Last night’s election was full of surprises both nationally and locally. And that’s a huge understatement.
Donald Trump was elected president with 279 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 228 (so far). She becomes just the fifth candidate to lose after winning the overall vote count (her national popular vote margin over Trump was 166,443 as of 7:45 am this morning). His win comes despite — or more likely because of — the fact he was endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan, was dismissed by the political and media establishment, is an unabashed misogynist, told blatant lies throughout his campaign and repeatedly hurled vulgar and dangerous insults at a long list of public figures. Trump also connected strongly with a large voting block of rural white Americans who are fed-up with business as usual in Washington and he offered them a clear and simple choice.
Since last night, Trump and his staff have moderated the fiery tone they had on the campaign trail and both President Obama and Clinton have given respectful and hopeful concession speeches. “Donald Trump is going to be our president,” Clinton said this morning. “We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.”
While several hundred Portlanders were so angry about Trump’s victory they held a protest march on I-5 late last night, others looked at local victories for a silver lining.
The most surprising local story is that Chloe Eudaly came out of nowhere to unseat incumbent Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick by a margin of 54 to 46. Eudaly put the rent and housing crisis at the top of her agenda and she tapped into wide dissatisfaction with Novick. Eudaly, the owner of a bookstore with no former political experience, also made equity and inclusion a top priority in her campaign. BikePortland readers will recall that she expressed serious concerns that Portland’s bike share system wasn’t accessible by people with disabilities. In part due to her advocacy on the issue, PBOT decided to add adaptive bikes to the Biketown mix.
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Transportation isn’t listed as an issue on Eudaly’s website, but we’ve covered her thoughts on the issue and she’s been an active participant in conversations on BikePortland via the comment section. Back in May we featured one of her comments where she told us she lived carfree for many years while in her 20s and said, “Safe and accessible streets for pedestrians and cyclists are a priority for me and we need to be creating them across the city.” But she tempered her cycling enthusiasm by saying she feels it should be a higher priority to make sure people can safely walk and use mobility devices. “I’d personally love to see continued and increased collaboration between bicycle advocates, disability advocates, and neighborhoods around these issues,” she said.
Portland Mercury News Editor Dirk Vanderhart just tweeted this map showing where Novick and Eudaly got the most support:
Here's the latest precinct map for the Novick (blue)/Eudaly (green) race. He dominated much of west side. Not so much in rest of city. pic.twitter.com/WFB5NoQ5Dk
— Dirk VanderHart (@dirquez) November 9, 2016
Novick is currently the commissioner-in-charge of the Bureau of Transportation. His ouster guarantees new leadership on that front. Incoming Mayor Ted Wheeler will decide who gets what bureaus and so far we haven’t heard any rumors about where PBOT will end up.
A measure that raises nearly $260 million for affordable housing in Portland also enjoyed a solid win. The 20-year tax is estimated to cost the average Portland homeowner $74 annually and will go toward building 1,300 housing units. The new housing will be set-aside for people who make less than 30 percent of the median income.
A renewal of Metro’s natural areas bond measure also passed by a big margin of 73 to 27. This means Metro can move full-steam ahead on key projects like the new off-road biking trails in the North Tualatin Mountains near Forest Park.
Regionally, three cities (Tigard, Cornelious and King City) voted against a gas tax increase that would have raised money for road repairs and maintenance. Clackamas County followed suit by rejecting a six-cent per gallon gas tax by a 63 to 37 margin. While Tigard said no to a gas tax, it appears like voters have said yes to the possibility of light rail by the narrowest of margins.
Another bright spot is that Jim Bernard was voted chair of Clackamas County Commission. He ousted John Ludlow who is a loud voice for highway spending and has been publicly against investments in cycling infrastructure. While Ludlow criticized Metro and told the Portland Tribune in 2014 that, “When they continue to pour in money to bike paths they take it away from roadways” and “Freight can’t use a bike path,” Bernard has much more positive tone toward cycling — and towards Portland-style transportation planning. Ludlow was famous for his stance against “Portland creep,” but in a speech at the opening of TriMet’s Orange line, Bernard said he was, “Happy to welcome the suburb of Portland into Milwaukie.” Bernard also said one of the reasons he wants to be chair is, “Because investments in bike and pedestrian should not be a bad thing. It makes sense for quality of life and economic reasons.”
Statewide, Democrat Kate Brown easily won the race for governor. She’ll be instrumental in the major debate about transportation funding that’s coming in the 2017 legislative session. That debate will be much different now that Measure 97 failed at the ballot box. That measure would have raised $3 billion for state services by taxing corporations. Without that boost to the budget legislators will have a massive shortfall that will make infrastructure spending an even trickier conversation than usual.
You can check the latest Oregon election results here and learn more by reading The Oregonian’s key takeaways.
Another transportation bright spot last night was the number of victories for transit-related funding measures that passed — including Measure M in Los Angeles. NextCity.org says the estimated $200 billion in funding just approved by voters nationwide is the largest victory for transit in U.S. history. However, there’s a cloud looming: Transit (like all infrastructure spending) is heavily reliant matching funds from the federal government — funds that might not be available in a Trump administration that’s complemented by Republican majories in the House and Senate.
This has been a horrible election where America’s democracy and ideals have been severely tested. Many people are rightfully scared at what a Trump presidency might bring and we must be vigilant and be ready to work hard to keep the hatred and divisiveness that has taken root during this election at bay.
Stay tuned.
— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org
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As we edge ever closer to two separate countries. On a bike related note, multi mode transit packages are a distant memory now. Oregon and portland will need to pay the full share of multi mode. However, If they want a new freeway, uncle trump might just give it to them.
What race tracks and football stadiums has Trump built? Hillary bailed out the auto industry. Humble pie.
You know those were loans that have already been repaid with interest, yes? The bailout had much less of a negative impact than GM and Chrysler shareholders’ rejection of a debt swap (Ford was not bailed out; they took a line of credit). Can you guess what would have happened to the US economy if GM filed Chapter 11 in 2008?
No need to guess on the consequences of a GM bankruptcy. We know: most investors in GM would lose their investment (but hopefully would have other investments). This loss would teach them a very painful lesson which they would never forget. GM would have been debt free, everyone would pick up the pieces and start over. Today, GM would be much better off than before and the investors would be smarter.
You cannot expect the taxpayer to cover your losses for poor investment decisions.
Yup, nothing else of consequence would ave resulted from the high unemployment rate or second-tier economics of their suppliers.
Simple Trump economics, duh. When you fail, declare bankruptcy and start over. No one is effected.
Absolutely, and we may get to test this theory again, since our newly elected officials have vowed to undo all of the regulatory measures that were put into place to try to prevent the bailouts from having to happen again. No more “big gubment” messing with companies like GE, GM, AIG, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, etc. These are all companies with spotless records… right?
It’s terrible that we’ve come back from the 2008 recession with steady economic growth at a sustainable pace. It’s the government’s fault!
“Today, GM would be much better off than before and the investors would be smarter.”
GM and their investors are much better off than before:
https://www.gm.com/investors/earnings-releases.html
Investors don’t get smarter with bankruptcies, just more conservative.
The “two countries” are pretty well mixed geographically. This morning, I was looking at the Google’s results for each of the states. At the country resolution, the denser population centers tended to vote blue and nearly everywhere else tended to voted red. The divide seems to be fueled in part by how people chose to congregate.
Still sorting out how I feel today, recovering from shock, trying to find the rays of hope. Sometimes living in a comfortably blue city and generally blue state makes voting feel irrelevant, but the outcome of local issues and City Council race today give me some hope and sense of direction.
Thanks for coverage, Jonathan.
Not sure how blue the state really is these days…as there is a lot of “red” land outside the UGBs…and a few coastal communities…
Despite low voter turnout on the democratic side, Hillary still won the popular vote. And would be president today were it not for America’s sham democracy.
