I believe many on the far left (and far right) view compromise as a sin and a form of surrender which for them is unacceptable. They have turned politics into religion. When Mitch Green claims to "care about Portland:, I call B.S. One of his first orders of business was to threaten PSU funding for a new performing arts center if the PSU administration took disciplinary action against the students who occupied the library yet ALL Portlanders would benefit from a new performing arts center at PSU and no Portlander benefits from people trashing the library. That alone is why Green is unqualified to represent district 4. He does not care able Portland, he cares about some "bigger" agenda that is unrelated to the daily lives of Portlanders. The problem with the "Peacock" (other than their ridiculous name) is they don't have any better ideas. I would say to Green, dude, you are no Mamdani so focus of the nuts and bolts of running Portland for all citizens. In the old days, people ran for city council to help make the city a better place, now they see themselves on a crusades.
Hate to say it, but Mitch has the DSA producing votes. The peacocks have now added their own propaganda channels to the city's websites and they have probably cut deals with the various unions that run the show. "Hopefully" ain't enough.
Well said Allan. At the very time we need government to function with high competence to resolve our most pressing (and sometimes existential) problems at the world, national, state and local levels, we have created the opposite. At the National Level we have denied man made climate change and doubled down, we have destroyed the institutions of cooperation in favor of isolation and imperialism rather than trying to improve them, we have tried to handicap science, education and free press with the goal of coerced "unity" and we have gone back to a "power makes right" mentality, all at the expense of the planet. At the State and local level we have achieve the highest tax rate in the nation while achieving the worst or low rankings on health, behavioral health, education, fiscal health and economic growth. We have become the Blue Mississippi. Why? We have forgotten about the concept of public service for public employees and elected officials. We have favored electing people and hiring people for their ideology or thier identity instead of their competence. We have arranged advisory groups to tell those in power what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. We have made decisions to protect a super majority rather than to solve obvious problems by sharing uncomfortable ideas. In Portland, on the City Council we are becoming the Blue version of MAGA. A small minority trying to take over the governance of a City using the same undemocratic tactics Trump and Maga have used. Time to look for common ground in the center of the populace, defeat MAGA this year and start talking about bringing Portland back and climbing the competency ladder. As goes Portland and Multnomah County, so goes the State. Remember, MAGA is self destructing because of process and policy. Liberals are also unpopular, but for lack of practical problems, like homelessness and behavioral health that the vast majority want solved. Show you can solve them, bring Portland back, and liberal government will regain some credibility. Peacock has none with the majority of Portlanders. That is why they are using MAGA tactics.
I agree with much of this diagnosis, particularly the emphasis on competence, institutional process, and the damage done when ideology displaces problem-solving.
One practical implication that follows is the importance of who enters city governance in the first place. Restoring capacity tends to require candidates and appointees with sustained experience in the private, for-profit economy—managers, professionals, and business owners who have been responsible for budgets, payrolls, contracts, regulatory compliance, and delivering results under real financial constraints.
Those backgrounds do not guarantee good policy, but they do tend to cultivate habits of realism, accountability, and trade-off thinking that effective local government depends on.
Rebuilding credibility in Portland is likely to hinge as much on broadening representation from the productive, tax-paying sectors of the economy as on recalibrating ideology or process.
Just a futile comment: if only we had waited for those with extreme left ideologies to grow into a little more moderattion before changing our form of government. Waiting would have correlated with getting clear of the pandemic as well: no major changes for the first five years after a global pandemic.
(I was young once and have an idealistic action or two to my name, but those was symbolic and didn't interfere with the overall process. My approach has always been to make my principles known, but then to go along with what it takes to move forward.)
It only took the Soviet Union most of a century--and look where they're at now. These people don't change until they've run a government into the ground.
This is what you get when 25-percent of an algorith vote puts someone into a $133K job for which they have no practical experience and are backed by a shadowy "party" that can turn out enough votes to squeak into power. The city charter is fatally flawed; time to recognize it and get back to the drawing board. Four districts/three reps apiece is a fatal flaw. Fix it.
We need to put revision to a vote, not more tongue-wagging or boo-hoo from people wondering why the peacocks don't get it. Surprise: they GOT it; the charter was rigged to amp up minority councilors (the charter commission announced that repeatedly, although no one in legacy media was watching).
They will win any future rank choice vote on party support and name-recognition. We're stuck with these folks until someone bells the cat. People with money and courage in Portland are in short supply. So get used to it. You voted for it.
30 folks sat for two years and came up this mess. We have representative government at both the state & federal Houses. Districts are determined by population and Federal census every ten years. The proper form of government for Portland could be eight (8)
districts each electing one REP. The Mayor elected City-Wide would have 1. Tie breaking vote. 2. Veto. Dump the "ranked voting"! The only good thing that came out was the hiring of a professional City Manager. It will take years to correct was has been a huge mistake & set-back for this city.
They definitely want to destroy governance. Which is why they pushed so hard for their “interpretation” of the charter. The Charter Commission didn’t want the mayor to have the power to break ties to begin with, but threw it in there to help the new charter pass. The voters were told the mayor breaks ties. Not that the Mayor breaks ties, **except** when electing council president.
If the council were able to pick a president during the allotted time, the meeting would not have included the personal attacks and claims of racism towards the end. It would have ended well before then. This is a horrible way to start the new year and it needs to be challenged. This year was even worse than the last.
