Is there anything besides crackpot ineptitude that can save us from a two-year nationwide Reign of Far-Right-Wing Terror?

This is a Washington Post map from November 5 of the partisan breakdown of state-legislature control following the 2014 election. [Click on it to enlarge.]

by Ken

When I went to retrieve a washingtonpost.com piece that had sent chills through me over the weekend, I wasn't surprised to find that Greg Sargent had taken note of it too. He begins a "Plum Line" post today, "Shellacked on the state level, Democrats chart a way out of the wilderness":

Reid Wilson had a great piece over the weekend reporting that Republicans, having expanded their control on the level of the states, are now planning to move forward with a “juggernaut of conservative legislation” in dozens of places, including in the 24 states where they are now in total control.

This is another reminder of a topic we’ve discussed before: The urgent need for Democrats to focus more energy and resources on making electoral and policy gains at the state level. . . .

Sure, he goes on to say, "As it turns out, there are now some signs that Dems are trying to do this: Various groups and party officials are planning new efforts along these lines." But then he goes back to say:

The picture Wilson’s piece paints is bleak for Democrats. In addition to enjoying total control of government in half the states, Republicans also control 31 governorships and two thirds of partisan legislative chambers. Wilson reports that all over the country, Republicans are planning new rounds of fiscally conservative tax policies; “right to work” laws that would further weaken labor unions; and fresh initiatives targeting abortion rights and environmental regulations, among other things. What can Democrats do about this, in the near and long term?

It's not surprising that Greg is looking at this nightmare from the vantage point of the near and long terms, and while I'm not persuaded by his answers to the question, they're better than mine. What can be done about this? My answer, roughly, is: Cower and tremble in abject terror. If the right-wing ideological thugs and the far-right crackpots can get and keep their act together, I don't see what can stop them.

At the state level, I mean. You see, Reid Wilson isn't one of those fancy-pants "national" political reporters. He deals primarily with politics on the state level, and the story he had to tell this weekend was a gruesome horror story of what we can expect to unfold at that level in the time between now and the next possibility for an electoral correction, in 2016. So today I'd mostly like to dwell in terror of those numbers, with the realization that the principal thing that stands between us and a two-year Reign of Far-Right-Wing Terror is the likelihood that too many of the numbers behind the numbers are far-right-wingers too crazy for prime time. But as piles of human waste like Scott Walker, FL GOV, John Kasich, and Rick Snyder have shown, a punishing amount of misery can nevertheless be inflicted from the Koch Bros. Playbook using lingo slung from the Right-Wing Think Tanks' Handbook. If you know how to say it right, almost anything in the hardest-core right-wing agenda can be sold to, or over the heads of, an electorate that wants little more than a few simple-minded slogans.


SO, TO THE NUMBERS!

The numbers Wilson presents in such stark prominence aren't new discoveries. In fact, he included them all, allowing for some still-undecided races, in his November 5 piece, "Republican sweep extends to state level." We've probably all heard most of them at one time or another. But maybe because it is, once again, only state political structures at issue, they don't quite register.

We get our first number from Reid's lead:

Legislators in the 24 states where Republicans now hold total control plan to push a series of aggressive policy initiatives in the coming year aimed at limiting the power of the federal government and rekindling the culture wars.

You got that, right?

• "24 states where Republicans now hold total control"

And in Reid's next graf we get two more eye-popping numbers:

The unprecedented breadth of the Republican majority — the party now controls 31 governorships and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers — all but guarantees a new tide of conservative laws. Republicans plan to launch a fresh assault on the Common Core education standards, press abortion regulations, cut personal and corporate income taxes and take up dozens of measures challenging the power of labor unions and the Environmental Protection Agency.

So:

• "the party now controls 31 governorships" [up from 29]

• "and 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers" [up from 59]

And, oh yes:

• "Republicans also reduced the number of states where Democrats control both the governor’s office and the legislatures from 13 to seven"


"SO WHAT?" YOU SAY?

