[Daily Kos Morning Roundup](
A morning roundup of worthy pundit and news reads, brought to you by Daily Kos. [Click here to read the full web version.]( - [States Are Silencing the Will of Millions of Voters]( States Are Silencing the Will of Millions of Voters, The Editorial Board, The New York Times
By reducing the right of localities to make their own decisions, Texas has joined dozens of other states that have asserted their dominance over cities in recent years through a practice known as state pre-emption. One watchdog group has counted more than 650 pre-emption bills in state legislatures this year; the large majority have been introduced by Republican lawmakers to curb policymaking in cities run by Democrats. Itâs not a new phenomenon â city halls and state capitols have always jockeyed for authority, and in a legal showdown, the state usually wins, as the more supreme power. But conservatives used to champion ideas like local autonomy, devolution and even block grants as a way of weakening centralized control. The 20th-century movement toward home rule, or letting localities handle most of their own affairs, was once supported by both Republicans and Democrats. Whatâs now become clear is that Republicans dislike local control if they are not in charge of it. The home rule movement has steadily faded in the last few decades as state lawmakers on the right have become more aggressive in invalidating the priorities of elected officials in cities, which have moved leftward in their voting patterns in recent years. âWe are seeing a real increase in the pre-emption of local authority,â said Clarence Anthony, the chief executive of the National League of Cities and a former mayor of South Bay, Fla. âLocal officials are elected by citizens to represent them, and theyâre the ones who know what their citizens need the most. But weâve been seeing state legislators trying to have control over local communities, and thatâs not good governance at all.â
- [Team DeSantis Canât Run to Trumpâs Nutball Right and Then Get Mad at Us For Noticing]( Team DeSantis Canât Run to Trumpâs Nutball Right and Then Get Mad at Us For Noticing, Tim Miller, The Bulwark
If someone is aspiring to the presidency and their critical takeaways regarding the Trump administration are that Trump was: Too deferential to experts on COVID Too anxious to distribute a life-saving vaccine Not harsh enough on immigrants who were brought here as children Too adversarial to the prison-industrial complex, and Not passionate enough about the need for a rhetorical attack on the âwoke leftâ Well, then you are going to have to forgive me if I come to the conclusion that you are a deranged lunatic. [...] Iâm not saying that I think DeSantis would be more extreme than Trump. Iâm simply observing the objective fact that DeSantisâs explicit campaign message is a promise that he will be more extreme than Trump! At least when it comes to public health, immigration, race-based policy initiatives, and LGBT+ issues. And at the same time, on the issues where Trump is objectively more extreme and threateningâdemocratic norms, the rule-of-law, siding with PutinâDeSantis has to date been either silent or extremely careful to challenge his opponent in language that does not preclude Trump supporters from concluding that DeSantis is on their side.
- [Daily Kos has been struggling to make ends meet for the past four months. We have a lot of work to do to get ready for the 2024 elections and could really use your help right now. Please donate.]( - [These 25 rainbow flag-waiving corporations donated $13.5 million to anti-gay politicians since 2022]( These 25 rainbow flag-waiving corporations donated $13.5 million to anti-gay politicians since 2022, Judd Legum, Tesnum Zekeria, and Rebecca Crosby, Popular Information on Substack
...while major corporations are continuing to spend token amounts on marketing to the LGBTQ community, a Popular Information investigation reveals the same companies are spending millions backing anti-LGBTQ politicians. The investigation found that 25 corporations have donated $13.5 million to anti-LGBTQ politicians since January 2022. [...] The investigation found that Anheuser-Busch donated $227,108 to anti-gay politicians since January 2022, including the sponsors of anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas and Florida and 29 members of Congress rated zero by HRC. All 25 corporations included in Popular Information's analysis were highly rated by HRC's 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI). 20 of the 25 corporations received perfect scores (100) and none received a score below 85. Along with workplace policies, the Corporate Equality Index purports to measure corporations' "public commitment to the LGBTQ community." But HRC's methodology excludes political donations.
