One party rule

Waddy · Nov 7, 2017

My city is having an election. The incumbent mayor (Democrat) is backed by big business while the challenger is more traditional in this town; backed by the fire, police, and utility (city owned) unions. The incumbent has more campaign cash but the challenger (Democrat) has more manpower.

My problem is that they are both tied to special interests. The incumbent has brought in some development, but at a cost. We got a new Amazon distribution center, but part of the deal is they pay nothing, nada, zero, for their utilities. This type of deal, along with property tax breaks, TIFF, and other inducements have resulted in our utility rates going up almost 100% in the past few years. Our property tax rates are now 4th highest in the nation.

The challenger, on the other hand, has promised police and fire great new contracts, even better retirement and lots of new equipment. They already have a "great" deal without any enhancements. (These union members are required to live within city limits, so they carry some serious clout).

My city has been run by Democrats for generations. There is no opposition. Only infighting within the Democratic machine.

Most judgeships and other city offices, like Treasurer, have no opposition on the ballot. No one runs against the people in power.

My state (Kansas) is run by Republicans. It has problems of it's own due to one party rule.

At least at the national level power changes hands once in a while.

Sorry about the rant, but I'm sick of one party rule. It's why many cities and some states are in such sorry shape.

HowardBThiname · Nov 8, 2017

Waddy said:
My city is having an election. The incumbent mayor (Democrat) is backed by big business while the challenger is more traditional in this town; backed by the fire, police, and utility (city owned) unions. The incumbent has more campaign cash but the challenger (Democrat) has more manpower.

My problem is that they are both tied to special interests. The incumbent has brought in some development, but at a cost. We got a new Amazon distribution center, but part of the deal is they pay nothing, nada, zero, for their utilities. This type of deal, along with property tax breaks, TIFF, and other inducements have resulted in our utility rates going up almost 100% in the past few years. Our property tax rates are now 4th highest in the nation.

The challenger, on the other hand, has promised police and fire great new contracts, even better retirement and lots of new equipment. They already have a "great" deal without any enhancements. (These union members are required to live within city limits, so they carry some serious clout).

My city has been run by Democrats for generations. There is no opposition. Only infighting within the Democratic machine.

Most judgeships and other city offices, like Treasurer, have no opposition on the ballot. No one runs against the people in power.

My state (Kansas) is run by Republicans. It has problems of it's own due to one party rule.

At least at the national level power changes hands once in a while.

Sorry about the rant, but I'm sick of one party rule. It's why many cities and some states are in such sorry shape.

Changing the political scene is a matter of not waiting for someone else to fix it -- but rather taking the initiative yourself. Start a group now, discuss the changes you'd like to see. Nominate someone in the next election who will represent those goals and then do your best to sell that person to the community. Listen to everyone and ignore no one. You can do it. Make you next election count.

shrubnose · Nov 8, 2017

Waddy said:
My city is having an election. The incumbent mayor (Democrat) is backed by big business while the challenger is more traditional in this town; backed by the fire, police, and utility (city owned) unions. The incumbent has more campaign cash but the challenger (Democrat) has more manpower.

My problem is that they are both tied to special interests. The incumbent has brought in some development, but at a cost. We got a new Amazon distribution center, but part of the deal is they pay nothing, nada, zero, for their utilities. This type of deal, along with property tax breaks, TIFF, and other inducements have resulted in our utility rates going up almost 100% in the past few years. Our property tax rates are now 4th highest in the nation.

The challenger, on the other hand, has promised police and fire great new contracts, even better retirement and lots of new equipment. They already have a "great" deal without any enhancements. (These union members are required to live within city limits, so they carry some serious clout).

My city has been run by Democrats for generations. There is no opposition. Only infighting within the Democratic machine.

Most judgeships and other city offices, like Treasurer, have no opposition on the ballot. No one runs against the people in power.

My state (Kansas) is run by Republicans. It has problems of it's own due to one party rule.

At least at the national level power changes hands once in a while.

Click to expand...

