GOP Loses Foothold In Big Cities

[babylonsister]

https://politicalwire.com/2021/06/22/gop-loses-foothold-in-big-cities/

GOP Loses Foothold In Big Cities
June 22, 2021 at 6:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

New York Times: “The realignment of national politics around urban-versus-rural divisions has seemingly doomed Republicans in these areas as surely as it has all but eradicated the Democratic Party as a force across the Plains and the Upper Mountain West. At the national level, Republicans have largely accepted that trade-off as advantageous, since the structure of the federal government gives disproportionate power to sparsely populated rural states.”

“But the party’s growing irrelevance in urban and suburban areas also comes at a considerable cost, denying conservatives influence over the policies that govern much of the population and sidelining them in some of the country’s centers of innovation and economic might. The trend has helped turn formerly red states, like Georgia and Arizona, into purple battlegrounds as their largest cities and suburbs have grown larger and more ethnically mixed.”

[Lovie777]

1. republicans keep the on going suppressions in civil rights, women rights . ..

voting rights and just plain denial of voters voting for expansion of healthcare and other favorable measures by republican state politicians overturning these measures "because" rural areas were out voted by the rest of the state.

Majority of America wants to keep democracy flowing while the minority want to destroy it.

[OrlandoDem2]

2. As a corollary, if we can somehow defeat DeSantis in 2022, it'll DESTROY

the GOP for some time to come.

They are putting ALL their eggs in his basket. The nation must unite against him. It’ll help all of the USA, not just FL.

[PortTack]

8. Agree!!

[colsohlibgal]

3. Our System Has Been So Tilted For Republicans

Again States with a population less than many big cities get the same two Senators than States More populous than many Countries. Then there is the unique Electoral College....where you can get millions more votes but lose....the will of the comfortable majority thwarted.

Minus that no Dubya no Orange Hitler.

[Hortensis]

6. One of the very bad results of the parties losing their

ideological mixtures as almost all cons moved Repub and liberals Dem. When the EC helped the needs of rural populations not be ignored by much larger urban ones, there was at least some sensible advantage to be gained from it.

With the Pubs consolidated in one party gone RW extremist... As you say.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. We will hold the Senate

The House is in question, but I think we have a better chance to hold it than most think.

Voter suppression usually backfires.

And we've seen what happens when Trump isn't on the ballot. Now is the time to donate to the DNC and start to organize, voting in 2022 is the way to purge the country of Trumpism.

[CrackityJones75]

5. What evidence

What evidence do you have that voter suppression usually backfires? I think it has been wildly successful for the R’s for a long time.

[Hortensis]

7. Agree. Maddow did a big thing on Indivisible activism.

So add Indivisible and perhaps training to become one of the "Truth Brigade" volunteers to stealth push back on disinformation. Here's the general "TRUTH SANDWICH" technique for all of us, though:

Link to tweet

[murielm99]

9. Thanks for this, Hortensis.

We learned about truth sandwiches in my activist group. We wrote a few of them as a group, and suggested a few for LTTEs.



This is an important post. Maybe it should be an OP?

[Hortensis]

26. We do need to talk Indivisible and other action groups.

Matthew Miller from Obama's DoJ said Plan B, until we get our For the People and John Lewis bills enacted, has to be hand-to-hand combat in each state. That'll be the case even if we have some success with the narrower John Lewis bill.

[murielm99]

27. We are not exactly Indivisible.

We are under their umbrella, but we declined to join. We do not want to be required to take on all the actions and activities they undertake.

I have been an activist and a precinct leader for years. I have held most of the county offices. Many in our group have joined their central committees and are influencing activities and policies.

We are not as far left as some Indivisible groups. I am not far left. I would not be a part of this group if they were far left.

[Hortensis]

28. You guys brought the experience and other assets to do it right.

Forming activist groups that won't be immediately overrun by far left zealots can be quite a trick. In our town, while Indivisible groups were springing up and achieving remarkable things elsewhere, the tiny handful who immediately adopted the Indivisible label were so extreme and so disruptive at community meetings that they destroyed all chance of influencing others and represented no one but themselves.

But big work to do, and your group didn't allow their problems to be yours. An example for others.