How about one person, one vote, rather than electoral colleges, vote suppression, gerrymandering, Citizens United, repeal of Voting Rights Act, etc.? Or, is this just to complicated for most Americans to grasp?
the DNC may be wishing they had let Bernie take the nomination…
Gerrymandering is a big problem in other races, but doesn’t really affect the presidential election. Voter suppression is a potentially big issue, but so is low turnout. And, in this election, it doesn’t look like money was the decisive factor.
Unfortunately, it looks like fixing the voting system will be delayed or even move backwards over the coming years.
The electoral college, though, was a huge issue. It looks like Clinton likely won the popular vote.
And, if we had proportional representation rather than first past the post and gerrymandering, that would mean that the House would likely have a slim Democratic majority rather than a sizeable Republican majority.
Not that these are really feasible things to change. But they are systemic variations from “one person, one [equal] vote” that had a huge impact in favor of Republican control this election.
Yes… I deliberately omitted the electoral college issue because it was a very intentional aspect of the way our elections are designed, and I’m not clear on what the ramifications are of tinkering with it. It’s not necessarily bad that we try to temper regional populism, though that seems a lesser factor in modern politics than it once was.
Gerrymandering is a huge issue in house elections, I agree, and I strongly support non-partisan commissions to draw districts.
I don’t like proportional voting (I want to vote for a candidate, not a party), but I am a strong believer in various ranked-choice schemes that can strengthen third parties. Those might have made a difference in this race, depending on whether Johnson supporters hated Clinton or Trump more.
The Johnson supporters are clueless young kids.
I hope their *ss gets thrown off Mom and Dads health policy tomorrow.
Well a ballot measure approving ranked choice voting (RCV) just passed in Benton County, where Corvallis is, and a measure approving *statewide* use of RCV just passed in Maine. Each of those is a big deal. Having RCV in Benton County will make it much easier to get in other places in Oregon. So these are feasible. Slow, but feasible.
Please note that not all forms of proportional representation require voting for parties rather than people. In fact, there is a form of RCV that qualifies as proportional representation; it’s been used to elect the city council of Cambridge, Massachusetts for about 70 years now and is also used to elect a park board in Minneapolis and the Oscar nominees. It’s an exceptionally good voting system.
(Any voting system that elects groups of people in proportion to the number of votes they receive qualifies as proportional representation. The groups don’t have to be political parties; indeed they don’t even have to be explicitly defined or identified.)
Really good demonstration of single-winner RCV: https://youtu.be/_5SLQXNpzsk
Really good demonstration of multi-winner RCV: https://youtu.be/lNxwMdI8OWw This is the one that qualifies as proportional representation. Watch the single-winner video first.
The popular vote doesn’t matter since it is on a state by state basis.
You can have a baseball team play a 3 game series, outscore the other team overall and still lose two out of three.
I get that is the way the rules of the game are currently written. Personally, I think our society would be more just if the presidential election valued each person’s vote the same.
Can you name another developed country that doesn’t use a popular vote for the presidential race?
voter suppression is already a big issue and i think we will move further towards disenfranchisement.
*the supreme court gutted the voting rights act.
*the last firewall against state legislated voter suppression was the DOJ
* 2-3 strict constructionist uberconservatives will be added to the supreme court
I agree with you on everything(especially gerrymandering and the illegal voter suppression), but not the electoral college bit. Each state gets an amount of electoral votes that is proportionate to their population size(MT, WY, ND, SD, DE, VT, AK, & DC are the only states that slightly cheat the system by being smaller than average, but they only get the minimum of three votes, so they don’t make that much of a difference. The rest of the states get one electoral vote for about every 500-750K people(adjusted with each census)). Those electoral votes are awarded by the popular vote in each state. If we didn’t have this balance check, then big states would be able to command their will over all the smaller states with their huge vote totals in a national popular vote. Just because California and New York votes heavily the way we want right now doesn’t mean that they will 50 years in the future(only 30 years ago CA was still voting Republican). The electoral college is important for long term national stability. We are the United States of America, not the Solitary State of America.
The worst part in my eyes is that the Earth cannot handle another decade of climate change denial from one of its largest emitting nations, and that is what we will get from this president and Congress.
This article from the people behind the National Popular Vote discusses the myth that the electoral college protects small states. One person, one vote.
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/
If it had been 1-person 1-vote (no electoral college) in 1960, the J F Kennedy would have lost to then-Vice President Richard Nixon. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it…
Yeah, we should just let California elect our President. The Electoral College is the only thing that protects Middle America from the liberal coasts.
hatred and divisiveness did not suddenly take route. it has always been there.
I read the national results as being about fear and economic hardship.
Trump campaigned as a full on racist form day one. This is exactly what the election was about. economics, my *SS.
People knew what they were voting for.
dwk,
U may be right. Here’s a racist Trump supporter giving his apologies to all the Hillary supporters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNbF9PI9Gjo&feature=youtu.be
Actually, Trump supporters tend to be better off: http://qz.com/679589/trump-voters-earn-more-and-are-better-educated-than-the-typical-american/
America had a choice between a privileged lawyer-politician who said what you like to hear versus a privileged loudmouth developer who said exactly what he thought. America outside of California and NY chose what they believed to be the lesser of two evils.
I read it as proof of celebrity worship. The paper of record in this country should no longer be considered The New York Times. That honor should go to the National Enquirer.
A lot more people read it….
I read it as the country wanted nothing to do with Clinton. I also didn’t vote.
Then your opinion doesn’t matter.
Funny, even my twelve year old understands that not voting is a choice. When will you learn?
‘Not voting’ is the opposite of choosing.
It’s a dumbass choice, but it’s still a choice.
@kitty… Being a citizen of our country certainly doesn’t require one to forcibly choose sides in an evil mad parade. While you may consider me a dumb ass, my choice to refrain from the act sits well with my conscience. My curtailment of participation, and it’s perception by others will never cause me lack of sleep or distress. I’ll leave the political jousting, and world saving for the rest of you, who seem to be so enlightened.
You have a responsibility to vote. You do not have a responsibility to choose a major party candidate, nor even to mark the ballot for any particular race. But simply staying home is an abdication.
In all fairness, the impact of an individual’s vote is exaggerated. On a population level, everyone’s vote is important, but on an individual level, they are not.
This is especially true in presidential races involving the electoral college as the vote of a Democrat in a GOP dominated state and vice versa has no influence on the outcome.
“This is especially true in presidential races involving the electoral college as the vote of a Democrat in a GOP dominated state and vice versa has no influence on the outcome.”
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were Dem states that went Republican.
By your logic, voting in either state made no difference which was not true at all.
Many states usually go one way, but can go either way. WI and PA fall into those categories.
Some states are strongly enough on one side that it’s just not going to happen — e.g. the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Wyoming, etc.
I think your obligation to participate in the duties of citizenship doesn’t go away just because you live in a Republican state.
No, no, no. THIS should be the printed news source of record:
http://www.snopes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/madam-president-newsweek.jpg
While definitely not a good thing, it is not a given that Trump and a GOP Congress will lead to the loss of everything people hold dear.
His entire platform is based on a litany of idiotic promises that can’t happen even with a friendly Congress. A wall across our borders that the Mexicans pay for? Deporting over 10 million people? Throwing Clinton in prison? Ending ISIS, abortion, and a bunch of other stuff? Yeah right.
Ignoring that he’ll be caught up in scandal — he is a defendant in a real rape trial next month, has over 3,000 lawsuits against him, and seems hell bent on settling personal grudges — his epic lack of knowledge will prevent him from even understanding his options, let alone give him the ability to do anything.
Unable to deliver on anything, the same angry mob who voted him in might well toss him out along with the Congress who also didn’t deliver.
He’ll delegate where able. Be worried about his advisers and representatives.
Although I do agree that the people who voted for him should feel cheated when the realize they were sold a bill of goods which he cannot deliver.
He can also pardon himself pretty much of anything. Bill Clinton did.
I hope you’re right, but I fear that congress will do what they want and Trump will go along, while he pursues his own agenda of “making deals” and settling scores. Some of those guys are pretty bad too; many of the more mature voices of reason have disappeared over the past decade.
…nd then we get…Pence?
Do you really attribute Trump’s victory to an endorsement by the KKK?