Sorry about the rant, but I'm sick of one party rule. It's why many cities and some states are in such sorry shape.

In about 50 years after massive demographic change hits full force like a tidal wave the GOP will be reduced to a minor,regional,party.

Wait and see.

"What goes around,comes around."

:lol:

RetiredUSN · Nov 8, 2017

shrubnose said:
In about 50 years after massive demographic change hits full force like a tidal wave the GOP will be reduced to a minor,regional,party.

Wait and see.

"What goes around,comes around."

:lol:

You are worse than 'Chicken Little" with that line. Nobody can project what the demographics of either party will be.

shrubnose · Nov 8, 2017

RetiredUSN said:
You are worse than 'Chicken Little" with that line.

Nobody can project what the demographics of either party will be.

Click to expand...

Anyone who dreams that those who belong to minorities will ever vote for those who want to suppress them is living in a dream world.

PeteEU · Nov 8, 2017

Waddy said:
My city is having an election. The incumbent mayor (Democrat) is backed by big business while the challenger is more traditional in this town; backed by the fire, police, and utility (city owned) unions. The incumbent has more campaign cash but the challenger (Democrat) has more manpower.

My problem is that they are both tied to special interests. The incumbent has brought in some development, but at a cost. We got a new Amazon distribution center, but part of the deal is they pay nothing, nada, zero, for their utilities. This type of deal, along with property tax breaks, TIFF, and other inducements have resulted in our utility rates going up almost 100% in the past few years. Our property tax rates are now 4th highest in the nation.

The challenger, on the other hand, has promised police and fire great new contracts, even better retirement and lots of new equipment. They already have a "great" deal without any enhancements. (These union members are required to live within city limits, so they carry some serious clout).

My city has been run by Democrats for generations. There is no opposition. Only infighting within the Democratic machine.

Most judgeships and other city offices, like Treasurer, have no opposition on the ballot. No one runs against the people in power.

My state (Kansas) is run by Republicans. It has problems of it's own due to one party rule.

At least at the national level power changes hands once in a while.

Sorry about the rant, but I'm sick of one party rule. It's why many cities and some states are in such sorry shape.

This is sadly quite common in areas of the democratic world where there are a limited number of parties. Here in Spain you have areas where the same family has been in power for generations. Not far from here, a major has tried to quit for 20+ years but no one wanted to replace him since he is so popular... he is hugging 80 now and still trying to quit at each election. Now in my own country we dont have that anymore per say, since we have many parties even at a local level. Sure some counties and towns have the same party running it for decades if not forever, but there is an opposition that keeps them in check.

Now one part of the problem is size of districts/counties/towns. I see your state has over 100 counties.. which is a lot considering the low population of most of them. Problem comes of course when you want to change things.. and history and all that bs comes up and is used to defend so called historical issues. But have to say, the Kansas counties look cool on a map.. nice and square

Brochacholomigo · Nov 8, 2017

RetiredUSN said:
You are worse than 'Chicken Little" with that line. Nobody can project what the demographics of either party will be.

He's also more vocal than Chicken Little with that line. And all of his lines, for that matter.

countryboy · Nov 8, 2017

shrubnose said:
In about 50 years after massive demographic change hits full force like a tidal wave the GOP will be reduced to a minor,regional,party.

Wait and see.

"What goes around,comes around."

:lol:

Every time you repeat this silly line, I think of how many times you repeated how badly Hillary was gonna stomp Trump. And it gives me hope.

Do you manually type this out the six or seven times a day you post it, or, do you copy and paste it from a book mark somewhere. Daily Kos maybe? Huffpo? Raw Story?

shrubnose · Nov 8, 2017

countryboy said:
Every time you repeat this silly line, I think of how many times you repeated how badly Hillary was gonna stomp Trump. And

it gives me hope.

Click to expand...

Do you manually type this out the six or seven times a day you post it, or, do you copy and paste it from a book mark somewhere. Daily Kos maybe? Huffpo? Raw Story?

Come back and tell us how much hope you have in about 50 years after massive demographic change hits.

