DC government is broken, it's Muriel Bowser's fault, and Matt Yglesias got us here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser is the best candidate that we had. Voted for her last time and will likely do so again given the likely candidates.

She has never been the best candidate. But she is the candidate that the "green machine" that created Adrian Fenty, landed on, so here we are.

Ok. In your opinion, who was the best candidate in the last election for Mayor?

[Anonymous]

It's funny that someone is trying to paint those who believe Bowser should be held accountable for her disastrous decision to keep the schools closed in SY2020-21 as MAGAnatics. The science was clear as early as summer 2020 that in-person teaching didn't pose much of a public health risk. Even Fauci came out in favor of bringing kids back to school. Still this wasn't good enough for the WTU and DCPS teachers, which meant Bowser didn't have much of a choice if she wanted to win the 2022 primary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's funny that someone is trying to paint those who believe Bowser should be held accountable for her disastrous decision to keep the schools closed in SY2020-21 as MAGAnatics. The science was clear as early as summer 2020 that in-person teaching didn't pose much of a public health risk. Even Fauci came out in favor of bringing kids back to school. Still this wasn't good enough for the WTU and DCPS teachers, which meant Bowser didn't have much of a choice if she wanted to win the 2022 primary.

I would have loved to have voted for an open-schools candidate but sadly Bowser was the best on that issue. Robert White was trying to keep schools closed in 2022 to gain electoral support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser is the best candidate that we had. Voted for her last time and will likely do so again given the likely candidates.

She has never been the best candidate. But she is the candidate that the "green machine" that created Adrian Fenty, landed on, so here we are.

Ok. In your opinion, who was the best candidate in the last election for Mayor?

Robert White probably would have made for a better mayor but made a severe political miscalculation in trying to run to the left of Bowser. Of course, he was not helped by another Councilmember with the same last name choosing to put his name on the ballot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Robert White wanted the schools to be shut down even longer. And if you looked at the debates, he was against having more police to deal with crime, pulling out the old progressive canard of claiming to want to have evidence based policies to address the root cause of the problem.

Except, schooling is possibly the most important support that is given to families, and the closure of schools (closures he wanted more of) _is_ one of the main roots of the problem. And then after causing more criminality by doing that, he doesn't want more police to protect us from the effects of the kinds of policies he supports.

This seems to be a problem with all of the progressive politicians, they're always claiming evidence based solutions, but they end up pushing whatever craziness their activist base demands. I'm no fan of Bowser, but why should I vote for someone who's even worse.

This. I wanted nothing more than to get Bowser out of office in the last election, but White was WORSE than Bowser on most key issues, and there was no evidence he would have been more effective at the management side of the job either.

It was the same with council chairman. I think Mendo is corrupt and in Bowser's pocket at this point, and I think Erin Palmer seems like a nice and competent person. But she was a huge lightweight for that role and she had nothing encouraging to say on the major issues -- schools and crime. This is true of all the progressive candidates -- they generally lack relevant experience and they like to sidestep the really knotty issues with some vague platitudes about equity that don't actually address anyone's concerns. They are afraid of pissing off a small group of frankly insane activists in DC who think school closures are awesome and have no negative impacts, and that we shouldn't prosecute any crime at all until we solve all racism. It makes them extra ineffective at actually DOING anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's funny that someone is trying to paint those who believe Bowser should be held accountable for her disastrous decision to keep the schools closed in SY2020-21 as MAGAnatics. The science was clear as early as summer 2020 that in-person teaching didn't pose much of a public health risk. Even Fauci came out in favor of bringing kids back to school. Still this wasn't good enough for the WTU and DCPS teachers, which meant Bowser didn't have much of a choice if she wanted to win the 2022 primary.

This is nonsensical because Robert White was actually arguing that maybe we should close schools temporarily to deal with Covid DURING THE 2022 PRIMARY. Bowser's handling of the school closures was terrible (my favorite was the months in spring of '21 when she kept claiming they'd successfully opened schools while most of our kids were still virtual, that was classic Bowser), but I wasn't going to vote for someone arguing we should close them again after we finally got them open.

