I will be voting for Ms. Lauf in the primary next year. I suspect that Kinzinger, regrettably my Congress Critter, has made the calculation that in a Democrat dominated state he would be better off as a Democrat and is warming up to switch parties and run for state wide office, probably the Senate seat held by Dixon now. May his schemes net him nothing.
I dunno Don… reading some things about Illinois makes it seem like voting is just another bread & circuses there.
There is nothing amusing about voting in Illinois. The Democrats are hell bent on driving the state into the dust and Illinois is a failed state that people flee from.
“The Democrats are hell bent on driving the state into the dust and Illinois is a failed state that people flee from.”
The same can be said for NYS and the State of Californication.
The reality is that the entire left (and much of the right) has but one goal–to break all that is good and they are no longer pretending otherwise. The political class has assumed to be the ruling class. Fallen man is fallen man and we are at a key point in history where freedom, his rights from “nature’s God” and his dignity, as man, no longer are part of his make up. We have become chattel in the hands of the great compromisers–the politicians.
MIchigan is barely hanging in there, but I fear the worst. Back in 2018, the voters approved a “non-partisan” committee to redraw the districts once the census is complete.
@Don – I don’t mean B&Cs as a metaphor for “amusement” but as a metaphor of “meaningless distraction.” At some point if the state had a mini revolution I wouldn’t blame the lot of you.
“probably the Senate seat held by Dixon now”
Um, either you meant Dick Durbin or you’re still living in the 1980s/early 90s (can’t say I blame you for that) when Alan J. Dixon was one of our Senators….
Oops! Shows Elaine how little I try to think of Durbin!
At some point if the state had a mini revolution I wouldn’t blame the lot of you.
It may come to that eventually Nate. I have never seen downstate sicker of being ruled by Chicago.
At some point can you blockade Chicago and/or just declare it a separate state?
Nobody wants to admit it but it seems like a lot of trouble in this country would be solved if more states could pull a Virginia and split up. California especially is WAY overdue.
We feel the same way here about New York City and Albany. 🙄. There was a small movement called Unshackle Upstate NY but it never went anywhere
I really think it is coming Nate.
I will be voting for Ms. Lauf in the primary next year. I suspect that Kinzinger, regrettably my Congress Critter, has made the calculation that in a Democrat dominated state he would be better off as a Democrat and is warming up to switch parties and run for state wide office, probably the Senate seat held by Dixon now. May his schemes net him nothing.
As far as I can tell, there have in the post-war period been 4 Republican defectors who were actually returned to Congress when they had to face voters again. The four were Wayne Morse (1952), Ogden Reid (1972), Donald Riegle (1973), and Peter Peyser (1977). All four were before they switched parties had voting records which put them closer to the median of the Democratic caucus than to the median of the Republican caucus and you could argue one or another was properly placed on the portside of the Democratic caucus. It was their continued affiliation with the Republicans which was an anomaly. Kinzinger is a pest for party whips a la Lisa Murkowski, but he does not have a liberal voting record, so he’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do; it’s a reasonable wager they’ll be an ambitious Democratic pol facing him who will entertain partisan Democrats by skinning him. If it’s opportunism, I doubt he’ll make it work.
Both Kinzinger and Paul Mitchell (who is retiring) strike me as confused persons highly responsive to media or to some other person in their circle, such as a trusted aide or perhaps a wife.
There are a number of states which should be reconstructed as confederations whose components lead separate lives. Illinois, New York, California, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, &c. Others might benefit from a high level of decentralization between grand divisions (Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Massachusetts).
We feel the same way here about New York City and Albany. 🙄. There was a small movement called Unshackle Upstate NY but it never went anywhere
I doubt there’s an electorate more spiritually exhausted than New York’s. You can’t get people to care anymore. Been so for > a generation.
An apt comment about a schizophrenic state: “Pennsylvania is Philadephia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.” (James Carville)
Kinzinger certainly leaves a lot to be desired, but at least he didn’t vote today for the equality act. My congressman, good practicing Catholic Brian Fitzpatrick did. One of only 3 R’s who did. Just awful.