"No one can stop time and/or change."

countryboy · Nov 8, 2017

shrubnose said:
Come back and tell us how much hope you have in about 50 years after massive demographic change hits.

"No one can stop time and/or change."

Come back and tell us how wrong you were about Trump.

Common Sense 1 · Nov 8, 2017

shrubnose said:
In about 50 years after massive demographic change hits full force like a tidal wave the GOP will be reduced to a minor,regional,party.

Wait and see.

"What goes around,comes around."

:lol:

Didn't you tells over and over that President Trump would never win the election?
Not good with predictions....:lol:

MrWonka · Nov 8, 2017

Waddy said:
My city has been run by Democrats for generations. There is no opposition. Only infighting within the Democratic machine.

Most judgeships and other city offices, like Treasurer, have no opposition on the ballot. No one runs against the people in power.

My state (Kansas) is run by Republicans. It has problems of it's own due to one party rule.

At least at the national level power changes hands once in a while.

Sorry about the rant, but I'm sick of one party rule. It's why many cities and some states are in such sorry shape.

So, first question I would ask is would you say your city overall is run fairly well. I know the Republicans running the state of Kansas have kind of ****ed it up pretty bad. Brownback is one of the least popular governors in the country.

If the one party you're run by actually has overall good better ideas than the other why wouldn't it be better to just decide between two members of that party than let the ****ty party have power just to say you mixed things up?

You look at the national scale, and it's true things do get mixed up a bit, generally what you see is a Republican ****s **** up for 8 years, and then a Democrat comes into fix it. But rather than just keep letting Democrats improve things people like yourself think that after 8 years it's good to "mix it up," and that's why this country is absolutely ****ed by Trump right now. How many people who voted for Trump did so because they figured Democrats under Obama had power for eight years, it's time to give the other party a chance for awhile. Even though it was that Party under George W. Bush that lead us into multiple wars and the 2nd greatest financial disaster in U.S. History.

When the choices you have are between a fairly solid political party, and a ****ty one, you don't to just mix it up every now and then just to try something different. You vote for the good party, until the other one learns to stop being a bunch of **** heads.

MrWonka · Nov 8, 2017

Common Sense 1 said:
Didn't you tells over and over that President Trump would never win the election?
Not good with predictions....:lol:

Predictions like these have error rates, that can be wrong once in awhile, but over the long haul they always work themselves out. It's like predicting the climate vs predicting the weather another concept you conservatives struggle with. Knowing how hot or cold it's going to be in two weeks can be tricky, but recognizing a trend that the planet is warming is pretty easy. The Republican party can't win without old racist white people. There will be fewer of those in the future. Given that Republicans have only one the popular vote in 1 out of the last 7 straight presidential elections you can't afford to have more and more of your base die off.

Mach · Nov 8, 2017

Waddy said:
My city is having an election. The incumbent mayor (Democrat) is backed by big business while the challenger is more traditional in this town; backed by the fire, police, and utility (city owned) unions. The incumbent has more campaign cash but the challenger (Democrat) has more manpower.

I feel your paint. Looks like you have two choices:
1. corporate welfare and entrenched, corrupt power
vs
2. union pandering/welfare, + big money

So what about the average citizen who is not in the government union?
How do you ensure you don't get entrenched power?

But you see what's going on here? It's just like two-party control, they simply take those two sides from within a single party. You have one doing corporate welfare and one pandering to union power, sounds like Rs and Ds...
Remember, two party control looks about the same, and most of us feel that the national elections are just a fight between political elites, and never really revolves around the real issues that matter to most of us.

Some of it is the system that is winner takes all. If you had a more representational component to which parties were in office, you'd reduce that single party stuff. But in your case I have a feeling it would look pretty much the same, entrenched power + corporate welfare vs money+union pandering..

I think what HowardBThiname mentions comes into play here. If we cannot clearly choose a policy or set of policies to get what we want...we cant' really blame the status quo on them, it's maybe that there is no real solution? Or no easy one, that's for sure.

