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Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of January 29
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
Oregon high court says 10 GOP state senators who staged long walkout can’t run for reelection
For context on this:
In the past decade or so, the Oregon GOP has used the state legislature quorum rules to block necessary legislation such as budget, as well as culture wars stuff. They do this by simply not showing up, thereby denying a quorum, because for some reason, Oregon has ridiculous quorum rules.
Voters were understandably pissed that necessary legislation wasn't being accomplished because the state's minority party were using procedural rules to impose their will on the majority, so we used the voter referendum process to pass a new constitutional amendment that revokes re-election eligibility to legislators who exceed a minimum number of unexcused absences.
The state senators in question decided to skip town to delay bills about safeguarding abortion rights and transgender care among other things, and exceeded the number of allowed unexcused absences. The secretary of state rightly declared them ineligible for reelection, but they sued anyway. The state Supreme Court has now upheld the SoS's declaration, because that is, in fact, what the state Constitution says.
This is not the Democratic Party using obscure procedural rules to enforce their majority, as I'm sure is being reported in certain truth-deficient sources. Those seats are not in any danger of being handed to Democrats anyway, as they are all staunchly Republican districts. These senators aren't even barred from running for election next term, because the measure didn't expressly forbid them from running for any office for all time, just for the next election for the office they held when they incurred the unexcused absences. The GOP's plan has always been to cycle loyalists back and forth to keep the game going.
This entire suit and "controversy" has all been ragebait for conservative media from the word 'go.'
NPR - Nikki Haley makes surprise appearance on SNL, mocking Donald Trump and Joe Biden
I'm not going to try and speculate on if this will sway any voters, I'm mostly just really surprised that this was the move her and her campaign chose. And also, I'm very pleased by the thought of how angry this will make Trump even though he will never admit it.
Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and a MAGA Meltdown (New York Times)
Proposed resolution would give Arizona Legislature authority to override popular vote (KNAU)
Wait, what?
Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding something, but doesn't this violate like, the whole idea of American democracy? How is the voter base not immediately double taking "their guy" calling for state power over elections?
In spirit, yes. In law, no. Article II allows the state legislature to do basically whatever they want:
Less direct democracy, more representative democracy. Arguments can be made in favour; less time spent on expensive and time-consuming election campaigns mean more time spent governing, and less influence from wealthy donors. But it doesn't mix well with single-member winner-takes-all districts; just look at the UK and all the ridiculous prime minsters they've had in the last decade.
Also:
In this particular case, it's a fascist trying to consolidate power.
Absolutely. The state had the red trifecta (governor and both legislative chambers) for 17 years before Katie Hobbs became governor this last election, and the legislature remains red. This move comes right as the state is turning purple in an effort to keep control.
Johnson says Ukraine aid and border policy reform ‘likely’ to be split (The Hill)
Tennessee lawmaker physician tries to loosen an abortion law he helped to enact