I saw a news item today on PJ Media saying that five counties in Oregon are trying to leave the state and become part of Idaho. I would love to know the legal issues surrounding that one. 🙂
The Dems are going to gerrymander his district to a safe Democratic district. Oh wait, only Republicans gerrymander. They will redistrict it to the “fair” outcome of a electing a Democrat.
He may be trying to audition to switch to the Democrats, but his timing is not good (right before redistricting). They don’t need him. They’ll just choose one of their own.
The Dems are going to gerrymander his district to a safe Democratic district.
They are welcome to try. In 2011 they gerrymandered the state to a fare thee well. There is no way they can convert this district to a Democrat district.
I agree that a switch to the Dems does not make much sense for Kinzinger, but I think that is what he is working up to nonetheless.
What I’m seeing is that the district as we know it may not exist anymore. A lot of the Republican areas get moved into the very Republican 15th or the very Democratic 2nd. The Southern part of the 15th gets added to the 12th to create a third Republican vote sink (along with the 15th and 18th, though the 18th will get a new number because of Illinois losing a seat).
Perhaps, but if the Dems get too cute with boundaries they could jeopardize some of their seats if 2022 is a big Republican year.
There is definitely a chance that they create a dummymander. I think some of it is a realization that they got too cute in East St. Louis and Springfield last time, trying to create two districts in the south instead of concentrating on getting one. If they only go for one district in the south, that means they are more likely to win that district, and it means that the Chicagoland does not need to take on as many rural votes for what would be one fewer district.
The trickier problem for Dems is trying to shore up the 17th which will have to grow and only has Republican areas around it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they turn the 13th into a Dem district that they the Dems still lose in 2022 because if it is a good year for Republicans while also losing the 17th. Despite their redistricting efforts they end up losing, in net, the seat lost to reapportionment.
“I saw a news item today on PJ Media saying that five counties in Oregon are trying to leave the state and become part of Idaho.”
My company is based in Corvallis, the home of the phrase “flying spaghetti monster,” created at OSU and intended to ridicule Judeo-Christianity. A co-worker (who has subsequently left the company) bragged about that to me, for he knew I was Catholic and he expected me to show how offended I would be. Instead, I smiled and said, “Oh really? Well, I am going to St. Mary’s for Adoration tonight. Do you want to come?” Heap those coals of fire on their heads! But I digress. The whole of the Willamette Valley from Portland in the north to Eugene in the south is overrun by retirees and hippies fleeing the State of Californication. That’s why they have as Governor that godlessly perverted lesbian bisexual nitwit Kate Brown. The rest of the state from the valley to the coast on the west and then from the valley to the east all the way to Idaho is Republican conservative. As soon as you get out of the Willamette Valley, you’ll find sane and normal people. Hippies and other such liberals can’t be successful when too far away from bigger cities. I always dread my trips to Oregon because I have to stay in the small strip whose population of dumb ignorant liberal progressive feminist environmentalist Demon-craps exceeds that of places of having normal, sane, patriotic Americans. Portland is a waste area. And the south side of Corvallis by the river is overrun by tents of the drug and booze infested homeless with beer bottles and drug needles scattered about. The police can do nothing. So many stories I could tell about being accosted in restaurants by strangers and being ridiculed by liberals at work (usually very subtly). Truthfully, while I love job at Neutrons ‘R Us, I hate the liberal culture in the Willamette Valley.
BTW, since I did NOT explain it above, the majority of my co-workers – including my boss, my boss’s boss, and those in departments other than mine with whom I work on a daily basis – are among the best (most just, most level headed, most technically expert, most regulatory compliant) people with whom I have ever worked. But usually they aren’t liberal either (though I do have one who identifies as Democrat, but he’s a classical liberal whose definition is opposite from what passes today as a liberal – I am proud to call him my friend). Furthermore, the majority of these sane people did NOT originate from the “great” state of Oregon (or from other liberal states like Taxachusetts, NY, etc.).
Great information, LQC. Thanks. Reasons for hope.