat progressive thinking is "FAR" left.

Well, we are well aware of Bob's immersion into the FAR right way of "thinking".
 
I haven't really seen ANY "FAR" left people on this forum.. Don't know who they would be. I personally am a moderate and always have been. But I suppose to someone so entrenched in Right Wing dogma.. anyone with somewhat progressive thinking is "FAR" left.

You and Jim are both well off the mark for my interests. Why would I even be posting decent comments about Hillary or Bill Clinton if I was anything but centered? Certainly not far right as some insist. What we now have is a very far left government and a way of running the country without any Congressional debate for much of what has happened. No lookout for where the debt is going and it just keeps on getting larger by the day. Let us see, Obama took over when the debt was about 11 trillion after two years of Democrat congress under Bush the President. They took over when the debt was about 7.5 trillion under Bush control. Anyway, Obama has us now at 18 trillion and climbing. So Obama is not a reasonable economical President at all. Can't wait for the next election and of all the candidates, including Hillary, I don't see that continuing any longer. We must take control of our debts or the US will become just as weak as many countries in Europe and other areas already are.
 
You have been shown over and over and over again.. that what you believe about the debt and spending is WRONG.. However, you refuse to believe it and continue to write the same things... all false. I'm not even going to bother to respond to any of your above claims.. It's pointless.. No matter what proof you have been shown, you still come back with this nonsense. It's become tedious Have a good evening.
 
Hello, far left (by American standards,supposedly, ) person here on this forum! In Canada, I only merit centre-left status, with the Greens and Terrifying Communists, to the Left of me. Heck, in Canada, Bernie isn't even considered a socialist. You guys are moderates, not members of the Great Northern Socialist Horde! We denizens if The Dreadful Welfare State, find the Democrat's politics far from extreme. Send some of your detractors North to discover the Horrors of Canadian Govt. lol suggest tranquilisers. Lol.
 
Thanks, Jackie, for the OP. For a state legislature to make laws that prohibit local jurisdictions from passing stricter environmental regulations is just appalling. The Republicans pride themselves about their belief in the importance of states rights over an oppressive federal bureaucracy. By exactly the same reasoning they should respect the right of cities to pass ordinances that they feel appropriate.
 
Thanks, Jackie, for the OP. For a state legislature to make laws that prohibit local jurisdictions from passing stricter environmental regulations is just appalling. The Republicans pride themselves about their belief in the importance of states rights over an oppressive federal bureaucracy. By exactly the same reasoning they should respect the right of cities to pass ordinances that they feel appropriate.

Except when the State legislates policies that are in oposition to the wishes of the Billionaire doner class. THEN States rights go out the window.
 
Hello, far left (by American standards,supposedly, ) person here on this forum! In Canada, I only merit centre-left status, with the Greens and Terrifying Communists, to the Left of me. Heck, in Canada, Bernie isn't even considered a socialist. You guys are moderates, not members of the Great Northern Socialist Horde! We denizens if The Dreadful Welfare State, find the Democrat's politics far from extreme. Send some of your detractors North to discover the Horrors of Canadian Govt. lol suggest tranquilisers. Lol.

:giggle:Great Northern Socialist Horde???
I've been to Canada and you guys don't even rate on the far left side of the equation.
I'll see your Dreadful Welfare State and raise you with our Fair Work Australia.
 
I'm sure Shalimar heard about it but did you read about the remarkable Liberal victory in Alberta?
http://queer-liberal.blogspot.com/20...erta-gets.html
A true democracy is one where power in not permanently entrenched so that the government never changes. I'm currently chaffing because my state and federal electorates are returning members from the party that I don't favour but I take heart that that situation is not immutable. Politics in Australia are more fluid than they appear to be in the US. I don't know very much about Canada.

My previous post was 100% facetious. :grin:
 
Funny post DW. Knew you were playing. Re Alberta, actually the new govt. is not liberal, ie,centrist, but NDP, New Democratic Party, soft socialists. First time since 1989 they have been in power in Alberta. I bet the oil companies are uncomfortable. Good, perhaps we can stop being ecoterrorists. Our dearly unbeloved prime minister, Harper, the conservative right wing evangelical, hails from Alberta. We have a federal election next year. The rats have spoken, time for a new ship! Now, we can stop living Harper's Revelation Armageddon whatever, fantasy. Karma is a wonderful thing, lol.
 
It is already too late to stop Obama and his mob of political criminals from destroying the US future. We now have more debt than what can be paid back for many years. All this means that much of what Obama has put into place will have to be ended and the people will have to put up with less of this so called pre paid medical and other government paid for ideas, that are not working now and won't in the future either.

Hillary was tested before and she showed some understanding of the problem and is likely to be much less a problem than what we have today. But we have a year and a half yet and the real candidates for both parties have plenty of time yet to change who will likely be the real candidates for the election. Look what happened to Hillary 6 1/2 years ago, she got dumped during the run up. Reality is a real bitch, so be careful of all the nonsense some folks love to pitch.
 


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