I realized something fundamental about US politics in the past several weeks.
Most of the states are "Red" or "Blue", which is to say they have one-party rule. All have state legislatures and governors. Maybe 1/3 of the states are "Purple", meaning they have real multi-party politics.
The state-level politicians in the Red & Blue states generally do not need to "reach across the aisle" to achieve goals their voters want. "What are you smoking? This is the only aisle that matters!" would be the answer to any junior politician. All politics in these states devolves to "climbing the greasy flagpole" to the top. The politicians in these states do not know how to do multi-party politics. They do not know how to appeal to voters; they only know how to stab each other in the back, strategically. They only know how to do machine politics, not retail politics.
More generally, the majority of our state-level politicians are unprepared to "go national". We have just had a lovely example of the result: Kamala Harris climbed the greasy flagpole almost to the tippy-top, first in California then at the national level, only to freeze up and fail when she actually had to appeal to "Red" voters. She blew the retail sale.
This is very bad for the country, because the "bench" is not competent.
1. Many of our presidents have been from single-majority states, including George W Bush and Obama. Trump is from a majority state in Florida. the only split state was Bill Clinton because Hillary Clinton moved her battle flag to New York.
2. Often states that are dominated by one party still elect a governor of the opposite party to rein in the abuses that come with one-party rule. They are different from those one-party states where this does not happen.
3. There is also the question of whether Harris could not make the sale, or whether the national Democrats were at a disadvantage that no one could have made the sale except a overwhelmingly gifted retail politician. the statistics bear out that the overall political mood, not just here but in Canada and Europe as well, is overwhelmingly conservative in their voting habits. Not all failures stem from the candidate. After all, Trump did not make the sale for his conservative, and I would say reactionary, ideas he just needed to not be on the same stage as Harris, and then he could say what he liked to smaller crowds to an electorate that wanted to elect the Republican candidate. After all, if Harris didn't make the sale then the same could be said of Trump, and that does not work out in the details.
I realized something fundamental about US politics in the past several weeks.
Most of the states are "Red" or "Blue", which is to say they have one-party rule. All have state legislatures and governors. Maybe 1/3 of the states are "Purple", meaning they have real multi-party politics.
The state-level politicians in the Red & Blue states generally do not need to "reach across the aisle" to achieve goals their voters want. "What are you smoking? This is the only aisle that matters!" would be the answer to any junior politician. All politics in these states devolves to "climbing the greasy flagpole" to the top. The politicians in these states do not know how to do multi-party politics. They do not know how to appeal to voters; they only know how to stab each other in the back, strategically. They only know how to do machine politics, not retail politics.
More generally, the majority of our state-level politicians are unprepared to "go national". We have just had a lovely example of the result: Kamala Harris climbed the greasy flagpole almost to the tippy-top, first in California then at the national level, only to freeze up and fail when she actually had to appeal to "Red" voters. She blew the retail sale.
This is very bad for the country, because the "bench" is not competent.
This does not work.
1. Many of our presidents have been from single-majority states, including George W Bush and Obama. Trump is from a majority state in Florida. the only split state was Bill Clinton because Hillary Clinton moved her battle flag to New York.
2. Often states that are dominated by one party still elect a governor of the opposite party to rein in the abuses that come with one-party rule. They are different from those one-party states where this does not happen.
3. There is also the question of whether Harris could not make the sale, or whether the national Democrats were at a disadvantage that no one could have made the sale except a overwhelmingly gifted retail politician. the statistics bear out that the overall political mood, not just here but in Canada and Europe as well, is overwhelmingly conservative in their voting habits. Not all failures stem from the candidate. After all, Trump did not make the sale for his conservative, and I would say reactionary, ideas he just needed to not be on the same stage as Harris, and then he could say what he liked to smaller crowds to an electorate that wanted to elect the Republican candidate. After all, if Harris didn't make the sale then the same could be said of Trump, and that does not work out in the details.