The reality is probably closer to what you are claiming. And the lack of competition and accountability creates rot in the system.
* https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/the-conversatio... * https://www.city-journal.org/html/california-jungle-predicta...
Of course, if you e.g. are a single issue voter that cares only that women who has consensual sex not have the option to terminate unintended pregnancies you won't have a candidate to support in the general.
The Mayoral special election between London Breed, Mark Leno and Jane Kim could be called “competitive”, but no matter who won (London won), the trajectory and policies of the City would have remained effectively the same with the only difference being who could advance their career that year.
Or to put it another way, it is a very competitive environment as long as you are a Democrat, but it is not an ideologically or politically competitive environment and the policies of the City government are stagnant (Fix homelessness! Save Muni! Stop car break-ins! Build more housing but only the right kind, maybe! etc.). This is unlikely to change under single party rule.
But it is a power struggle internal to the Democratic Party. Sure you have different people with different ideas about where to go, what to do, but overall the trajectory is largely the same, and to be frank, it isn’t a direction I like. I still don’t know if I was naïve in hitching my wagon to the Democratic Party when I came of age, if I was never really in agreement with it, or of it just left me, and I’ve been trying to figure that out. What I do know is that there’s no place for me in it anymore, but whether I was naïve before, then and now, they’re still the only game in town and the combination of Ranked-Choice Voting and Open Primaries is further cementing them both here and in localities around here. I have my ballot in front of me, and for every race below President, it is virtually indistinguishable from a Democratic primary ballot because that is in effect what our General elections around here have become, a question of whose career do you want to advance or maintain under the auspices of this particular party banner?
> Again, if your focus is policing people's sex lives and consensual relationships, it'll all look the same to you.
Since nobody has mentioned anything of the like in this comment chain, I’m forced to conclude you’re making certain assumptions about me and insinuating something unsavory there. Maybe my conclusion is wrong, you tell me. Unfortunately for you, that’s never been something I gave a crap about. I’m not some bloody transplant weirded out by the Castro, I grew up in the Castro, and for the moment it is still my home.
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=nl&tl=en&u=htt...
Speaking of which, several European countries have privatized post offices; not just telecom companies that were parts of PTTs, but entire postal services. It is the rare European country that hasn't sold off at least part of their postal services. The EU explicitly requires postal monopolies to end in member states; whether government-owned or not, EU postal services do not have the USPS's monopoly on first-class mail. Yet no major party in the US seriously talks about privatizing the USPS.[1] Does this mean that American politics is "far to the left" of that of Germany and the UK, both of which have completely sold off their postal services to private investors?
[1] 1 And no, it's not because of the Constitution. Article I Section 8 only gives Congress the authority "To establish Post Offices", as opposed to requiring a government-run one. Certainly nothing in the Constitution mandates the USPS's first-class mail monopoly.
I have no idea how well this turned out in practice, especially considering that market harmonization/standardization is a basically a must have to have efficiency at scale.
The big difference seems to be healthcare and education. Where there's a primary state funded/owned/operated/mandated provider/option. Which sort of helps with keeping a ceiling on prices.
But at the same time youth unemployment was (and probably still is) very high, despite easy access to higher education. US unemployment rates reached its low point before covid19 probably because so much is tied to employment and there are so few restrictions on hiring and firing folks compared to some "average/median" EU jurisdiction.
Then of course there are very real far right parties with power too, so yeah, it's a lot less true that US Dems are so right of Europe politics. While at the same time a very authoritarian group runs the current US federal show, with a very real chance of that continuing, which unfortunately doesn't help with the polarization of politics.
https://sfelections.sfgov.org/candidates
EDIT: The Board of Supervisors also has a two-term limit, so even if you think incumbents are automatic winners (which they usually are - not usually unopposed, but, like most incumbents, I don't think they usually have to sweat it too much), there's going to be a competitive open-seat race at least once a decade.
Democracy needs more than two parties to thrive. That will never happen when every battle devolves into entrenched red vs blue attrition.
The protestors chant they will not divide us! as if that’s a positive message. A little bit naive if you ask me.
Republicans have been run out of town (for good reason)
You also have "democrats" that act with conservative values that are vocal and prevent any changes. Check Nextdoor if you want to get a wiff of how crazy people are here.
That's what we see happening here in Washington, in any case. There's no one I can vote for who isn't a Democrat, so I guess I'm a Democrat by default, whether I wanted to be one or not. Super frustrating.
* Affordable housing
* Public transit
* Green energy
Can you show me any of these items in the current Republican party platform, or even point to any local Republican-run government which has invested significantly in any of these?
It's also trivial to find examples of republican led cities/counties investing in public transit and green energy. Here's a twofer [2]
[1]: here's a map that takes COL into account although it's California only https://edsource.org/2019/interactive-map-where-teachers-fin... Here's a national map that compares the minimum hourly wage to rent a 2 bedroom house, it also let's you zoom in on a region- https://reports.nlihc.org/oor
[2]: https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/vehicles/article/2111467...
This dovetails nicely with the “tiny home” movement. Regardless of how you feel about affluent people taking up tiny homes, there is something deeply off putting about municipalities in the midst of a housing crisis putting up minimum housing size laws that require tiny homes to be built via loophole on top of a trailer.