Localizing politics in a nationalized world

Plus Rebecca Cooke on Opposite Day

We don’t have a factional magazine for moderate Democrats anymore, and Slow Boring can only write so many articles, so my top recommendation this week is an article in the factional-left publication The American Prospect about the primary election in WI-3, a red-leaning district that Democrats held until very recently and where the GOP incumbent is a psycho. Because it’s a factional-left publication, the whole thesis of the piece is that Rebecca Cooke is awful, and that the people supporting her, like Welcome PAC and the Blue Dogs, are awful. In an ideal world, we would have a moderate factional publication that could run articles about how Cooke is good and it’s good that Welcome PAC is supporting candidates like her, and how the Blue Dogs’ effort to revive the viability of rural Democrats is crucially important.

But we don’t. Instead we have American Prospect articles that we can read in the spirit of Opposite Day. And the good news is, Cooke won the primary this week and will be taking on Derrick Van Orden in November.

It’s not like Cooke is some hardened right-winger, for the record. She’s endorsed by the SEIU and a few other unions, and she wants to expand Medicare benefits. But she is not a totally orthodox progressive, which is why TAP doesn’t like her, but it’s also why she’s clearly right for a district that, while winnable, also voted for Donald Trump in 2020 and for Ron Johnson in 2022. Hard dollar contributions to frontline House races are probably the best investment in politics right now, so consider throwing her some cash.

Other recommendations:

• Jonathan Chait’s call for a return to Obama-ism.

• Darrell Owens on Fremont, California.

• Gurwinder on the rise of Neo-Toddlerism.

---

Good news this week includes the signing of an ADU bill in Massachusetts, some cool Biden housing initiatives including a big regulatory change for manufactured housing, and the development of an “electric bandage” that can heal wounds.

A much-needed new project, the Moderate Talent Pipeline, is launching. If you’re interested in working in politics or government at any level and read Slow Boring, you should sign up and tell your friends.

Comment of the week from Sara: First Slow Boring comment! I worked for a federal agency for 3.5 years then returned to school for an MBA and have been mostly in the private sector since. My long term partner still works at the agency I left. A few anecdotes related to this essay: (1) I had a senior civil service leader tell me they much preferred working for republicans because they brought in leaders with relevant real life (often private sector) experience and trusted the civil servants to do their jobs; (2) apparently working for this administration has been terrible, they’ve added so many levels of policy review to create more channels to say no to the types of projects the administration said they wanted to do in the first place! And as we’re often reminded in these essays - most of these DC civil servants are democrats so it’s the administrations they most agree with that they struggle to work for.

I would just say that in my experience, this sentiment is not universal among civil servants, with some agencies absolutely enjoying a morale boost from Biden because some of Trump’s appointees were wildly incompetent cronies. But I do think it’s generally true that businesspeople are better managers than academics or nonprofit lifers, because in business, being good at managing is the job, while you can have a totally successful career in the nonprofit universe without managing well. I personally am a terrible manager, so I sympathize! But don’t put me in charge of a federal agency either.

---

Aaron asks: Is there any way to un-nationalize our state and local politics? A lot of our 1-party states (CA, much of the Deep South, etc.) are terribly run because the politicians never have to fear being held accountable and losing a general election. Even when local politicians try to moderate, it often isn’t enough since the national brands are so toxic. Which of course can cause the out-party to atrophy somewhat. It can all seem kind of hopeless, and I wonder if there are any useful reform ideas?

The ideal solution to the over-nationalization of state and local politics is to take a page out of Canada’s book and literally have different parties.