- [The nationwide attack on Black voters]( The nationwide attack on Black voters, Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, The Hill
Amendment 4 in Florida is a prime example. In 2018, over 64 percent of Floridians passed Amendment 4 by ballot initiative, effectively approving the restoration of voting rights of 1.4 million formerly incarcerated individuals â predominantly Black voters â who finished their terms of sentence, including parole and probation. Despite sweeping approval at the ballot box, the Florida Legislature responded by introducing new legislative hurdles to delay the implementation of Amendment 4. After years of litigation, confusion remains. Florida officials have no central database to determine who is eligible to vote, and âelection policeâ continue to arrest Florida residents previously deemed eligible to vote by the state. The racially motivated fallout of Floridaâs Amendment 4 is not an isolated incident. In fact, Mississippi, which has the largest Black population of any state in the country, has been a testing ground for restrictions meant to marginalize Black voters and suppress the policy interests of the stateâs Black communities.
- [Show your support for progressive, independent news with a Daily Kos t-shirtâthey're union decorated and made in the USA! Click here to get yours]( - [âI 100% support a challenge to MTGâ: Knives out in MAGA World over Greeneâs betrayal]( âI 100% support a challenge to MTGâ: Knives out in MAGA World over Greeneâs betrayal, Igor Derysh, Salon
Greene, one of the most outspoken MAGA diehards in Congress, drew heat from the right for voting in favor of McCarthy's debt ceiling deal with President Joe Biden last week and flipping on her support for the public release of Jan. 6 surveillance footage that she said could "put the security of the Capitol at risk." [...] Bannon, who has frequently hosted Greene on his podcast, took to the right-wing platform Gettr to call for Greene to face a primary challenge from "Real MAGA." Other right-wingers quickly joined in. "I 100 percent support a challenge to MTG, and look forward to meeting and helping a serious challenge to her," right-wing host Stew Peters told The Daily Beast.
- [What Does the Debt-Ceiling Agreement Say About the U.S. Political System?]( What Does the Debt-Ceiling Agreement Say About the U.S. Political System?, John Cassidy, The New Yorker
Bidenâs world view, which he has stuck to doggedly since launching his Presidential candidacy, in 2019, is that, even as full-scale partisan warfare rages on social media and cable news, there are still enough reasonable people in Congress, and enough moderate voters in the country, who can be mobilized to keep the show on the road, and even get some constructive things done, such as subsidizing green energy and reducing the cost of insulin for seniors. (The debt-ceiling agreement preserved both of these policies.) Inside the 2020 Biden campaign, this argument got reduced to the mantra âTwitter isnât real life.â But, to the President himself, fostering bipartisanship is a personal mission. âNo matter how tough our politics gets, we need to see each other not as adversaries but as fellow-Americans,â he said in his television address. âTreat each other with dignity and respect. To join forces as Americans, to stop shouting, lower the temperature, and work together to pursue progress, secure prosperity, and keep the promise of America for everybody.â Admirable sentiments. But the fact remains that the House Republicans recklessly manufactured a crisis to pursue their political ends and ended up achieving some of them. After vowing for months not to negotiate about the debt ceiling, the White House was forced to reverse course and make a series of concessions to reach a deal. As I argued last week, the agreement could have been a lot worse, but the process by which it was reachedâextortion, basicallyâsupported Fitchâs argument for staying on high alert, namely that âthere has been a steady deterioration in governance over the last 15 years.â [...] If the Republicans return to power, they are likely to make the fiscal outlook considerably worse by cutting taxes again, especially taxes on the rich, which is what they did during the Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump administrations. When Republicans are out of office, they talk about reducing the deficit; when they have power, they introduce policies that increase it. This is a long-standing pattern, and thereâs no compelling reason to assume that it will change soon. Fitch failed to mention this ongoing threat to fiscal stability, but itâs a key feature of the deterioration in U.S.-government finances over the past forty years, and the ratings agencies should be willing to point this out. Financial irresponsibility in Washington isnât a symmetrical phenomenon. ICYMI: Popular stories from the past week you won't want to miss: - [Chick-fil-A went 'woke,' conservatives may starve]( - [Trump has lost it]( - [Trump's big mouth is finally getting him in (legal) trouble]( Want even more Daily Kos? Check out our podcasts: - [The Brief: A one-hour weekly political conversation hosted by Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld]( - [The Downballot: Daily Kos' podcast devoted to downballot elections. New episodes every Thursday]( Want to write your own stories? [Log in]( or [sign up]( to post articles and comments on Daily Kos, the nation's largest progressive community. Follow Daily Kos on [Facebook](, [Twitter](, and [Instagram](. Thanks for all you do,
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