I can't even remember what I did -- I think I either didn't vote for mayor or I wrote in a name. There were no good options in 2022. It was a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's funny that someone is trying to paint those who believe Bowser should be held accountable for her disastrous decision to keep the schools closed in SY2020-21 as MAGAnatics. The science was clear as early as summer 2020 that in-person teaching didn't pose much of a public health risk. Even Fauci came out in favor of bringing kids back to school. Still this wasn't good enough for the WTU and DCPS teachers, which meant Bowser didn't have much of a choice if she wanted to win the 2022 primary.

This is nonsensical because Robert White was actually arguing that maybe we should close schools temporarily to deal with Covid DURING THE 2022 PRIMARY. Bowser's handling of the school closures was terrible (my favorite was the months in spring of '21 when she kept claiming they'd successfully opened schools while most of our kids were still virtual, that was classic Bowser), but I wasn't going to vote for someone arguing we should close them again after we finally got them open.

I can't even remember what I did -- I think I either didn't vote for mayor or I wrote in a name. There were no good options in 2022. It was a joke.

I didn’t vote at all in 2022. first time in a long time, maybe ever.

[Anonymous]

I voted for Trayvon, he was by far the best candidate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's funny that someone is trying to paint those who believe Bowser should be held accountable for her disastrous decision to keep the schools closed in SY2020-21 as MAGAnatics. The science was clear as early as summer 2020 that in-person teaching didn't pose much of a public health risk. Even Fauci came out in favor of bringing kids back to school. Still this wasn't good enough for the WTU and DCPS teachers, which meant Bowser didn't have much of a choice if she wanted to win the 2022 primary.

This is nonsensical because Robert White was actually arguing that maybe we should close schools temporarily to deal with Covid DURING THE 2022 PRIMARY. Bowser's handling of the school closures was terrible (my favorite was the months in spring of '21 when she kept claiming they'd successfully opened schools while most of our kids were still virtual, that was classic Bowser), but I wasn't going to vote for someone arguing we should close them again after we finally got them open.

I can't even remember what I did -- I think I either didn't vote for mayor or I wrote in a name. There were no good options in 2022. It was a joke.

I'm not sure what you find nonsensical. Bowser kept the schools closed because she knew she would lose to RWhite if she didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser is the best candidate that we had. Voted for her last time and will likely do so again given the likely candidates.

She has never been the best candidate. But she is the candidate that the "green machine" that created Adrian Fenty, landed on, so here we are.

Ok. In your opinion, who was the best candidate in the last election for Mayor?

Robert White probably would have made for a better mayor but made a severe political miscalculation in trying to run to the left of Bowser. Of course, he was not helped by another Councilmember with the same last name choosing to put his name on the ballot.

He would be a disaster. If he comes back next time, he needs a better team behind him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It all started when Ygie got knockout gamed and then lied about it.

I must have missed this, can you pls say more or do you have a link?

[Anonymous]

^ never mind, scrolled and saw link.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I voted for Trayvon, he was by far the best candidate.

same

[Anonymous]

Aside from the brief interlude of Anthony Williams, who actually tried extremely hard to clean up the dysfunctional DC bureaucracy, DC government has always been extremely corrupt. The Marion Barry years were rife with the exact same dysfunction that we contend with now---i.e., governmental contracts steered to cronies of the mayor; Fenty's Green Machine (which includes the current Mayor) is no different---it's just a different bunch of "graftees". Except now, as compared to the Barry, Fenty and Grey years---we have the added problem of the soft on crime progressives on the Council, who, coupled with the current AG and his predecessor, are perfectly willing to allow violent predators to roam the city at will. At least during Barry, Fenty and Grey we didn't have the police just giving up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aside from the brief interlude of Anthony Williams, who actually tried extremely hard to clean up the dysfunctional DC bureaucracy, DC government has always been extremely corrupt. The Marion Barry years were rife with the exact same dysfunction that we contend with now---i.e., governmental contracts steered to cronies of the mayor; Fenty's Green Machine (which includes the current Mayor) is no different---it's just a different bunch of "graftees". Except now, as compared to the Barry, Fenty and Grey years---we have the added problem of the soft on crime progressives on the Council, who, coupled with the current AG and his predecessor, are perfectly willing to allow violent predators to roam the city at will. At least during Barry, Fenty and Grey we didn't have the police just giving up.

Green Machine?