No. Of course not.
Its okay to see the link between his connections to David Duke and the potential voters backlash against recent events that could help improve race relations in this country.
I bet it didn’t hurt.
SPLC and other sources put hard numbers for Klan membership between 3000 to 5000 nationwide. Funny how this nation of moderately minded individuals focuses constantly on such a insignificant number of people.
Their voting pushed the Trump victory, it is so obvious!
Again, I will state that I “don’t have a dog in that hunt”.
This pattern has been shown to exist so many times in past election cycles. The outcome is as it most likely would be. I’m not a student of political science, and yet I have enough reading under my belt to acknowledge the organic ebb and flow of these things. Hell, there were two reports on this alone on the beloved NPR this morning.
Smugness, over-confidence, and lack of critical voter turnout. Hillary’s camp has no one to blame but themselves. Revenge for throwing Bernie under the bus.
I doubt anyone voted for Trump out of a sense of revenge for Bernie. Lack of turnout clearly hurt. Hillary was a weak candidate, dragged down by a huge amount of baggage. I think that if Sanders had won the primary, the outcome yesterday would have been different.
I don’t think many Bernie Sanders voted for Trump out of spite, but I can see how they did not show up.
This was not a referendum on Hillary. It is much bigger. And yes Sanders would have been out president elect today. but that’s now how the rediculous Democratic Party’s primary map was designed. It favored a bankrupt southern strategy.
Sanders would not have been elected. The election was all about race pretty much. Trump made that clear. Sanders would not have attracted those voters.
I disagree. I think the main issue was economics, and Sanders resonated with the core Trump voters. Realistically, he only would have needed to appeal to 5% to turn the election, but I think he would have done much better than that.
Also, there are lots and lots in the “never Hillary” camp; there is no “never Sanders” movement, so that alone would have boosted his returns.
You say the issues of the day was race, and I say it was fear and economics. I see the “severe vetting” issue as a manifestation of fear, and the “deport Mexicans/build a wall” as a manifestation of economic anxiety, but if that difference of interpretation is all that we differ on, we may not be so far apart.
Trump says he loves “the blacks”. What could be wrong with that?
Sanders resonated with core Trump voters?
BS…
Core Trump voters are racists, pure and simple. Trump did not even hide it.
Sanders had a very similar populist message to what Trump was selling, just without the walls and the woman-grabbing.
Sanders did not blame “those” people. HUGE difference.
No, but Sanders did blame NAFTA, just as Trump did. And that message had resonance. I don’t deny the racism in Trump’s message, but do not think that was his appeal to most voters (though it was obviously not a disqualifier, either).
imo, there was little overlap between the two on the issues. i have been a sanders supporter for decades.
They are both skeptics on trade; both have similar foreign policy goals (to the extent that either articulated them), focused on less overseas entanglements; both support social security (as opposed to mainstream Republicans who want to scale it back). They differ on Obamacare and on the treatment of immigrants, but many (certainly not all) of their larger policy directions seem reasonably well aligned. I would describe both as economic populists.
I am not saying that they are (at all) equivalent candidates, only that I think Sanders could have peeled off enough Trump voters to put him on top. I doubt anyone who voted for Hillary would have preferred Trump to Sanders, but I think there are a significant enough number of Trump voters who would have supported Sanders.
I had no idea that Sanders advocated for a yuuuuge increase military spending, increased bombing/droning, torture, and the extra-judical execution of the families of people the usa “thinks” might be turrurists.
Sanders is not a skeptic on trade — like many on the center-left — he advocates for fair and equitable trade.
IMO, describing Trump as an economic popuist is beyond absurd. His positions on the economy are paleoconservative (a al Buchanan). And it is, this, no surprise that Trump is currently considering Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan as Treasury Secretary and has selected lobbyists from Goldman Sachs, Koch industries, and Aetna to lead his transition team.
Believe what you need to to make sense.
Don’t you just love it when drivers tell cyclists what they are thinking and why they are doing things?
But it might help to actually talk to a Trump voter before doing their thinking for them. You might actually come away learning something.
And I did vote out of fear 🙂 Hillary was only slightly less scary than Trump.
I know Trump voters. Most of my family in another state voted for him so quit telling me I
Quit telling me I do not know them. I do. I know why they voted like they did.
Trumps candidate for the Homeland Security being David Duke tells it’s own story.
I voted for Trump and I am not a racist. Trump is not a racist in any way, shape or form. The label of racist is one of the first that liberals will put on someone they disagree with – the goal being to throw the person off balance and so they have to go on the defensive against a false charge that cannot be disproven. How can you prove you are not a racist?
I voted for Trump to:
> protect the 2nd amendment so we can defend ourselves
> make government smaller so it is less intrusive in or lives
> hopefully get closer to a balanced budget so we might start whittling on our 20 TRILLION in debt
> end the Obamacare individual mandate fine which poor people cannot afford
> make the border more secure so that perhaps, someday, the flood of people will stop so that poor CITIZENS can get the jobs that non-citizens do today
> stop the PC garbage from the left
> keep unvetted refugees out – some of whom will kill Americans – see San Bernardino, Orlando, Boston, blah, blah, blah
> keep Hillary out of the White House – she is a known felon (multiple felonies in the email scandal alone), wants NO borders, etc. She has accomplished absolutely nothing noteworthy in her entire life – she has had great titles (Senator, SOS, first lady, attorney, etc) but has not one thing worth mentioning that is a real accomplishment. She uses her positions for her personal gain and puts national security by using an unsecured server.
> Trump is a successful bidness man, knows how government hurts bidness, has many very notable projects under his belt around the world, hires tens of thousand of people – many of them minorities by the way (some Racist, eh?), has raised some of the smartest kids on the planet, loves his country and wants to give back to it, wants every American to have the same opportunities he had – wants to put America first.
Not a racist in any shape or form? He may not be a grand wizard in the KKK, but can you agree he’s just a tiny bit racist?
In no way, shape or form. You can cite no case where he displayed racism.
His famous quote about Mexicans was classic racism – making a sweeping generalization about a group of people based on their race/birthplace.
Trump made NO statement about all Mexicans – he said some people coming across the southern border were criminals, were bringing drugs, and some were racists. He did not make a generalization about anything. “Some” is not all. He has had tens of thousands of Mexicans working for him.
Employing minorities proves you’re not a racist? Surely you have some grasp of history.
All you have done is regurgitate word for word what he has told you. Many people, when confronted with being accused of racist, have the knee jerk reaction of full denial. It is rare that someone actually stops to think about how although an action of theirs may not seem racist, it is far different for the person on the receiving end. You may not be actively racist, but ignorant racism is rampant in our society. Plus you spelled business wrong:)
I spelled it bidness on purpose. 🙂
I guess if a highly qualified white person runs for office against a not very qualified person of color and someone votes for the white person then you would consider that voter a racist, right? I do not.
Please review MLKs dream speech.
Your guy won, you can stop the spam….
Two questions:
1) How does Trump propose paying for significant tax breaks and infrastructure spending without increasing the deficit (or introducing inflation)?
2) Exactly which felony crimes were committed by HRC in using a non-FISMA-compliant email server, and how would one go about proving them?
Trump clearly resonated with obama supporters, so yea….i think there was some parallel between trump and bernie fans
I don’t think Trump’s victory was just due to his public bigotry towards women and minorities. A lot of it was rural whites who used to have factory or other blue collar jobs and are now working at Walmart. People who’ve fallen out of the middle class. Bernie spoke to those folks too, and might have picked off a lot of their votes.
The average Trump voter makes $72,000 a year. The real white voter is a myth. There are not nearly enough of them. It was white baby boomers that gave us Trump.
I meant the RURAL white voter is a myth.
That, and the Wikileaks dumps that show how the DNC and Clinton Foundation operate. One can’t just explain all that stuff away.
Even if 80% of it is untrue, there is still a large list of things that can’t be explained away.
I have to admit that I also voted out of fear and not “for” a candidate. But out of Fear of how bad Trump might be.
..Numb..