So plenty. Like for instance:

• "Republicans in at least nine states are planning to use their power to pass “right to work” legislation, which would allow employees to opt out of joining a labor union. Twenty-four states already have such laws on the books, and new measures have been or will be proposed in Wisconsin, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Ohio, Colorado, Kentucky, Montana, Pennsylvania and Missouri."

• "A new round of the culture wars is also inevitable in 2015. Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the antiabortion Susan B. Anthony List, said she expects that measures to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy will advance in Wisconsin, South Carolina and West Virginia. Missouri, too, is likely to take up some abortion-related bills.

"In Tennessee, voters gave the legislature new powers to regulate abortion, and state House Speaker Beth Harwell (R) has said her chamber will take up three measures requiring mandatory counseling, a waiting period and stricter inspections of clinics."

• "Conservative activists also are targeting Common Core, the national education standards adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia over the past few years. Opposition from parent and community groups has become a hot political issue on the right over the past year, leading three states — Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina — to drop out of the program.

"Some states will attempt to join those three in leaving the program altogether. Others will try to change testing requirements or prevent the sharing of education data with federal officials. In recent interviews, several Republican governors who support Common Core say they expect debate in their forthcoming legislative sessions."

• "Republicans also are likely to take up measures diluting the power of the EPA, which has proposed state-by-state targets for reducing carbon emissions. A dozen states have challenged proposed EPA regulations on power plants in federal court."

• "New Republican governors in states such as Arkansas and Arizona and legislators in North Carolina, North Dakota and elsewhere will prioritize cutting personal or corporate income tax rates." (This despite the fact that: "States that have experienced a revenue boom from energy taxes will have to contend with falling receipts as the price of oil declines. Tax revenue in other states is coming in slower than expected, presenting a challenge in many of the 49 states that require balanced annual budgets.")


ARE YOU GETTING THE DRIFT?

Okay, here's more:

Legislators also will debate myriad less-partisan issues that have arisen as technology advances, including cybersecurity policies, regulations on electronic cigarettes and ride-sharing services. And the daunting specter of growing pension liabilities is likely to lead to contentious confrontations amid stretched budgets.

Lawmakers in a handful of states are considering how to regulate and tax the electronic cigarette industry; so far, three states have banned e-cigarettes from smoke-free workplaces, and Minnesota and North Carolina levy taxes on them. The e-cigarette industry, eager to avoid lawsuits and public relations disasters, has encouraged at least some regulations.

Several states are grappling with the rise of ride-sharing services, such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. Outgoing Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is likely to sign a measure regulating the emerging industry, and Uber is negotiating a similar agreement with Nevada regulators.

Some legislatures will debate “right to try” legislation, which would allow people with terminal illnesses access to experimental drugs before those drugs win final approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana and Missouri already have versions of such laws on the books.

And as marijuana legalization takes effect in two more states, in addition to the two where the drug was already legal, legislators in most states are expected to debate a rash of drug law revisions. Pure legalization bills will be introduced in 18 states, while decriminalization bills will be introduced in 15, according to a tally maintained by the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project.

TRUE, THERE ARE LIMITS AND QUALIFICATIONS

And you can read about some of them in both the Wilson and the Sargent pieces. But again, those limits and qualifications mostly have to do with just how far the crazies are prepared to try to go and how unified the GOP coalition of crazies, thugs, and garden-variety economic predators can remain.

But if any of these qualifications seem to you grounds for some sort of sigh of relief, I think we'll have to agree to disagree.

There are all sorts of reasons why we've landed in this fix, but the most important, obviously, is that for some years now the Far Right has been working these precincts with maximum diligence and with something like maximum financial support from their billionaire (and merely multimillionaire) sugar daddies. It didn't happen overnight, and if anybody thinks there's any plausible way to reverse it, we'll have to agree to disagree again.

It's entirely possible that 2016 will stall the trend, and maybe give the appearance of reversing it. Presidential election years are just that different from midterm elections. (And we know that, with regard to the U.S. Senate, it's the Republicans who will be on the spot in '16.) But this is putting the most optimistic face possible on the situation. Don't forget that after 2016, there's another midterm election coming up in 2018.

All I know is that I don't want to think about it, and I don't even want to talk about it anymore.

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