Fuck your states' rights!

[In It to Win It]

I'm in Florida and on the issue of abortion care, we're fucked at the state level. There is no voting our way out of this.

Our only line of defense until the election (which will be too late) is the state Supreme Court. If state Supreme Court upholds the Circuit Court's -- the trial court in Florida-- decision that the state's 15-week abortion is inconsistent with the state constitution, we're good (for now). If the state Supreme Court ultimately tosses out the trial court's decision and upholds the state 15-week abortion ban, for people in the state of Florida, our only recourse is Congress. DeSantis will get to appoint another justice to the state Supreme Court, I believe, in August as one of the justices is retiring. If they win in state court, they'll get bolder. They are flirting with enacting a 6-week ban, and I don't believe the current one provides exceptions for rape or incest.

Their rigged maps means their majority is entrenched. About half the state votes for Democrats but Republicans still win about 65% of the seats in the state legislature. There is no electoral power that we have that can overcome that. Where's the states' rights in that? People from other states will tell you all day long that it is in the hands of the citizens of the state because "states' rights." Where is the representative majoritarian democracy in that? About half the state (possibly more) disagrees with these assholes, and yet we can't vote them out because they have rigged the districts to ensure they can't lose. Therefore, the law can't be changed to better reflect the will of the people.

Fuck your states' rights! States rights went out the window when they rigged the maps. States rights went out the window when each side gets 49% of the vote and yet their side still ends up 60% of the state senate seats. I have no words for the extreme difference in turnout for the state House. Joe Biden got 5.2 million votes and state House Democrats got 3.7 million votes, while Republicans got over 5 million votes. I can't explain the piss-poor performance there... not that it would fucking mattered anyway on a rigged playing field. Since we can't vote our way out of this at the state level, our only recourse is Congress.

I imagine this to be true of other states as well, like Wisconsin and North Carolina and others. We can't vote our way out of shitty legislatures that will ban abortion access the first chance they get, even when our Party gets the majority of votes. We don't have any states' rights, and they made sure we didn't.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

1. I feel you, it's weird how that works

even in a state as liberal as Oregon we have had split legislatures and I think I know why.
The repubs try to split the state up by land and since they are more rural, they get more seats then they should. Democrats live in big cities all together, the repubs then let us dilute our power by being all in big cities. I suspect this happens all over and it's what keep repubs in charge even though they don't own a majority of voters

[SickOfTheOnePct]

2. There is definitely an imbalance

But not as much as you might think. In the 2020 state house elections, Republicans got ~57% of the vote, and 65% of the seats, with Democrats at ~43% of the vote and 35% of the seats.

Looking at California, there is also an imbalance, but the other way. In 2020, Democrats got ~63% of the votes, and 75% of the seats, with Republicans at ~36% of the vote and ~24% of the seats.

Democrats in Florida complain, and Republicans in California complain, but as is so often the case in life, to the victors go the spoils.

[Crowman2009]

3. More like the right dubiously elected state government officials to impose tyranny on their local ..

...populous.

Can't have anyone from outside lead local self-righteous elite lead a comfortable and prosperous life. It says so in their bastardized interpretation of a Bible.