Clinging to Chloe, hoping our city gets real about the affordability crisis.
Trying to remember it’s only 4 years and 2 effectively due to campaigning. Our government is incredibly slow and gummed up. Hope that continues.
I wonder what housing developers will look to cities outside Portland for construction..
What does that have to do with anything? Closet racist….
While the national election results get a lot of headlines it is important to remember that for most of us day to day things don’t change much with the election of a new president. Plenty of people demonized Obama or Bush but the president is not some sort of all powerful god. Things change slowly in a democracy. The things most likely to make your life better or worse is your relationships with your friends, spouse, co-workers and supervisor at work. My candidate did not win the presidency but overall I think I’ve only picked the winner about 50% of the time.
That’s more true when the President, the House, and the Senate are not all controlled by the same party. With undivided government, there are effectively very few checks on rapid “reform”.
Don’t forget the judicial branch of our “checks and balances” system. That’s gone now too…
Only if more justices keel over or retire.
I don’t think if we had gotten Gore we’d still have troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. That alone is a huge difference.
You can thank Ralph Nader for the win by Bush. Ralph got enough votes in Florida to give it to Bush. Just like Ross Perot gave it to Bill Clinton. Had Bill not won, you’d never have heard of Hillary Clinton so you can thank Ross Perot for Hillary.
I think we can be pretty certain of some rapid changes with the Repubs in control of the WH and both houses of congress.
I predict the Affordable Care Act will be repealed by the end of January 2017. That will be a life-changing rapid act impacting 20 million people. You can bet the Republican controlled congress will rejoice in eliminating the tax credits as a budget savings measure so it will effectively end health insurance for millions within a month.
We’re going to have to find some way to fund transportation infrastructure locally. Funding from the feds is no longer guaranteed or should even expected at this point.
“We’re going to have to find some way to fund transportation infrastructure locally.”
Figure out a way to double local property taxes, and they’ll be a lot of money for transportation infrastructure.
All for this. I’m already paying way under my fair share.
How about the Arts Tax?
Supreme Court made a shameful choice in 2014’s Rails-to-Trails court case. I worked in Hillary’s AmeriCorps NCCC and it was a joke. The VA compound in Perry Point, MD was a dump, leaking roofs, collapsed homes for American veterans, closed buildings, mold. Trump has built high-density towers.
Voting against gas taxes and for higher gas prices. There you go America.
I saw that Canby voted to keep marijuana dispensaries out of their town and they passed a marijuana sales tax… so they created a process for tracking nothing…
as they say: never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups…
On the other hand, their new tax will be easy to administer!
Perhaps the voters in Canby wanted taxation of marijuana in case the ban on retail would be lifted by the majority of the vote.
The almost 100% invisibility of climate change in either major candidate’s platform, I suspect, will be the failure we all pay the highest price for.
Hear, hear, Anne. Such a critical election. I’m reeling.
Without question.
Trump says “environment” like it’s a curse word.
Climate change is very visible. Right here in Portland, there used to be an ice sheet thousands of feet thick. It all melted since man started driving SUVs. We all know that. Man changed the climate.
Your facts are all correct, though your chronology is a bit off.
It’s an inconvenient chronology, no?
Why is it so hard for you to understand that humans have accelerated the change, not created it?
I can’t even talk about Trump. Except to say we’re so deeply in denial re: sexism/misogyny in this country, it hurts.
On a local note, I fear we’re going to face an even greater influx of people in Portland and Oregon. As a longtime liberal myself, I dislike the liberal echo chamber/bubble Portland has become and I’m not happy at the idea of more more more of the same same same moving here in ever increasing numbers. Not healthy. And (as my sister puts it), the advent of ‘liberal wingnuts’ (the counterpart of the conservative version) is worrisome.
Very happy about Chloe Eudaly. Bummed over 97. Worried about our skyrocketing property taxes (ours doubled this year), what with a zillion BIG bond measures in the pipeline for decades to come, between PPS and the City of Portland (infrastructure projects). And still more people coming, more more more need for $$$, more more more construction, more more more more more more.
Drain the swamp. Portland Public Schools closed the good Smith School just 3/4 mile from the Barbur Transit Center over 12 years ago.
How did your property taxes double? Did you build an ADU to rent out?
We did a whole house remodel of our unofficial duplex and made it official (surprisingly difficult and costly, that). We’re the only ones living in it for now. Family to join later. Same footprint, no ADU. We did buy the cheapest shed at Home Depot and put it on the driveway. I guess you could stash a hated relative in there with the garden tools and holiday decorations… 😉
Didn’t Novick dare voters to replace him if they didn’t like his policies ? Bad dare ?
Now Hales and Novick will be gone … only 3 more to go.
Kind of funny seeing the motivation(s) of 50+ million people being reduced to fear, anger, hatred, etc. Interesting, isn’t it, that there’s no or little consideration that Hillary lost because of who she is and what she wanted to do.
Hi CommuterJon,
I’m not reducing those voters to “fear, anger, and hatred.” I am just pointing out a few observations from the election. Please don’t put words into my mouth. Thanks.
I have no problem reducing it to fear, anger and hatred.
What else did Trump run on?
Maybe you can ask someone who supported him.
I have. They are.
Funny how the Republicans nominated and elected a man guilty and proposed doing the same things Hillary’s husband was impeached for. this by a special prosecuter that the Republicans hired to run the kangaroo court.
Monica cigars anyone?
There is no doubt that Hillary suffered for all the baggage she’s accumulated over the years. Someone else supporting the same policies, most likely would have won. Too many people simply hate her.
I think Hillary was almost the only Democrat Trump could have beaten, and I think that Trump was about the only Republican that Hillary had a chance against.
I really don’t know what we’ve come to.
Totally agree! and that’s why it was so close.
If you happen to be of the >60ish% who believe Clinton (both bill + hill) are simply bad people, and this is effectively the end of Clinton dominance over the DNC, then the Dems can re-org under bObama…and that could be even more transformational than his election
I would have loved to have had a viable choice! Wait. There was that guy that came to Portland…25,000 showed up….no guns, no gender conflicts. Well, now, no Medicare for all.
Hillary had a lot of baggage for sure. She:
1) used her own server for email so that criminal activity (fund raising using her SOS position) could be hidden
2) erased 33,000 emails after receiving a subpoena from Congress to turn them over
3) Lied under oath to the FBI about the emails
4) Lied to congress under oath about the emails
5) was caught colluding with the DNC to deny Bernie a chance at the nomination
If I were wanting a woman president, I would be very happy THIS woman did not win. Would any woman want the history books to show this was the type of woman who was the first woman president?
Trump is the ONLY candidate of the 17 that had any chance of beating Hillary. People are fed up with the status quo and they wanted someone who understood that and would cut the PC Mr. Nice Guy stuff and fight to win and Trump did it.
Glad i am not running for a political office. I have deleted at least 35,000 e-mails. over 99.9% spam.
It’s OK to delete them as long as:
1) you haven’t been subpoenaed to turn them over as evidence in a criminal investigation
2) don’t lie under oath about it
3) didn’t send or store classified emails on unsecure systems
4) didn’t use the emails for financial gain via criminal activity
Way more concerned about someone who unapologetically gloats over not paying his taxes and stiffing his investors and laborers (and yet promises to be the savior to lower-middle class blokes…who are in for a rude awakening). And–having experienced unwelcome grabbing and groping and then some–I can’t believe anyone would minimize the severity of that level of misogyny and criminality by coloring HRC’s email ‘scandal’ something worse. The FBI wanted desperately to ruin her. And even they had to admit there was no wrongdoing.
He did pay HIS taxes. He pays all the taxes the law requires of him to pay. Is that not enough? Do you send in a little extra each year?
Perhaps you’ve never worked in government with a security clearance. You do not use you own email server. You do not even stick a USB drive into your government computer. Security is very strict.
