From my clutter: annals of floundering democracy

This is a No Coronavirus Zone for today. All portents say that plague will be with us for a long time and that the federal government under the current administration is devoid of capacity to help us weather it. Wash hands and be careful out there.

In Oregon, Democrats have been elected to super-majorities in the state legislature -- 18D-12R in the senate, 38D-22R in the lower house. Most Oregonians want progressive policies. But using a quirk in the state constitution, the remnant GOPers have stymied legislative action on climate change bills, and then on just about everything, as explained by David Roberts. It's a story of institutional failure to figure out how to fight back against extremist wolves in legislative clothing; Democrats and mainstream media act flummoxed:

In national politics, as in Oregon, anti-democratic tactics and rhetoric are escalating on the right, but there is little pushback or accountability. They pay no penalty for lying, violating norms, or taking legislative hostages, so they keep doing it, keep escalating. The institutions around them seem unwilling or unable to draw lines in the sand, and when they do, as when Democrats impeached Trump, they find those lines blown aside by partisan unity.

Republicans learn again and again that if they stick together, they can get away with anything — stolen elections, misbegotten wars, botched disaster responses, recessions, and now an openly criminal president. As long as they are a unified “side,” media and other institutions will treat them as a legitimate side, no matter what they do.

Elsewhere, demographic change grinds on -- and though progressives can't count on the browning of the country to deliver automatic victories, it sure helps when everyone is allowed to vote.

... the portion of the electorate that is white has fallen since 2016. White voters still make up a majority, accounting for 59% of those who identified their race when registering, but that number slipped from 62% four years ago.

Georgia Is in Play

In California, when the electorate breakdown slipped below 60% white, Democrats began to pick themselves up off the floor and gradually take over the state government. (Roughly, with bumps along the way, starting in 2000.) Come on Georgia -- go Stacey!

Meanwhile, Rev. William Barber has an admonition for Democrats.

If past action is a predictor of future actions, the Dem nominee will not wage a fight to win Southern states. If this happens, it’ll be an act of political racism—using black voters in the primary to secure the nomination but then walking away from them in the general election.

— Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (@RevDrBarber) March 7, 2020

Black southern voters have been the backbone of the national Democratic Party for a generation, yet embedded among white Republican majorities, they get very little for their staunch support. The next Democratic administration better deliver.