American Consequences - November 2020

STRANGE BLUE WAVE

In Minnesota, Republicans successfully fended off a challenge to their majority in the Senate. Republicans also maintained their House and Senate majorities in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Same with the important Sun Belt states of Florida and Georgia – the legislature remained in Republican control. As the National Conference on State Legislatures acknowledged, “It appears that Republicans increased their numbers on net nationwide.” Bottom line: There was no “blue wave”... not even a ripple... basically a still pond. Moreover, the GOP has chipped away at Nancy Pelosi’s majority in the House of Representatives by at least seven seats, while Republicans in the U.S. Senate are poised to keep their majority after January’s runoffs in Georgia. Bottom line: There was no “blue wave”... not even a ripple... basically a still pond. Then, there were the election ballot measures ... We begin in California... Although the Golden State went for Joe Biden by some 30 points, residents there defeated an attempt to rescind a two-decades- old ban on racial preferences that is written into the state constitution. For context, in 1996, California voters adopted Proposition 209, which made it illegal to “discriminate against, or grant

preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.” But because California’s political class worships at the altar of identity politics, Prop. 16 was launched, which, if passed, would’ve allowed state entities to take race into account (aka, to discriminate ) in matters of hiring and college admissions. The good (and shocking) news is that Prop. 16 was smoked, even though its opponents were seriously outspent. Only 44% of voters supported the proposition, while 56% of voters told California’s racial agitators to go pound sand. That wasn’t the only good news out of California... Recall that California’s legislature arbitrarily decided to change how Uber and Lyft do business. The law – Assembly Bill 5 – was subsequently signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last year, which stated that drivers for these app-based companies must be reclassified as employees, not as independent contractors. The result, as intended, would have obliterated the ride-share model, leaving passengers with fewer and more expensive options. It would have also denied drivers flexible, moneymaking opportunities. For all the do-gooder rhetoric in support of these changes, the reality was that this move was a naked attempt to aid the Democrat-friendly unions by subjecting gig economy workers to California’s anti-business labor practices.

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November 2020

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