Common Sense 1 · Nov 8, 2017

MrWonka said:
Predictions like these have error rates, that can be wrong once in awhile, but over the long haul they always work themselves out. It's like predicting the climate vs predicting the weather another concept you conservatives struggle with. Knowing how hot or cold it's going to be in two weeks can be tricky, but recognizing a trend that the planet is warming is pretty easy. The Republican party can't win without old racist white people. There will be fewer of those in the future. Given that Republicans have only one the popular vote in 1 out of the last 7 straight presidential elections you can't afford to have more and more of your base die off.

Babble nonsense.... Demonizing large groups of people who vote differently then you. Wishing people dead?
So glad President Trump pulled us out of the extremely bad Paris deal!

shrubnose · Nov 8, 2017

countryboy said:
Come back and tell us how wrong you were about Trump.

Click to expand...

Trump's poll numbers continue to sink.He'll probably lose in2020 if he's theGOP's candidate.

shrubnose · Nov 8, 2017

Common Sense 1 said:
Didn't you tells over and over that President Trump would never win the election?

Not good with predictions....:lol:

Click to expand...

Tell me all about it after he loses in 2020.If he's the GOP's candidate.The GOP could wise up and run someone else.

:lol:

MrWonka · Nov 8, 2017

Common Sense 1 said:
Babble nonsense.... Demonizing large groups of people who vote differently then you.

Doesn't matter how large the group was, they all made the same evil choice.

Common Sense 1 said:
Wishing people dead?

Wishing....no? I'd prefer to open their minds to reality, but given that they're mostly too old, too closed-minded, and too bigotted to learn anything new, I will take solace in the reality that every year there's about a million of them or so that we no longer have to worry about ****ing up our future any longer.

Common Sense 1 said:
So glad President Trump pulled us out of the extremely bad Paris deal!

Oh, you mean the one that every single solitary other responsible nation(and even some otherwise irresponsible ones) has signed up for.

American Exceptionalism died the day Donald Trump won the Presidency. The second Trump was sworn in, the United States lost any credibility, and ability to buck international consensus, and pretend that we're the smart ones who are doing things are own way.

Waddy · Nov 8, 2017

shrubnose said:
In about 50 years after massive demographic change hits full force like a tidal wave the GOP will be reduced to a minor,regional,party.

Wait and see.

"What goes around,comes around."

:lol:

I used to think this, too. That Republicans had no real future due to shifting demographics. Usually demographics drives most things. But how do you explain entire blocks of voters changing sides? Several solid Democratic states voted for Trump. The old Democratic South switched to Reagan, and stayed there. What I believe now, is the excesses by one party, built up over decades of politics, often leads to a resurgence of the other side. Liberal excesses will lead to a conservative backlash.

And if you examine Hispanic and/or black social values, they are much more in line with the family values of the Republican party. It is only on the issue of civil rights and immigration that the Democrats hold these voters. And what happens when Hispanics and immigrant blacks eventually dominate the business world? They will discover the importance of lower taxes and less regulation, that's what will happen.

So I think we will always have both a liberal and a conservative party in this country. Power will swing between the two depending on their excesses. Only the color will change.

shrubnose · Nov 8, 2017

Waddy said:
I used to think this, too. That Republicans had no real future due to shifting demographics. Usually demographics drives most things. But how do you explain entire blocks of voters changing sides? Several solid Democratic states voted for Trump. The old Democratic South switched to Reagan, and stayed there. What I believe now, is the excesses by one party, built up over decades of politics, often leads to a resurgence of the other side. Liberal excesses will lead to a conservative backlash.

And if you examine Hispanic and/or black social values, they are much more in line with the family values of the Republican party. It is only on the issue of civil rights and immigration that the Democrats hold these voters. And what happens when Hispanics and immigrant blacks eventually dominate the business world? They will discover the importance of lower taxes and less regulation, that's what will happen.

So I think we will always have both a liberal and a conservative party in this country. Power will swing between the two depending on their excesses. Only the color will change.

Click to expand...

Believe whatever you want to believe.It will have no effect on reality.