Trump talked with the boys on the bus about grabbing and groping – he didn’t actually do it that we know of. Hillary’s email scandal is far worse; but corrupt people in the DOJ and the WH forced the FBI to “say” there was no clear evidence of a crime; although every one paying attention can cite several crimes that she committed. The Clinton Foundation is still under investigation for criminal activity and some of it will lead back to Hillary and probably Obama. If she had been elected she would have to spend years fighting criminal investigations. The FBI is not done with her yet IMHO.
If Donald actually grabbed and groped women without permission that is not cool but when you are a billionaire tycoon plain old citizen it does not put the nation’s security at risk. Fact is it never happened or those women would have sued that billionaire for millions loooooong before this election. I would have! 🙂
An unsecure email server in the highest levels of government that has been hacked by every banana republic on the planet does threaten our security; and it is a crime to even have your own server and use it for sending classified government information.
“Fact is it never happened or those women would have sued that billionaire for millions loooooong before this election. I would have!”
Are you a woman? Have you ever been sexually assaulted? Because this statement, to me, reveals real flippancy about the dynamics of male on female sexual assault, not to mention the dynamics of power in the equation, as regards Trump. Very evocative of prevailing national (and then some) thought, though. I still struggle every day with the fallout from sexual assault that happened to me when I was a kid. It’s not a little thing. It’s a lifelong sentence.
Do you understand why most sexual assaults and rapes go unreported?
(comment of mine that I’m remarking on is being held for moderation)
And, for what it’s worth, I didn’t tell. There are all kinds of reasons women don’t tell, don’t prosecute, don’t sue. And they are not just compelling–they’re flat out threatening.
Grabbing somebody is not ‘uncool’ it is a crime. Gross talk and self-indictment with a live mike in your pocket is a Wiener move. And–twitter? Is he going to live-tweet the intelligence briefing? Or wait ’til 4 AM?
He was elected by the same kind of people that he regularly screwed to get his projects done (with imported steel). He knows exactly where the jobs are gone. Wonder if he paid _those_ invoices, for the imported ties and whatnot?
Strangely I actually find myself caring about his health. Donald Trump is a couple hot dice in a moldy sack. But Pence? Nothing confusing about him. I’d have sweated the VP pick more but who knew. Best case Trump flails for four years, gut remodel the White House, start fresh.
My condolences to you for the attack on you when you were a child (described in post below). I hope you can get the help and support that you need. Noone, should ever be sexually assaulted, but especially a child. No decent person would condone or make excuses for such behavior.
That said, Mr. Trump has not admitted to, nor been convicted of, any assault. I don’t think he’s even been charged. I seriously doubt he did any such thing. If he did he deserves to be punished, but I’m going to assume he’s innocent until he admits it or else is convicted. Anyone can accuse anyone else of any thing they want. I have seen people accused of things that I do not believe they did and it ruined the lives of the accused. There is a huge incentive for someone to make up accusations against a person running for office – I believe the accusations are false. Mr. Trumps locker-room talk is not assault – it’s just boy-talk that occurs occasionally with most males; many women talk in a similar way when they are together.
Thanks for the condolences, IvfT. But “boy talk” or “locker room talk” is a direct symptom of the much greater problems girls and women face, incl. sexual assault. Again–I see it as a very serious thing because of the evidence of my actual life, not just the assault but the daily wearing down and shutting down of me and my kind from dismissive, disrespectful, locker talkin’ men who are even willing to legislate my second class citizen status, again and again. It’s part of a deeply ingrained sexism that had a big impact on this election.
p.s… I’m pretty sure you don’t extend such a lavish benefit of the doubt to Bill Clinton.
Also…apart from what happened to me as a kid, I (like all women) could give you several more examples from throughout my life of men with the mentality expressed by Trump grabbing me in a crowd, feeling me up when the opportunity presented itself, getting too close: generally trespassing on, well, ME. And that’s only the physical ‘bullying.’ That our president can be pointed to as endorsing that kind of “boys will be boys!” behavior is beyond discouraging, sickening and frightening. For some of us. Profound impact on me and my ilk: not so much for you, maybe.
rachel,
Again, my condolences.
You said: “p.s… I’m pretty sure you don’t extend such a lavish benefit of the doubt to Bill Clinton.”
Bill Clinton was forced to admit he had sex with an intern because they had the blue stained dress with his DNA on it. That DNA did not come from a cut finger. Then I think he was impeached for lying to congress about it. Other women who claimed he molested them described his man-part as having a defect – the police made him drop his trousers and sure enough their descriptions were accurate. His guilt was proven.
ALL claims that Trump molested women are just claims with no evidence so far.
Mr. Trump did not harm any women by his talk since no woman was there to hear it. Such talk is a normal part of life – that’s why there are 7 billion of us – most men like women A LOT. Such talk should not be made where women can hear it though. Fortunately most men understand this, and know better than to act on such talk, and many even know it is a crime – I’m sure Mr. Trump is aware that to grab someone is a crime. Most of us know that, but I suspect more emphasis should be given to boys when they are in school as to how they should treat women and the consequences if they treat them badly.
What legislation are you referring to which makes you a second class citizen? Would that be when the current President said men who claimed to feel like women could use the women’s restrooms and showers? How did that make you feel? When I heard it I thought maybe he wanted Hillary to lose the election!
Your defense of someone who has openly bragged about sexually assaulting women makes me sick.
You lack empathy and compassion and are truly demonstrating your ignorance.
This is not locker room talk. I have been in many locker rooms and never heard anyone describe committing sexual assault. Or anyone vile enough to lie about it in order to impress. If you feel this is normal then I believe you are aiding those who commit sexual assault. The man admitted to nonconsensual sexual contact – what more proof do you need? You give condolences to a poster here, but your attitudes are part of what allows sexual abuse to continue unchecked. I don’t mean to be too harsh, I’m sure if I knew you I’d see your many good qualities, but I find these attitudes sickening, I cannot forget the people I know who have suffered in similar ways to what you brush off so lightly.
Actually if it was truly up to the 50+ million voters and not the electoral college then Hillary Clinton would be President-Elect right now.
What about the 50 million who didn’t vote? The two-party system needs to stop.
Sorry, over 100 million didn’t vote.
THAT is an amazing statistic. MInd boggling.
Half of eligible voters didn’t want to vote for Trump or Clinton? Seems obvious. I did my patriotic duty and voted against Trump, but this lesser of evils nonsense needs to stop.
Sad but true. I’ve been a registered Independent most of my life, but I grew up in a Carter-hating Reagan-loving household, so I suppose I developed left-leaning tendencies to counter that nonsense. When I moved to California in 2009 I lost my right to vote in Oregon (USPS mail forwarding… don’t do it!), and right before this election I registered to vote as a Democrat here not because of party or candidate but solely in response to the threat of a right-leaning Supreme Court, which we will now get. I’ve voted fairly regularly throughout my life, but at half a century old this is actually my very first Presidential vote (against, not for), and the result proves the theory I’ve always held, which is that my personal vote doesn’t actually influence what the electoral college decides.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-boxer-files-longshot-bill-to-scrap-the-1479234745-htmlstory.html
Hillary voted to support the bailout of the auto industry.
And they still didn’t vote for her in Michigan.
Hopefully that won’t be forgotten next time the auto industry needs a bailout.
Nor in the deep south, where most of the car plants in the USA actually are. Oh, but wait, those aren’t Ford, GM, or Chrysler, they’re Honda, BMW, Toyota, Volvo, and other foreign companies, so they don’t count…
And…Mercedes Benz…
And the war in Iraq.
Trump says he will solve that with nuclear weapons. Is that an improvement?
I’m not sure why there is such a hysteria about nuclear weapons. To launch nukes requires the signoff of the Secretary of Defense plus the President so it isn’t going to happen by accident.
The other thing people get hung up about is radiation. There have been over 500 above ground tests. We’re still here. I’d rather use nuclear weapons than send in ground troops for a multi-year bloody war that bankrupts the country.
In this world, the one we live in, sometimes bad people need to be spanked. We do not live in utopia and can only afford so much molly coddling of bad people.
Bye bye, credibility.
I say spank away! Not only do I find your BDSM approach to foreign policy incredibly hot, most mamby-pamby anti-nuke freaks don’t even realize that Nagasaki and Hiroshima were faked, just like the moon landings and the Nazi gas chambers.
