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fear mongering works
2021-Nov-03, Wednesday 04:33 pmI am disappointed. Almost everything in the Minneapolis election went the way that I didn't want.
While voter participation reached a half-century high point for municipal-only voting, it seems that conceptually Minneapolis looked at the last 1.5 years of unrest and decided, "I'll have some more of that good stuff." By voting against reforming the police department and simultaneously giving the mayor unique control over the police, they seemed to double down on what they were doing previously. You know how I feel about this concept.
For the first time ever, for representation of my warzone area of north Minneapolis, I basically chose "None of the above". We use ranked choice voting, so for all 3 opportunities for Ward 5, I filled in the bubble for "Write-In" and wrote down "none". Ellison will continue as the Ward 5 representative. He's the only choice in Ward 5 who agreed with me on police reform, but I never vote for family dynasties in politics. Not ever. I think that we're doing democracy wrong if political leaders can share their experience only with their own kin, and they never teach other seekers how to lead in government.
So, I am disappointed. For a short while. Then it's time to renew the work. Even against the effective fear-mongering, the police reform proposal won 43% of voters. Starting from that base, we can surely sway more minds when the police kill again. You know they will. The next ballot proposal could win.
As a reminder, the state of Minnesota once voted in state-wide referendum to ban gay marriage. It's also the only state in the USA that later voted a 2nd time and instead granted gay marriage. I believe Minneapolis will come around to my (and our) way of thinking.
While voter participation reached a half-century high point for municipal-only voting, it seems that conceptually Minneapolis looked at the last 1.5 years of unrest and decided, "I'll have some more of that good stuff." By voting against reforming the police department and simultaneously giving the mayor unique control over the police, they seemed to double down on what they were doing previously. You know how I feel about this concept.
For the first time ever, for representation of my warzone area of north Minneapolis, I basically chose "None of the above". We use ranked choice voting, so for all 3 opportunities for Ward 5, I filled in the bubble for "Write-In" and wrote down "none". Ellison will continue as the Ward 5 representative. He's the only choice in Ward 5 who agreed with me on police reform, but I never vote for family dynasties in politics. Not ever. I think that we're doing democracy wrong if political leaders can share their experience only with their own kin, and they never teach other seekers how to lead in government.
So, I am disappointed. For a short while. Then it's time to renew the work. Even against the effective fear-mongering, the police reform proposal won 43% of voters. Starting from that base, we can surely sway more minds when the police kill again. You know they will. The next ballot proposal could win.
As a reminder, the state of Minnesota once voted in state-wide referendum to ban gay marriage. It's also the only state in the USA that later voted a 2nd time and instead granted gay marriage. I believe Minneapolis will come around to my (and our) way of thinking.