Waddy · Nov 8, 2017

shrubnose said:
Believe whatever you want to believe.It will have no effect on reality.

Now that's a cogent answer. Not. Haven't you seen that every time one party is counted down and out it comes back because the dominant party screws it up? The Democrats will make a come back. Then they will inflict excesses on the society, and the Republicans will make a come back. The cycle will repeat just like it's always done. Here in Kansas the excesses of the Brownback administration led to the election of many "moderate" Republicans (Democrats really) who have returned tax rates to all time highs. We'll see how that goes over time.

There are states and cities that have always been either liberal or conservative. They will remain that way, and opposition will come from within the party like it did in Kansas, and will do in Illinois. But the general nature of those places will continue, either liberal or conservative, though they will go through their own swings. On the national level control will always have more radical swings.

Waddy · Nov 8, 2017

HowardBThiname said:
Changing the political scene is a matter of not waiting for someone else to fix it -- but rather taking the initiative yourself. Start a group now, discuss the changes you'd like to see. Nominate someone in the next election who will represent those goals and then do your best to sell that person to the community. Listen to everyone and ignore no one. You can do it. Make you next election count.

Sounds good in theory, but the powers that be are so entrenched that opposition just isn't feasible. For the people connected to power in this city, the unions and business, the city is doing well for them. The average citizen, the ones paying the high utility bills and property taxes, not so much. It has always been a working class town. It is now pretty much a city of renters; mostly section eight. Home ownership has dropped like a rock. I don't think renters make the connection between property taxes and increasing rents. 98% of the school kids are on free and reduced lunch. Unfortunately, it's a downward spiral that I don't see a way out of.

For several reasons, I'd like to hang on here for about another ten years, sell the house and business, or just walk away from them (homes are getting hard to sell). Most homes are bought by investors on the cheap now and rented out. They seem to prefer renting as section eight because then the rent payment is dependable.

shrubnose · Nov 8, 2017

Waddy said:
Now that's a cogent answer. Not. Haven't you seen that every time one party is counted down and out it comes back because the dominant party screws it up? The Democrats will make a come back. Then they will inflict excesses on the society, and the Republicans will make a come back. The cycle will repeat just like it's always done. Here in Kansas the excesses of the Brownback administration led to the election of many "moderate" Republicans (Democrats really) who have returned tax rates to all time highs. We'll see how that goes over time.

There are states and cities that have always been either liberal or conservative. They will remain that way, and opposition will come from within the party like it did in Kansas, and will do in Illinois. But the general nature of those places will continue, either liberal or conservative, though they will go through their own swings.

On the national level control will always have more radical swings.

Click to expand...

Believe whatever you want to believe.It will have no effect on reality now or in the future.

Common Sense 1 · Nov 8, 2017

MrWonka said:
Doesn't matter how large the group was, they all made the same evil choice.

Wishing....no? I'd prefer to open their minds to reality, but given that they're mostly too old, too closed-minded, and too bigotted to learn anything new, I will take solace in the reality that every year there's about a million of them or so that we no longer have to worry about ****ing up our future any longer.

Oh, you mean the one that every single solitary other responsible nation(and even some otherwise irresponsible ones) has signed up for.

American Exceptionalism died the day Donald Trump won the Presidency. The second Trump was sworn in, the United States lost any credibility, and ability to buck international consensus, and pretend that we're the smart ones who are doing things are own way.

One year ago today candidate Trump became president-elect Trump. A great day for the United States of America. One year later, the left is still
in the resist mode. Screaming and yelling every day. The democratic party is in implosion mode. The old party chairman dishing dirt on Hillary and her campaign.

Waddy · Nov 8, 2017

Common Sense 1 said:
One year ago today candidate Trump became president-elect Trump. A great day for the United States of America. One year later, the left is still
in the resist mode. Screaming and yelling every day. The democratic party is in implosion mode. The old party chairman dishing dirt on Hillary and her campaign.

The Dems just can't get over this loss. They, like Hillary, blame everyone but themselves.

One party rule

we live in a society