Curing this blue state’s blues
There’s good news and bad news
Welcome to a premium Saturday evening edition of Progress Report.
It’s been a whirlwind of a day, with good news and bad news unfolding simultaneously and in concert with one another.
For example, it’s good news that Twitter did not crash after a vast majority of its employees very rightfully quit on Elon Musk by Friday, but unequivocally bad news that the service’s ongoing survival enabled the world’s richest troll to reinstate the world’s most powerful troll’s account. President Trump sucked up all the oxygen in the room every time he tweeted between 2012 and January 6th, 2020, which will undoubtedly happen again and make his presence incredibly annoying even if he doesn’t use Twitter to foment another violent coup attempt.
Here’s another: The good news is that voters in Arkansas resoundingly rejected a ballot initiative that would have required all future initiatives to pass with a 60% supermajority; the bad news is that Ohio’s secretary of state intends to push that policy on voters that have already had their voices curtailed by the GOP’s decision to ignore bans on gerrymandering.
And finally, it’s good news that tonight we’ve got a story by Natalie Meltzer on the pivotal battle facing Democrats in New York; it’s bad news that this will be Natalie’s last story for Progress Report. Then again, she’s leaving the newsletter because she’s taking on an important government policy position, so ultimately it’s good news for us all.
Still, we’ll miss her here at Progress Report. It’s very difficult to find someone with Natalie’s depth of expertise, so instead, we’ll be bringing on various contributors to cover a number of different beats over the next few months. More on that later this week — for now, thank you to Natalie for all of her incredible work.
by Natalie Meltzer
The results of this month’s elections were a major relief: the red wave anticipated by polls and pundits did not come to pass. Democrats maintain a majority in the Senate, and though Republicans flipped the House, the final majority is barely one at all, and always subject to a sudden reversal.
The margin in the House can be blamed on Democrats’ catastrophic performance in New York, a state which has long been considered a deep blue. The state’s congressional delegation lost four Democratic incumbent seats in Long Island and the Hudson Valley to Republican challengers — without flipping any Republican seats the other way.
In other words, Republicans who love to trash New York now depend on the state for their tenuous majority.
How did this happpen? It’s less a tale of national fundamentals than provincial drama, partisan betrayal, personal grievances, legal chicanery, and several unhinged political giants pursuing their own agendas. And yet, given both the direct impact on national government and outsized influence on the media, it’s critical for us all to understand what’s happening and put pressure on those with the power to change it.
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