I think they were real. I read the book “Unbroken” about Louie Zamperini. He was a world-class runner in a Japanese POW camp when we nuked Japan. The POWs were released a few days later. Those nukes saved million of lives.
http://louiezamperini.net/
But the VP you voted for does NOT believe some of it happened.
I guess we’ll use those legitimate bombs that direct the blast and fallout at, you know, ‘fighters’ with rifles or at least a long lens, whilst passing over children and, like, grandma. Maybe all the bad people will be in a basket or something and we can pop them in one go.
That’s not the way modern warfare works, unfortunately.
So you’re OK with the dead kids. What’s an acceptable number for you?
Hypothetical situation: In a particular region of the world a group of bad actors (say 100,000 of them) have infiltrated several large cities and are recruiting more bad actors and going around killing people and doing bad things – some are sneaking into other nations around the world killing 50 here, 100 there, 2 here, 5 there, 3000 here, etc, on a continuing basis. These bad actors blend in wherever they are – they do not wear uniforms. They are fanatics doing truly horrible things to men, women and children.
Our military and intelligence agencies tell the president that if we don’t stop these people they will gain power, eventually taking over some nations in this particular region, and will get nukes and use them against western nations all the while causing massive expenditures to guard against them.
The military and intelligence agencies tell the president a ground war may take 20 years, cost the lives of 500,000 of our soldiers, minimum 2,500,000 of their citizens, will cost many trillions of dollars, and may not result in success. However, they say if we erase 4 cities each with a population of 1,500,000 in one night we will lose no men, the cost will be minimal, and this will end all actions by the bad actors immediately.
You are the president. What is your decision?
I’m happy that Washington’s Sound Transit Proposition looks to pass.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/sound-transit-3-proposition-1/
I would love to see something similar down here. “As goes Washington, so goes Oregon (in 8 or so years…)”
Ver good news. Thanks.
It did. I think Tigard voted for a possible light rail line.
It looked that way, last time I looked. Will Trump allow a federal/state funding share arrangement, or will it have to be paid for by the state, Metro, and the cities/counties only? Adding a bike/ped route to the corridor might improve the chances that the SW route gets built.
We have been awfully hung-up on spending federal money to install overpriced bike snares in the streets. Maybe we could just invest a tenth of the local match into moving people more efficiently on rubber tires on existing pavement.
The city voted for affordable housing, then against Novick. I get the antipathy toward him, but Eudaly is much less concerned about housing people instead of cars.
The state voted to dedicate money to technical education, then against the revenue to pay for it. The state will not get face value for the magical asterisks to finance it.
Steps forward, steps back: the good old Oregon half-measure in full effect.
All I’ll say is my votes were consistent and internally logical.
Eudaly is the strongest advocate for affordable housing this council has ever seen.
http://www.chloeforportland.com/blog/2016/8/19/when-we-fight-we-win
http://www.chloeforportland.com/blog/2016/3/7/renters-of-the-world-unite
These local wins for cycling and transit are terrific. And I reckon they’ll have more impact on our day-to-day lives than that bozo in DC.
I HOPE SO.
Obama’s actions were bozo ones, yes. Free handouts, free cell phones. I mean, why work hard?
No kidding, right? I quit my job years ago, and have been living large courtesy of Uncle Sam. The free cellphone benefit has been awesome, along with all those great handouts, which come in a really nice gift box. Thanks Obama!
I hope Uncle Trump will be as generous — with luck, I’ll just have to take a $900 million tax writeoff and I’ll be good for the next couple of decades.
Most of the industry. FORD did not accept the bailout.
Yes. So?
So I don’t call preventing further implosion of the US economy by loaning companies money (that they’ve already repaid with interest) a bad thing.
Eventualy we need to figure out how to run an economy without relying on building gas guzzling, pollution spewing, 4000 lb metal death machines.
No, now we are starting to build 2000 lbs robot-driven electric death machines that rely on pollution-spewing coal-fired electricity. Progress, no stopping it.
There’s also a bunch of companies working on robot cars.
Cheap natural gas and high-efficiency combined-cycle power plants have been killing coal, and offshore wind has been catching up with the growth of onshore wind farms in the US. Of course, we’ll see if that trend remains under the new administration…
And insuring them with companies like AIG who have also become “too big to fail.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning this activity, just pointing out it was pretty much necessary at the time (and hopefully not now).
Another Amanda Fritz, yay
Please explain.
She wants rent control which is great for inflating the value of homes for home owners. Check rents in San Francisco and New York City.
Rent Control has some unintended consequences. I hope we can learn from what others have tried.
“unintended consequences”
are these unknown knowns or known unknowns?
in my experience, there is often a strong but vague unease when it comes to rent regulation (1) but little actual knowledge about rent regulation.
(1) Milton Friedman’s hard rent control strawman does not exist.
Deferred maintenance, tenant lock-in, illegal subletting, lottery effect, etc.
“maintenance”
in SF and NYC deferred maintenance results in large fines or rent deferral.
“tenant permanency” (lock-in is demeaning)
the entire point of rent regulation is to provide some measure permanency for tenants. home/loanowners call this phenomenon “roots in the community”.
“lottery effect”
lottery systems are used for affordable housing allocation in most cities, including Portland.
i believe illegal subletting is rare and can be addressed via inspection.
most of your “concerns” could apply to any affordable housing program, are you similarly opposed to Portland’s public or BMR housing programs? if not, why not?
Lock-in means tenants can’t move because their deals are too good to give up. Long term tenants are generally good for all concerned.
“because their deals are too good to give up”
i’m struggling to understand why think providing a deal to low-income people is a bad thing.
I have discussed the topic with her online and Eudaly seems realistic about what rent control can do without extreme negative consequences and what it can’t. Smoothing out rent increases over the business cycle (recession/boom; period of 10 years or less), yes. Keeping homes permanently affordable when market prices skyrocket for decades, no.
Again, rent control in NYC and SF has led to the horrible housing mess.
That is NOT true; restrictive land-use laws, zoning, height restrictions, # of unit restrictions, a lack of by-right development law so neighbors could effectively oppose and delay ANYTHING – those things, combined with a concentration of high-income jobs in our largest cities, led to the horrible housing crises in NYC and SF. The rent control laws just did little or nothing to help on average (they helped some people, may have hurt others, not sure about that part).
Are you saying that NYC has insufficient density?
For the level of demand to live there that exists? Yes, NYC has insufficient density to meet that high level of demand without pricing out the poor and tightly squeezing the middle class. It’s not like there’s a “right” level of density that applies nationwide. Sure, NYC is fairly dense right now. But people live happily in places that are much denser. The average commute time for workers in Hong Kong is 11 minutes. That sounds kind of awesome to me!
Lots of NYC is like, 3 stories tall. Maybe there are yards in some places? It’s not actually crazy dense as cities go. Good luck finding a Cully lot, though.
Maybe a few NY-ers could chime in here about why they left NYC and moved to Portland.
Density in Hong Kong has hardly led to affordability. In fact, I’m not sure it has anywhere. Just as building roads doesn’t fix traffic (for long) there is little evidence that building housing will cure affordability. Where has that strategy worked?
Not if we combine it with a Henry George Style Land Value Tax. See the groundbreaking turn of the century book “Progress and Poverty” for how this would work. If Georges movement had not been defeated by the rentier class we would not have the problems we have today with rents, real estate costs, and tax revenues.
The rent is definitely too damn high in cities but this is actually a strong argument for rent regulation/control.
Median one-bedroom rent in cities without rent control:
San Jose, California $2536
Washington, DC $2172
Boston, Massachusetts $2025
Los Angeles, California $2014
Miami, Florida $2000
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania $1850
Honolulu, Hawaii $1795
Seattle, Washington $1795
San Diego, California $1760
Great article, Jonathan. Thank you.
I was wondering if California, Oregon and Washington State should just break aeay and be their own country!!
It’s clear an entire landmass with so much division is not going to work!
