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Blue States Win a Cold Civil War [1]

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Date: 2022-11-10

Ohio. Florida. North Carolina. If these states can’t even elect decent human beings in statewide races in red states…

Blue states need to prepare for the possibility of a hostile federal government in 2024.

If we can’t see that GOTV is not enough, then we consign ourselves to suffer even more than we do now.

While there have been some amazing and indeed inspiring results for Dems this time, what this election has shown us is that blue states are getting bluer (Michigan, Minnesota) and red states are getting redder (Ohio, Florida). If anyone has a solution to gerrymandering and vote suppression, I’m all ears. Otherwise…

We must now vote with our wallets, support our neighbors, and build resilient local/state economies that have stronger tax bases, so that we can pay for nice things and bring people out of poverty and homelessness at the same time.

We need stronger tax bases to help international refugees, climate refugees within the US, and red state refugees who want a better life.

We need a new WPA to build public housing and construct a mental health apparatus which includes free ride scholarships for those who will serve in social work, psychology and psychiatry. This could be accomplished on the federal level with President Biden declaring a national emergency and directing DoD funds to pay for these programs. Short of something like this, which doesn’t appear likely, blue states must prepare to take on this problem themselves.

We need stronger tax bases to ensure that blue state citizens AND red state citizens have access to reproductive health services, including abortion without undue restrictions.

We need stronger tax bases to re-imagine our educational system(s), including free or minimal college tuition.

We need 21st century infrastructure to move people and products more efficiently, including significantly expanded rail systems and high-speed rail. If the Chinese can do it, we can do it. This of course has the additional benefit of being better for the environment. We could retrain truckers to work on the railroads.

How do we pay for these things, without federal government assistance – which we might not have in 2024 anyway?

Go local!!!

Local economies suck because they’re not local.

68 cents of every dollar you spend on a local product or with a local business stays in the local economy, versus only 40-42 cents spent with a corporate chain. https://www.independentwestand.org/what-happens-when-you-shop-local/

This figure easily rises to 80 cents on the dollar when you purchase a locally produced product at a locally owned store/restaurant.

Will this require sacrifice? Absolutely, but that’s what is required in an emergency. As Jimmy Carter said in his 1979 “crisis of confidence” speech, “…a little sacrifice, from everyone…I tell you, it’s an act of patriotism.” In this case, maybe an act of “state-triotism”. The easier part would be to always choose locally owned and operated restaurants over chains (or of course local or regional chains). When you go to the grocery store, you should always be on the lookout for local products. It’s important to remember that these people are your neighbors, and they are far more likely to be invested in the community than a Starbucks or Subway franchise location; but most importantly for the case I’m making, they pay local taxes, unlike large corporations who pay little or often no local taxes! Do some research, reach out to the Chamber of Commerce or Small Business Administration to get the skinny on local businesses, products and services.

Here's an added incentive for Oregonians. We have something called the kicker tax credit (let’s put aside whether we agree that this should be a thing in the first place, for the present). When state revenue exceeds projected/forecast revenue by at least 2%, an amount is returned to taxpayers through a credit on our tax returns. So, the more we spend locally, the more we get back from the state, and it becomes a self-reinforcing proposition, as we have even more to spend locally (many of us, anyway).

If you can afford to give Amazon your money, you can afford to go local. If you can afford cable TV, you can afford to go local. There is a lot of bitching about the mainstream media on DK; so how about putting your money where your mouth is, cut the cable and invest that money in your neighbor’s business. You can get your news from any number of sites on the internet, and your blood pressure might be reduced at the same time. Go local to build more resilient local economies and to protect your blue state from the vagaries and viciousness of Trumpism and red state lunacy!

In a sense, we’re already winning this cold civil war. Let’s build unbeatable war chests!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/10/2134999/-Blue-States-Win-a-Cold-Civil-War

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