If you’re a NIMBY, you ride with MAGA

People in blue states who oppose housing construction might not like Trump, but they also want to maximize the people forced to live under MAGA state policy regimes and make civil rights and liberties a privilege of the affluent. They also want to make it easier for Republicans to win presidential elections:

The year is 2032. Studying the Electoral College map, a Democratic presidential candidate can no longer plan to sweep New Hampshire, Minnesota and the “blue wall” battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and win the White House. A victory in the swing state of Nevada would not help, either.

That is the nightmare scenario many Democratic Party insiders see playing out if current U.S. population projections hold. After every decennial census, like the one coming up in 2030, congressional seats are reallocated among the states based on population shifts. Those seats in turn affect how big a prize each state is within the Electoral College — or how a candidate actually wins the presidency.

In the next decade, the Electoral College will tilt significantly away from Democrats.

Deeply conservative Texas and Florida could gain a total of five congressional seats, and the red states of Utah and Idaho are each expected to add a seat.

In related news, Karen Bass might as well start wearing a red hat in public:

Just over a month ago, I wrote the piece, Let People Live Near the Train, which highlighted SB 79, a bill that would push for more housing in California, next to transit that we already spend billions to fund. Now, there are concerns that opposition is growing, to the point where it is suspected that Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, is encouraging state lawmakers to veto the bill.

Bass’s supposed stance against SB 79, which would upzone areas around rail stations and major bus lines for apartments and condos, is starting to reveal an interest that aligns with that of the NIMBY’s to the point a recent piece has even labeled her as “Mayor NIMBY.” It’s a stance that may surprise some Angelenos who expected pro-housing leadership, yet in context it is not isolated at all. Rather, it fits a consistent trajectory in Bass’s mayoralty: decisions that appease neighborhood opposition at the expense of Los Angeles’s urgent housing, affordability, and climate needs. Without mayors willing to confront local opposition, statewide housing goals and climate plans will stall, no matter how progressive the political landscape appears.

SB 79 is a huge test of whether California Democrats are serious about governance or not, and I wish I could say I was optimistic.