[calimary]

24. George Lakoff! TRUTH!!!

I’m a longtime fan!

Mr. Lakoff, you’re needed at the DNC…

[Progressive Jones]

10. Urban and suburban people don't buy the GOPs bullshit.

And to hell with their derision of "Big City Elites".
They make no friends with that.
Big cities keep this nation running.

[Elessar Zappa]

13. Cities couldn't run without rural food production.

We need both big city products and rural products.

[quakerboy]

23. There's always imports. But more importantly,

Rural food production is done by a majority hispanic workforce. That should be kept in mind.

[andym]

11. They have a not so secret weapon: a powerful propaganda network centered on Fox News

and a mesmerizing cult leader (well for his followers at least). Couple that with a huge advantage among evangelical Christians that will not leave them, since the GOP has embraced various key values:anti-abortion, anti-gay etc, and with a Senate filibuster policy that denies the majority party power, and the GOP has huge amount of power in the US.

The result is they control a majority of state legislatures (nearly 2:1):30 (Democrat's control 19 and 1 is split). They can gerrymander Congressional districts to regain power as a minority party, and maintain power in the states they control statewide.

[geardaddy]

19. Agree 100%

The split legislature is my state's, Minnesota. The MNGOP is as nutty as they come. They control the State Senate and we control the State House and Governor's Mansion.

[modrepub]

12. In PA

The cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are really just fund raising opportunities for major Republican candidates. They rarely hold public events in these areas because the local Republican party is largely kept out of the local political arena.

Funny, because Philadelphia usually is good for over 100,000 votes in state-wide elections. That's probably as many votes as the smaller dozen counties in this state. If they continue to write the big city Republicans off then it will be harder to raise campaign money and probably depress Republican turnout in these areas. Dems have had this problem in rural areas for some time; lack of voter enthusiasm.

[maxsolomon]

16. Same here in Seattle

GOP candidates will visit the edges of the city for fundraising at some rich fuck's waterfront mansion, but they don't even field candidates in town. The biggest conservative presence in the city are the RW radio stations broadcasting brain poison to the exurbs.

[lagomorph777]

14. Keep attacking the cities, you fucking barbarians.

See what that gets you.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

15. Thank you for the much needed dose of good news.

I fear that so much right wing talk dominating the media air waves, we fail to see common sense still exists.

[BradBo]

17. GOP, the new "Suicide Squad".

[Happy Hoosier]

18. But...

In many states, the power is divided in such a way that a conservatives in the state have engineered controlling majorities in the legislatures, and those legislatures are doing everything in their power to neutralize the political voices of urban and suburban voters.

[moose65]

20. North Carolina is the poster child for that

In 2010, Democrats were really asleep at the wheel here. The Republicans took over both houses of the legislature for the first time in 100 years and proceeded to gerrymander themselves into a supermajority in the state legislature, as well as winning 10 out of the 13 US House seats. It is completely undemocratic. This state is fairly well evenly divided, but the Repubs hold all the power.

And yes, Democrats had done some gerrymandering previously but it was never this bad. After 2010, that was really the first time that sophisticated computer algorithms had been used.

Thank goodness we finally broke the supermajority in 2018 and held it off in 2020. However, they will get to draw the maps again this year. The NC Supreme Court did find that their previous maps violated the state constitution, though, so maybe they'll be a little better this time?? One can hope......

[OhioTim]

21. Hasn't Helped In Texas

Which has some of the largest cities in the country.

[summer_in_TX]

22. We are at high risk of the upswing in violent crime upending all we have going for us.

There's plenty of evidence that an increase in crime or the perception of an increase causes the instinct for safety to swell.

Doesn't matter that crazy R policies are fostering an atmosphere of anything goes as far as carrying and even shooting guns. The blame is directed at those in power. The "defund the police" message gives the gullible an easy reason to blame Dems, and a powerful tool for the Rs to use in elevating that connection.

[cstanleytech]

25. That is why the Republicans are doing things like refusing to budge on the filibuster as they know

that they can hold the rest of the country hostage as long as they keep at least 41 Senate seats.

[WarGamer]

29. With all due respect to the author of the article...

GOP hasn't had an urban "foothold" in... 70 years?