#Wexit
Wexit won’t work. As illustrated by the map at the top of this story, Oregon has only 8 blue counties. Washington and California aren’t that much different.
The Urban Archipelago effect has only strengthened over time. It’s not only that we’re sorting ourselves into cities vs countryside based on education and outlook. It’s also that rural people don’t have much economic opportunity anymore, and the Democratic party stopped looking after their interests during the first Clinton administration.
Works much better if we forget the made up state lines and go with actual bioregions. So if we split off northern California, Oregon and Washington west of the cascades we get a bioregion with fairly uniform politics . See Ernest Callenbach’s seminal 1975 book, ” Ecotopia”. We already have the flag.
As much as the middle of the country hates the politics and values of the coasts, they’d never give up the country’s economic engines. This is all so absurd. I just hope we can work bringing education and opportunity to ‘rural’ America, without destroying our environment or trade agreements in the process.
Good point Kevin, but you’ve got the geography wrong: It might look like it’s the middle of the country vs. the coasts if you look at the state-by-state electoral map, but that’s not really what’s going on.
Look at the county-by-county electoral map and you see a VERY different picture. The landscape of America – including so-called “blue states” is overwhelmingly red. There are only isolated blue spots here and there. Not coincidentally, these are where most Americans actually live, which is how we get to the more or less 50-50 divide we have.
It’s the American countryside – including rural Oregon – that hates the politics and values of the cities, and vice versa. I now live in the middle of the country. But in a city, and it’s really not that different politically from Portland. Or from Seattle, Denver, Cleveland or Boston. Go to any of these cities and you will find an urban core that’s strongly dominated by progressive politics, ringed by first and second ring suburbs somewhere in the middle, and beyond that conservative exurbs sprawling out into the conservative countryside.
Your main point is right, though: “blue” America and “red” America need each other. The countryside needs the economic markets provided by the metropolises, and the metros need the food, energy and raw materials produced by the countryside.
We need each other. Splitting the progressive bits of the country away from the rest of the landscape just won’t work, and doesn’t even make sense.
I suspect eastern OR, WA, CA would gladly break away and be three new states; possibly even a separate country. I also think the middle might vote for being a separate country also. Washington DC is out of control, but maybe Donald will put some reins on it.
What Ecotopia (and Nine Nations of North America) conveniently ignored was the huge presence of the Federal military at Ft Lewis, McChord, Fairchild, Bremerton, and Everette WA; Hermiston Oregon; and the numerous bases in California, especially San Diego. Service personnel tend to be solidly Republican and very conservative overall, even if no one else is. Mind you, folks here in the Deep South would love for California to disappear into the sea, along with NYC and DC. Oregon might be missed, though.
‘Cause we got filberts. Right? 🙂
That and the cherries and wine, plus goofy un-American concepts like urban growth boundaries and preferring bike lanes over traffic lanes.
I like filberts.
Not to mention Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar!
(I had to laugh on a work trip last year in some state I can’t even remember now, because I found a lone upscale tap room and they were raving about all the ‘exotic’ Oregon beers, when out came a bottle of Rogue).
The other factor Ecotopia ignores is the State of Jefferson. No way, no how will southern Oregon and far northern California join us in splitting off from the rest of the US. Oh they’d like to form their own state – or country – for sure. But it would look a lot different from the Ecotopia/Cascadia we urban liberals have in mind.
I predict they make a big push for succession under this administration, but I also wonder where most of the firefighting funds come from.
[ It’s a joke 😉 ]
And now “protestors” have spray painted the Moda Center, blocked MAX light rail and Tri-Met bus lines, and spray painted ODOT jersey barriers.
Nooooooooo!!!! Not the jersey barriers!!!! Is nothing sacred?!?
Don’t worry. Those Jersey barriers will be scraped clean by the cars that crash into them over the next few months.
As if more crashes are needed?
How will Seattle and LA fund these transit measures without a federal match?
getting rid of wasteful programs and spending
such as?
Like the freeway tunnel downtown? $4 billion+ to serve a small minority of the city?
Sure but that was also paid for with mostly federal money. I suspect a larger share of federal money since highway projects are generally 80/20 fed/local rather than transit’s 50/50.
that tunnel freeway is wasteful. yes.
Multnomha County had roughly 20% voting for Trump. That is approximately 1 in 5 people. Statewide average is 40% for Trump. I am not going to dismiss people just because of how they voted. I am more frustrated with people who did not vote.
This election, for the country as a whole, had much less voter turnout compared to the last two elections.
Country wide, total votes cast (numbers rounded):
2008: 129Million Republican=60Million Democrat=70Million
2012: 126Million Republican=61Million Democrat=66Million
2016: 119Million Republican=60Million Democrat=60Million
Less Democrats voted this election, however, the total republican vote stayed constant. Hillary lost because people did not show up to vote.
No doubt that was part of the problem. She was a weak candidate by any measure due to the Bernie/FBI/no accomplishments/Washington-insider effects.
.
Last time lots of folks voted based on skin color – with two whites that was not a factor. AND eventually a woman will be presented as a candidate who does not have Hillary’s baggage.
You’re failing to consider the idea that not voting is also a vote.
Failure to inspire potential voters is a loss of a vote. Getting them there is half the battle. Let’s be honest, Clinton had “she can win”, “female” and “better than trump”. She wasn’t exactly filling the arenas with that message.
“she can win” was the lie the democrats used to assure Trump’s eventual victory. Hopefully they will realize that at some point, once everyone stops throwing a tantrum, blaming the ists, and virtue signaling.
ensure obviously.
Edited the sentence and failed to update the word.
The election is over. Half the population is satisfied; half is very disappointed. Just like most elections lately. These things swing back and forth continually and will do so again. 4 and 8 years ago the other half was very disappointed so we know how you feel. It isn’t fun for you right now, but life goes on – it’s not the end of the world yet.
And that’s not all, if you are young your views on life may change as you age and you may come to see the wisdom of this election and may even vote like those who voted Trump. Hard to believe isn’t it?
Impossible to believe. I will never vote to strip away civil rights. I will never vote to put a sexual predator in office. Sorry – but I have too much integrity, even if it does cost me more tax dollars.
want to vote in Clinton who bailed out the auto industry?
Want to vote in a wealthy business leader who’s vowed to undo all the regulations put into place to try to prevent those bailouts from happening all over again?
Young people? I’m not young, but hope I’m dead before a person who says (with a live mike in their pocket) “I moved on her like a bitch” starts to seem sort of OK. I wouldn’t hire him to mow the yard.
Sure, give him the codes, give him the keys. No doubt he has a scintilla of discretion left in his system somewhere because lord knows he hasn’t been wasting any up to now.
Your satisfied folks have no idea what they just bought. Trump has flopped at least once on so many issues that you need an app to track it all. He trades in goods manufactured offshore and then talks about how the state of Michigan was gutted by bad people who stole jobs. His hotel in Las Vegas is kept running by people who, like, know a little Spanish, while he is on TV blathering about a wall. He won’t let them form a union which is a legal right that they have (just as he has the legal right to work the tax system.)
He’s not a champion of working people. He’s a huckster.
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” –H.L. Mencken
“His win comes despite — or more likely because of — the fact he was endorsed by the Klu Klux Klan, was dismissed by the political and media establishment, is an unabashed misogynist, told blatant lies throughout his campaign and repeatedly hurled vulgar and dangerous insults at a long list of public figures.”
I disagree, this graphic tells it all: https://twitter.com/jonathanwebber/status/796448989931417600
Republican turnout was lower than Romney AND McCain in the past 2 prez elections, yet he still won. Why? Because the dems stayed home in droves.
Erik,
IMO there were many many many many many factors that decided the outcome of the race. Turnout is one of them… and turnout is influenced by a lot of things I mentioned.
Just as a hypothetical, would you consider it just locker room talk if a woman candidate with a noisy, violent, man-hating following of mostly other women made a lot of jokes about Lorena Bobbitt and kicking men in the nuts? How about if her husband (the third one) was hot and a lot younger than her and had done some gay porn? Would you think it was all locker room talk and that really, deep down, she respected men?