I believe many on the far left (and far right) view compromise as a sin and a form of surrender which for them is unacceptable. They have turned politics into religion. When Mitch Green claims to "care about Portland:, I call B.S. One of his first orders of business was to threaten PSU funding for a new performing arts center if the PSU administration took disciplinary action against the students who occupied the library yet ALL Portlanders would benefit from a new performing arts center at PSU and no Portlander benefits from people trashing the library. That alone is why Green is unqualified to represent district 4. He does not care able Portland, he cares about some "bigger" agenda that is unrelated to the daily lives of Portlanders. The problem with the "Peacock" (other than their ridiculous name) is they don't have any better ideas. I would say to Green, dude, you are no Mamdani so focus of the nuts and bolts of running Portland for all citizens. In the old days, people ran for city council to help make the city a better place, now they see themselves on a crusades.
Come on, Green's ban on foie gras will certainly make Portland a better place to live!
Hopefully we can vote Mitch Green OUT of the council in November! Eli Arnold would be great in that spot.
Hate to say it, but Mitch has the DSA producing votes. The peacocks have now added their own propaganda channels to the city's websites and they have probably cut deals with the various unions that run the show. "Hopefully" ain't enough.
Well said Allan. At the very time we need government to function with high competence to resolve our most pressing (and sometimes existential) problems at the world, national, state and local levels, we have created the opposite. At the National Level we have denied man made climate change and doubled down, we have destroyed the institutions of cooperation in favor of isolation and imperialism rather than trying to improve them, we have tried to handicap science, education and free press with the goal of coerced "unity" and we have gone back to a "power makes right" mentality, all at the expense of the planet. At the State and local level we have achieve the highest tax rate in the nation while achieving the worst or low rankings on health, behavioral health, education, fiscal health and economic growth. We have become the Blue Mississippi. Why? We have forgotten about the concept of public service for public employees and elected officials. We have favored electing people and hiring people for their ideology or thier identity instead of their competence. We have arranged advisory groups to tell those in power what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. We have made decisions to protect a super majority rather than to solve obvious problems by sharing uncomfortable ideas. In Portland, on the City Council we are becoming the Blue version of MAGA. A small minority trying to take over the governance of a City using the same undemocratic tactics Trump and Maga have used. Time to look for common ground in the center of the populace, defeat MAGA this year and start talking about bringing Portland back and climbing the competency ladder. As goes Portland and Multnomah County, so goes the State. Remember, MAGA is self destructing because of process and policy. Liberals are also unpopular, but for lack of practical problems, like homelessness and behavioral health that the vast majority want solved. Show you can solve them, bring Portland back, and liberal government will regain some credibility. Peacock has none with the majority of Portlanders. That is why they are using MAGA tactics.
I agree with much of this diagnosis, particularly the emphasis on competence, institutional process, and the damage done when ideology displaces problem-solving.
One practical implication that follows is the importance of who enters city governance in the first place. Restoring capacity tends to require candidates and appointees with sustained experience in the private, for-profit economy—managers, professionals, and business owners who have been responsible for budgets, payrolls, contracts, regulatory compliance, and delivering results under real financial constraints.
Those backgrounds do not guarantee good policy, but they do tend to cultivate habits of realism, accountability, and trade-off thinking that effective local government depends on.
Rebuilding credibility in Portland is likely to hinge as much on broadening representation from the productive, tax-paying sectors of the economy as on recalibrating ideology or process.
"Success to Morillo is not a better-functioning government or more productive discussions with colleagues but getting her people on top of the heap."
The supporters of the new city charter as much as told us this before we voted.
Just a futile comment: if only we had waited for those with extreme left ideologies to grow into a little more moderattion before changing our form of government. Waiting would have correlated with getting clear of the pandemic as well: no major changes for the first five years after a global pandemic.
(I was young once and have an idealistic action or two to my name, but those was symbolic and didn't interfere with the overall process. My approach has always been to make my principles known, but then to go along with what it takes to move forward.)
It only took the Soviet Union most of a century--and look where they're at now. These people don't change until they've run a government into the ground.
This is what you get when 25-percent of an algorith vote puts someone into a $133K job for which they have no practical experience and are backed by a shadowy "party" that can turn out enough votes to squeak into power. The city charter is fatally flawed; time to recognize it and get back to the drawing board. Four districts/three reps apiece is a fatal flaw. Fix it.
We need to put revision to a vote, not more tongue-wagging or boo-hoo from people wondering why the peacocks don't get it. Surprise: they GOT it; the charter was rigged to amp up minority councilors (the charter commission announced that repeatedly, although no one in legacy media was watching).
They will win any future rank choice vote on party support and name-recognition. We're stuck with these folks until someone bells the cat. People with money and courage in Portland are in short supply. So get used to it. You voted for it.
30 folks sat for two years and came up this mess. We have representative government at both the state & federal Houses. Districts are determined by population and Federal census every ten years. The proper form of government for Portland could be eight (8)
districts each electing one REP. The Mayor elected City-Wide would have 1. Tie breaking vote. 2. Veto. Dump the "ranked voting"! The only good thing that came out was the hiring of a professional City Manager. It will take years to correct was has been a huge mistake & set-back for this city.
They definitely want to destroy governance. Which is why they pushed so hard for their “interpretation” of the charter. The Charter Commission didn’t want the mayor to have the power to break ties to begin with, but threw it in there to help the new charter pass. The voters were told the mayor breaks ties. Not that the Mayor breaks ties, **except** when electing council president.
If the council were able to pick a president during the allotted time, the meeting would not have included the personal attacks and claims of racism towards the end. It would have ended well before then. This is a horrible way to start the new year and it needs to be challenged. This year was even worse than the last.