Good analysis in the Times of the Adam’s win.
My key takeaways:
- RCV continues to favor moderate candidates where it’s been tried and empowers consensus candidates at the expense of extremists in either party
- Defund the Police is an electoral loser, not just with white moderates, but with a majority of voters of color as well. Time to move onto a new framing for police reform. I like “constitutional policing” or “police accountability” since it emphasizes protecting all of our civil liberties from abuse and keeping public servants ethical and honest.
- UBI is an electoral loser. Wasn’t enough to keep Yang competitive.
- The Biden coalition is the new sweet spot of Democratic politics. White moderates+culturally moderate working class voters of color. Whichever candidate that appeals to this group can win a primary and a general in just about any blue or purple state in the country. McAuliffe just did this too in VA. Joe Kennedy nearly did this against Ed Markey.
- Locally this means Annissa Essaibi George is your real front runner for Boston mayor
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/26/nyregion/eric-adams-mayor.amp.html
Please share widely!
I like the idea of removing the police from traffic enforcement altogether. Police departments nationwide have shown that the “discretion” brought by police involvement is far more dangerous to minorities than any of the several “dire” consequences cited as resulting from this move.
Redlight cameras, license plate readers, and similar approaches can provide neutral, more consistent, and more accurate traffic enforcement. In addition to drastically lowering the impact of brutal policing in minority neighborhoods, even drivers in Massachusetts might start to actually obey speed limits.
I also think black cops and former cops play a huge role in affecting change. Adams was able to say he had been both a victim of bad policing and a proponent of good policing, which is a lot closer to the lived reality of voters than the binaries activists are forcing on unsuspecting politicians. I’ll add that Val Demings and Keisha Bottoms threaded similar needles and I hope to see the former beat Marco Rubio in 22’.
Also focusing on universal issues. It’s a threat to all of us when bad cops injure, maim, or kill innocent civilians of any race. It’s bad for all citizens when cops cash in on their public role for personal gain or abuse overtime. It’s undeniable that people of color are unfairly targeted at a higher rate in incidents of police misconduct, but we can reduce them by reforming the whole system to respect everyone’s civil rights and civil liberties. That should be the goal.
I don’t see how you can say anything about the effect RCV had in this race before all the votes. have gone through the RCV process.
You make a fair point, but it’s mathematically unlikely another candidate will win.
It seems to me then that RCV had no effect at all. If the person who got the most votes wins, RCV or no RCV, how do you reach the conclusion that a moderate won because of RCV?
I mean he’ll still need 50+% at the end of the count to win. My guess is he will get a decent number of 2 votes, ditto Garcia when Yang’s votes are transferred, while Wiley may have hit her high mark at the first count. I think there was an assumption among progressives and anti-RCV conservatives that ranked choice voting would help elect more candidates like them, and it appears that this is not the case.
I’ve long looked askance at defunding the police as have I believe a lot of Democrats. I wonder why that stance seems to punch above its weight (i. e. come across as more popular than it is).