Election Results, Culinary Workers, and Cannabis Outcomes

I. Democratic 2018 Election Triumphs
"The potency of the new politics was most evident in the so-called swing states, especially in the Great Lakes region, where Democrats roared back after years of losing statehouses." Democratic Governors Association chair Jay Inslee noted on the day after the election: "After last night's results, 38 million more Americans will have a Democratic governor. That means that Democratic governors now represent a majority of Americans -- more than 175 million people. The governors will have an easier time managing because Democrats overcame big gerrymandering and big money to finish the 2018 election cycle with an overall gain of some 380 state legislative seats." [1]

Columnist Joan Walsh noted that as the votes were still being counted: "Democrats have won a total of 2,908 seats, or more than half of those they contested; 1,173 of the winners are women, 842 are candidates of color, and 84 are LGBTQ. Democrats have now picked up 380 Republican seats -- more than a third lost in three national elections under Obama -- in just one year. Add that to the 44 they'd already flipped from red to blue, in Virginia and in special elections, and they're up 424 seats in the age of Donald Trump." [2]

II. Too Much Democracy
"In 2016, the Republican Party did not decide; it was captured in a cruel blitzkrieg, then rapidly remade in the image of its captor." "Why not  conclude that parties would display greater responsibility if their leaders had less power to bully ordinary legislators into submission?" Yascha Mounk then continued to say that "Only around a quarter of eligible voters participated in the heated 2016 presidential primaries, with only about an eighth supporting either Donald Trump [or] Hillary Clinton." "In many democracies that political scientists once considered stable and secure, elected strongmen are putting immense pressure on the judiciary, restricting the freedom of the press, and curtailing the rights of the opposition." "It is that deep popular discontent that has its roots in such large social forces that institutional reforms can, at best, delay a fateful reckoning." [3]

III. Nevada's Culinary Workers
Culinary's membership is filled with what are known as low-propensity voters, working-class people of color, many with recent immigrant backgrounds, who do not historically vote with the same frequency of, say, affluent white retirees." "Culinary contracts mandate that workers can take time off to sort out their immigrant paperwork." [4]

Mobile voting centers traverse Nevada to collect ballots. There are no discriminatory voter ID laws, and an initiative on the November ballot would automatically register to vote those who get a driver's license.

IV. Cannabis Not a Miracle Cure
"A recent study published by 'The Mercury News,' found that one-third of California's cities allow recreational cannabis businesses." "Across the state, the cannabis industry is struggling to meet market projections. Sales tax on marijuana, imposed after legalization in 2016 has driven up prices, encouraging the persistence of an illicit market. Tax income from cannabis sales and cultivation in the first six months of 2018 was $40 million less than the state had projected." "Far from being a miracle economic cure, the cannabis industry was proving to be like every other industry in America: in search of cheap labor and low taxes."

ADDENDUMS:
*Democrats have gained control of seven chambers under Trump: the state senates in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, New York, and New Hampshire (after winning control of Washington state's upper chamber in a special election last year, and the House of Representatives in Minnesota, where they picked up an astonishing 18 seats.) (Source: Walsh.)

*Wisconsin has lost 40 percent of its union members since it ended collective bargaining for most public employees in 2011. One recent study showed that passage of right-to-work legislation correlated with a 3.5 point boost for Republican candidates. (Source: Drum.)

*Thirteen states don't have any early voting. (Source: Drum.)

Footnotes:
[1] John Nichols, "The Down-Ballot Democratic Triumphs of 2018," The Nation, December 17/24, 2018.

[2] Joan Walsh, 'Taking Back the States," The Nation, December 17/24, 2018.

[3] Yascha Mounk, "Too Much Democracy," The New Yorker, November 12, 2018.

[4] Kevin Drum, "So Long, Haters," Mother Jones, November/December, 2018.