lizkat
Watching March roll out real winter
Truth be told I am starting to focus less on today's candidates --circus acts or otherwise-- and more on the largely still under-radar effort of the far right to gather enough red state legislative power to force the calling of a constitutional convention... hoping to install new rules of the road that enshrine "conservative" minority views of American governance.
The Guardian ran a big piece about it today, rounding up info on some of the movers and shakers at the level far below attention of most of the public, and noting that it only takes 34 states to call for a constitutional convention. In 2022, the Rs control legislatures of 30 states.
www.theguardian.com
The 2010 Citizens United decision of course has unleashed tons of money into our politics and the worst part of it is how easy it is to dodge disclosure laws, weakened as they already are. Lot of big corporations and individuals are willing to back constitutional revisions to prevent --indeed to outlaw-- progressive federal legislation meant to narrow wealth gaps and work towards ideals of equality under rule of law. They basically want to ditch business regulation and inconveniences of workers' rights, antidiscrimination laws, and even the federal income tax.
The biggest problem is that most Americans actually have no idea what the federal government does for us every single day. Weather data (optimum crop planting and harvesting windows), small town water systems, hazardous waste cleanups... any monies the feds disburse to states as block grants commonly get claimed by state pols to be largesse that they and colleagues at state level have achieved on citizens' behalf. The typical red state pol's maneuver is to vote against the federal spending bills and then claim credit for whatever benefit accrues to his own state.
And there's precious little pushback from mayors or city councils who are just happy they finally got this or that grant to get something done to help ensure their own grip on power. It's part of the reason our public school system has gone down the tubes. States can decide to build privatized prisons instead of bumping per-student expenditures with some of their block grants. Property tax hikes get nixed as replacement funds for educational purposes. The block grant hides many decisions that are not in the public's interest, not least blurring outcomes as to source of the money. EVERYONE likes a tax cut, right? Maybe not if we saw where what's left in fed money ends up in some states.
The people now calling for a constitutional convention are pretty sure nobody's really paying attention.
The Guardian ran a big piece about it today, rounding up info on some of the movers and shakers at the level far below attention of most of the public, and noting that it only takes 34 states to call for a constitutional convention. In 2022, the Rs control legislatures of 30 states.
Inside Steve Bannon’s ‘disturbing’ quest to radically rewrite the US constitution
By taking over state legislatures, Republicans hope to pass conservative amendments that cannot be electorally challenged
www.theguardian.com
The 2010 Citizens United decision of course has unleashed tons of money into our politics and the worst part of it is how easy it is to dodge disclosure laws, weakened as they already are. Lot of big corporations and individuals are willing to back constitutional revisions to prevent --indeed to outlaw-- progressive federal legislation meant to narrow wealth gaps and work towards ideals of equality under rule of law. They basically want to ditch business regulation and inconveniences of workers' rights, antidiscrimination laws, and even the federal income tax.
The biggest problem is that most Americans actually have no idea what the federal government does for us every single day. Weather data (optimum crop planting and harvesting windows), small town water systems, hazardous waste cleanups... any monies the feds disburse to states as block grants commonly get claimed by state pols to be largesse that they and colleagues at state level have achieved on citizens' behalf. The typical red state pol's maneuver is to vote against the federal spending bills and then claim credit for whatever benefit accrues to his own state.
And there's precious little pushback from mayors or city councils who are just happy they finally got this or that grant to get something done to help ensure their own grip on power. It's part of the reason our public school system has gone down the tubes. States can decide to build privatized prisons instead of bumping per-student expenditures with some of their block grants. Property tax hikes get nixed as replacement funds for educational purposes. The block grant hides many decisions that are not in the public's interest, not least blurring outcomes as to source of the money. EVERYONE likes a tax cut, right? Maybe not if we saw where what's left in fed money ends up in some states.
The people now calling for a constitutional convention are pretty sure nobody's really paying attention.
