General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is there anyone out there stuck in a bright red state and having [View all]Proud Liberal Dem
(24,338 posts)stuck here in Indiana. The Democratic Party here had held the line on a lot of things until about 2010 and between 2010 and 2012, the Republicans now have quorum-proof majorities in the Indiana Legislature and have held the Governor's mansions for 3 consecutive elections now. While I didn't really like Daniels, I *really* don't like having Mike Pence for Governor. Amazingly, he nearly lost to a fairly unknown Democrat last year but he still won and we'll have to put up with him for at least 4 years. Where I live (Indy) is fairly progressive and we even got a LGBT non-discrimination ordinance passed awhile back but we lost the Mayor's office a couple of elections ago and we lost our majority on the City-County Council due to the Republican-controlled Legislature eliminating some of the at-large positions, which included mainly Democrats. The one bright shining exception to Republican hegemony was the election of State Superintendent Glenda Ritz this past election but then the Republican-controlled Legislature turned around reduced her powers and gave some of them to the Governor, who happens to be Republican. The Republicans have been working on pro-corporate, "right-to-work", anti-abortion, anti-Planned Parenthood legislation since 2011 (though the PP law, thankfully, got struck down in the courts) and we're teed up for a huge battle over anti-marriage equality amendment next session (presumably, which is likely to get ugly (it has been passed once, it has to be passed by another legislative session and then put on the ballot for referendum).
Support group for "Red State" Duers? Great idea!