Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Partisan Politics (Page 2 of 15)

2022 Election Reaction: GOP Blew It

November 10, 2022 /

2022 McCarthy election reaction

With the 2022 election a couple of days behind us, it’s time to take a look. And the look runs parallel to last time: the GOP blew it.

They more or less had a House and a Senate majority in the bag. And while they probably (barely) managed the former, they’ve probably missed the latter again. In most parts of the country, they performed worse than the polls suggested and far worse than they could have done with better candidates and messaging.

I won’t say much else about national elections in the rest of this post. But read on for ballot initiatives and the state of things in Iowa!

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Election Predictions: 2022 Edition

November 7, 2022 /

Here we are again: another election. Like all other recent elections, this one, of course, is the most important in our lifetime.

I guess that with another one around the corner, it’s time for a new round of election predictions! And as much as we had to discuss Trump in 2020, he remains a big factor in this one, too. Since 2015, we haven’t been able to discuss U.S. electoral politics without placing Trump near the center.

Imagine traveling back in time to 2008 and telling someone that.

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4 Ballot Initiatives for Leftists to Watch

November 3, 2022 /

As we approach the 2022 election, it’s worth remembering that elections aren’t just about candidates and offices. Voters also choose whether to adopt various issue-based ballot initiatives. Pundits (and voters) often ignore these initiatives.

Let’s take a look at 4 of these ballot initiatives for leftists to watch. I’ll point out that the outset that there are a few abortion initiatives on the ballot in certain states. California and Michigan, for example, have initiatives on the ballot that would guarantee reproductive freedom if enacted.

But I’m going to set these aside for the moment. They’re important, but they’re already getting a fair bit of attention in light of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Instead, I’ll look at initiatives many leftists probably haven’t noticed.

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Tío Bernie: Interests or Relationships?

October 10, 2022 /

Tío Bernie

I want to start with two competing visions for how to put together a leftist electoral coalition. The first one says you put together a multiracial working-class coalition by laying out policies in people’s interest and then advertising those policies. The second says you start by connecting with people on their own terms and by using prior relationships to build personal ties with the candidate and campaign.

The second works better than the first. Or at least Chuck Rocha argues as much in his book, Tío Bernie, about his work with Latinx and immigrant voters on the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign.

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DSA Old Guard Harrington

The DSA’s Old Guard?

September 12, 2022 /

As we near the end of 2022, nobody really wants to talk about 2015. But one 2015 topic has piqued my interest as of late: the decision of the Old Guard of the DSA to ride the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign to membership growth. As the Old Guard reflects back on it – if it reflects back on it – I suspect it has mixed feelings about how it all went down.

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