Then you find out she was suspected of actually cutting off some guy’s business, and though she has avoided being convicted (she’s wealthy – and the supposed victim will go through hell and probably lose, so he isn’t speaking up), she’s bragged about it, so signs point to yes. Would that be fine with you? Would you tell some guy friend of yours that same thing had happened to ‘Again, my condolences’ and then defend her because technically, she’s innocent?
Augh – sorry – – was trying to respond to ‘I Voted For Trump’ above – don’t know why my comment appeared out of sequence. Rachel B – you have my TRUE condolences for your horrible (and all too common) experience.
KT,
I replied, but the censors apparently thought my post might damage the liberal cause so I don’t see it – there was apparently a tad too much truth in it. 🙂 (All of mine go into the “waiting for approval” bin.) My post destroyed all the liberal arguments of the original story as well as the other calls of racism, etc. This website will allow hate speech as long as it is liberal hate speech; that is typical of liberals. This is the type of PC crap that got Trump elected – people are sick of it.
Hello I voted for Trump!,
I have published many of your comments. And yes, I have some held back for further review. Your claims of unfair censorship and “typical of liberals” are unfounded. My goal is productive dialogue. I really don’t care where on the political spectrum you are. Thanks for sharing all your perspectives. I appreciate that you are keeping it mostly good-spirited.
Post on here enough and you’ll learn that there’s lots of automatic moderation that the (clearly liberal, left-leaning) blog software does.
Well, my ‘liberal, left-leaning’ response to IvfT, providing links to respected publications detailing GOP legislation key to keepin’ the wimmins in our place, was also axed. So, clearly not all liberal favoring! 😉
I tend to think that if anything’s kept out, Jonathan has a good reason for it, so I don’t sweat it. Kudos (and sympathies) to him for staying on top of all we clamoring yammerers…
p.s…thanks, KTaylor. 🙂
Yeah, I shoulda put a winky on there… the automatic mediation is pretty unbiased (and screws up nesting levels). I’ve gotten as used to it as I have to not having an edit button… 🙂
Doh! 🙂 Sorry I missed the implied winky, Pete!
The automatic moderation seems to object to use of the word ‘dude’ for instance.
Ok, didn’t work. Maybe it’s just random.
Aside from your feelings of persecution, I would be interested to see your way of destroying the accusations of racism and sexual assault. Is there a way to do that without being moderated? I have no time for PC B.S., I also have no time for anti-PC being used as a cover for bigotry. I find it hard to believe there will be compelling information, but do genuinely want to learn and communicate with those who have chosen to take us down this path.
Jim,
Start at the top and read my previous posts on the racism/assault claims. Sadly this type of accusation is used against all presidential candidates by people who oppose the candidate.
If you want to learn why Trump was elected, you can go to other websites. Try going to youtube and google and typing in “Why Trump Won”. As others have said, there are many reasons Trump won but as a person who voted for Trump I can tell you that I am not a racist and I do not condone touching women without their permission and I suspect this is the case with 95% of Trump voters. In my opinion if you had to make a generalization on why he won I’d say the voters believed his vision is closer to what our country needs at this time than Hillary’s vision; and his baggage was considered less horrible than her baggage.
You voted for a racist. IF you did you are one.
You can spin it anyway you want. You voted to elect an ADMITTED sexual predator and racist. It is all on you….
Can you do ANYTHING besides call people names? Do you have any inkling of what the issues were in this election?
Trump won. Hillary lost. The people have spoken.
Awww.. the shoe fits…
The first issue Trump brought up is that Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers..
That was the issue and you AGREE.
Trump just put an admitted racist and nationalist as his top advisor.
Of course you are not a racist…..
“The people have spoken.”
Technically the majority of “the people” voted for Hillary Clinton; she won the popular vote. She is not President-elect because she did not win the electoral vote.
“Do you have any inkling of what the issues were in this election?”
Emails, womanizing, and Mexican rapists? I give up… still trying to figure out what just happened.
Oh good, only 1 in 20 Trump supporters think it’s okay to touch women without their permission. And Trump himself, of course.
IvfT:
I have read your previous posts, and I see no new information, just your opinion of information that I hold a different opinion about. I see nothing that “destroyed” other arguments.
I have read other opinions of why he won, and I am capable of using google. Each person votes for slightly different reasons, and I was asking you as a person in a community that I am a part of.
Voting for a person who claims to touch women without permission IS condoning this behavior. It doesn’t matter what you say now. Your words here will not be recorded by history. Only that we have elected a person who describes comitting non-consensual sexual contact. This will be a role model moving forwards. We have shown that we believe it doesn’t matter if a person does this. It is sickening.
Again, stating that one is not racist has very little meaning. How we self-label doesn’t really matter compared to what we do.
You’re right, a lot of people did pick the story of his vision and baggage over the story of hers, that is what I am trying to understand better on an individual level.
Jim,
Dick Morris tells how Hillary lost in this video. He was an advisor to Bill Clinton when he was president.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f86QniFPiM
AND, Michael Moore does the same, predicting her loss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29xpn94_CL4
Jim,
Here are some issues on the minds of many people during this election. These things happened at exactly the right time to help the election of Donald Trump. He is one of the only candidates that even gave lip service to this issue. I didn’t see this issue raised in any comments above.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/08/europe/2015-paris-terror-attacks-fast-facts/
http://www.cnn.com/specials/san-bernardino-shooting
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/12/us/orlando-nightclub-shooting/
You are kidding, right?
Those mass shootings got him the R nomination. And Hillary’s position would have ensured more mass shootings so I think it was a significant issue in the general election. Dr. Carson also brought up the issue in the primary campaign, and I think Ted Cruz finally gave it a little lip service, but Trump was the only one who proposed any measures that would have any hope of preventing similar shootings; and of course he was called all kinds of -ists, -phobes, etc by the press. The people saw thru the lies of the press and voted him in as President of the United States of America.
The same issue underlying these shootings was a significant factor in the Brexit vote as well as in the Trump election. You’ll probably see more political changes due to these issues. Stay tuned.
Brexit’s going pretty well so far…
IvfT:
I have read your previous posts, and I see no new information, just your opinion of information that I hold a different opinion about. I see nothing that “destroyed” other arguments.
I have read other opinions of why he won, and I am capable of using google. Each person votes for slightly different reasons, and I was asking you as a person in a community that I am a part of.
Voting for a person who claims to touch women without permission IS condoning this behavior. It doesn’t matter what you say now. Your words here will not be recorded by history. Only that we have elected a person who describes comitting non-consensual sexual contact. This will be a role model moving forwards. We have shown that we believe it doesn’t matter if a person does this. It is sickening.
Again, stating that one is not racist has very little meaning. How we self-label doesn’t really matter compared to what we do.
You’re right, a lot of people did pick the story of his vision and baggage over the story of hers, that is what I am trying to understand better on an individual level.
Jim,
We’ll never convince each other, or anyone else, to change their mind. There is an old saying: “If you aren’t a liberal when you’re young you don’t have a heart; if you aren’t a conservative when you’re old you don’t have a brain.”
.
There is some truth in it – people’s positions change over time as they gain a better understanding of how the world works.
.
So, if you voted for Hillary then that means you condone what she did to the head of the White House Travel Office in 1992? And you condone her harassing and threatening the women that Bill was proven to have molested? And you condone her cheating Bernie out of the D nomination? And you condone her sending signals to the moderator in the debate? And you condone: her getting questions in advance of the debate; her using an unsecured server to send classified State Department information that was hacked by Wikileaks and others; her deleting 33,000 emails after she was subpoenaed to provide the emails in a criminal investigation; her lying to the FBI while under oath about the emails; her lying to congress under oath about the emails? As bad as all that is, and I just listed things that would get you a long prison sentence if you did them, the real problem with her are the policies she would try to pass.
Your straw man argument does not work. Why do you assume I voted for Hillary? We were not talking about her, were talking about why you voted for the disgusting criminal Trump.
So, if you voted for Hillary…..
If, Jim. If.