A revolving door of ballot campaigns

More consequences of the election a few days ago. Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos wrote that shortly after Ohio voters put abortion rights in their state constitution the House Speaker Jason Stephens declared an effort to ban abortions anyway. He says there are “multiple paths” the legislature can explore. His declaration came after another Republican was relieved the issue is settled so the party can focus on unseating Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown. Guys, good luck with that. Joan McCarter of Kos reported that Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman said there would be a “revolving door of ballot campaigns to repeal or replace Issue 1.” Does he intend to keep putting it on the ballot until he gets the result he wants? Why does he think the result will be different next time? Michigan voters approved our abortion rights amendment a year ago. The legislature spent some time clearing out some of laws that block abortion access. Alas, they didn’t get them all – the 24 hour waiting period remains – one Democrat didn’t think it was too much of a burden. McCarter reported that Right to Life of Michigan has now gone to federal court to overturn the amendment. They have some innovative (weird) arguments why the votes of a hefty majority should be overturned. Yeah, their aim is to get it back before the Supremes. There it will face the Justices that wrote the Dobbs decision, the one that overturned Roe that said the decision is up to the states. The plaintiffs are claiming that decision returned the issue “to the people’s elected representatives” – not the people. Hunter of Kos reported that Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt said Republicans should talk less about abortion because Republicans taking over is more important. Eleveld reported that during the campaign Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky emphasized the ant-abortion zealotry of his opponent Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Cameron responded with ads attacking Beshear for vetoing anti-trans legislation. Yes, abortion access won and transphobia lost. Wrote Eleveld:

Republicans are absolutely desperate for a social issue that can win back some of the suburban moms they have lost over abortion bans. But once again on Tuesday, GOP transphobia lost at the ballot box. Why? Because it’s patently hateful and, frankly, no suburban mom lays awake at night stressing over whether a transgender athlete might join their daughter's sports team. But they do worry about their daughters being able to access abortion care if they ever need it someday. Republicans just can't seem to grasp that they've lost when it comes to social issues—every damn one of them.

Mike Luckovich posted a cartoon of a pig labeled GOP looking at the election results. The pig says, “Lipstick wasn’t enough. Gonna also need eyeliner, blush, and a push-up bra...” I’ve written a lot about people whose primary motivation is being at the top of the social hierarchy. And I now see a dilemma facing Republicans. They can now pass laws to force women to carry fetuses to term, keeping women lower in the hierarchy, but likely at the expense of their own power at the next election. Or they can let the abortion issue slide while they consolidate power and come back to it later when their position is stronger. I’m fascinated in watching them take the first choice of legislating against women (and LGBTQ people) as soon as they have the chance with the apparent belief that strengthens their position in the future. Or they believe by then they will have disrupted the election process sufficiently so they won’t have to worry about elections. As I reported before Democrats had a pretty good election night. Clawson reported that the media still didn’t cut them any slack. The wins didn’t match their polling of the election a full year from now (remember the “red wave” that didn’t happen?) so while the Democrats did well they’re sticking with their polls and declaring this year is an aberration. Republican presidential candidates had a debate last night. Laura Clawson of Kos watched so we didn’t have to. Summary: Nobody won and it was irrelevant. Hunter reported it seems House Republicans have a new favorite joke, similar to a child that endlessly repeats a joke. When they hear about another person who has done something they don’t like they try to pass a law that cuts their salary to $1. They just tried to do it for press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and have tried it for Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the FBI, and prosecutors who indicted the nasty guy. It’s a joke because it is all a stunt, not meant to actually happen (nor could it). Like hearing a third grader tell a joke again, we’re getting tired of it. And, while they tell that joke again nothing is happening to prevent a government shutdown in about a week. Over the last several years I’ve written a lot about Sen. Joe Manchin. He got mentions because he thwarted important progressive bills or forced an environmentally damaging clause into a must-pass bill. It looks like I won’t need to write about him much longer. According to an Associated Press article posted to Kos he has announced he will not run for another term in 2024. Alas, he will almost surely be replaced by a Republican. The state was reliably blue when he started in the Senate and is now just as reliably red. Manchin isn’t exactly retiring just yet, though he is 76. Instead he will traveling the country “to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.” I’m not interested in any sort of middle Manchin might find. Eleveld agrees. Manchin knows little about the middle and the middle gives him mighty low approval ratings. Also, his announcement sounds a lot like a bid to be a third-party presidential candidate through a group such as No Labels, who pretends to be centrist and isn’t. All a Manchin-No Labels campaign would do is make the nasty guy the winner. Data Analyst Tom Bonior said that Manchin is using many of the nasty guy’s talking points (things are bad!) and should be treated as a nasty guy surrogate. One more thing... Manchin is 76 – not much younger than Biden and a year younger than the nasty guy. Another AP article reports that a trial has begun in the Michigan Court of Claims to keep the nasty guy off the state’s primary ballot. Activists say because of the insurrection clause he no longer meets the qualifications set out by the constitution. This is similar to cases already before judges in Colorado and Minnesota. While courts are pondering that issue the nasty guy’s children testified as part of the family business fraud trial. All three children kept saying things like, “I don’t remember.” Or, “I just signed what my accountants put in front of me.” That prompted exlrrp of the Kos community to post a meme:

And just like that, a family that claims to be business geniuses all of a sudden know very little about their businesses.