| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a cookie-cutter estate of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Would you start a marathon if you knew you weren't going to finish it? Would you bake a cake if you knew it would fall on the floor before you got a chance to eat it? Would you run for state Senate if you knew you weren't going to win enough votes? The logical answer to all three scenarios is no. But Kate Barr asked herself that last question and decided, sure, why the heck not. Even crazier, the central message of her campaign is that it's impossible for her to win in North Carolina: "I've been training to lose this Senate race for all of my life," her website bio reads. "I voted for Al Gore in 2000, cheered for Carolina basketball during the Matt Doherty era, and watch the Carolina Panthers on Sundays (shudder)." Funny! But what's the point of this electoral prank? Why is this woman's sense of humor not being put to better use? She could be a writer on SNL with this kind of comedy. But no, she's penning op-eds and mailing merch, all in the name of gerrymandering awareness. "Despite our true purple hue, there are only four or five truly competitive state house and senate races – out of the total 170 – in the election this year," Barr wrote in the Courier Newsroom last week. "Most Democratic districts have been 'packed' to group as many Democrats together as possible in a single district. The few remaining unpacked Democrats are 'cracked' across district lines to dilute their voting power." This makes a lot of sensible people on both sides of the aisle decide not to run — or worse, not to vote — in the election at all. It's a problem that Mary Ellen Klas and Carolyn Silverman say is a national one: The result of three decades of partisan gerrymandering? One camp gets all the glory: "More states have fallen under one-party control — either Republican or Democrat — than at any time in modern US history," they write. "We increasingly have two kinds of states — each careening unchecked in very different directions, at different speeds, and with different consequences. It's a painful and dangerous trend for participatory democracy." In total, there are 40 states where both chambers of the legislature and governor's offices are controlled by the same party. With these one-track-mind governments, "compromise has lost its luster, and large groups of voters are being sidelined," they explain. "The result is representative democracy's steady erosion, in which geography determines destiny for 82% of the American population — 41% live under Democratic control in 17 states and 41% under Republicans in 23 states." The impact of such lopsided politics is profound: Mary Ellen and Carolyn's analysis found that nearly 2,000 pieces of legislation were passed in the last three and a half years without a single vote from the opposing party. In contrast, only 17% of Americans live in one of the nine states that have divided government. But North Carolina and three others have a legislative supermajority, meaning they can override a governor's veto. So really, only 8.8% of Americans live in split-power states that require bipartisanship: The thing is, Americans crave bipartisanship. Sixty percent of folks say "the ability of Democrats and Republicans to work together" is a top issue for the nation. "Raising hell" is one way to try to change the system. But re-engaging with local politics is also necessary. "In the era of low-competition for legislative races and voter apathy, the reality is that few voters hold their lawmakers accountable for being out of sync with their views," they write. To my American readers, ask yourself (or even better, ask your family at the dinner table this evening): Which party controls your state House of Representatives? What are the ballot initiatives this year? Can your governor issue an executive order or a pardon? It sounds like a lame homework assignment a high school civics teacher might hand out, but trust me. If we all brushed up on these topics and made more informed decisions at the ballot box — instead of just blindly trusting state officials to read our minds — the nation would be better for it. Read the whole thing. It's totally free, so you can send it to others in need of electoral enlightenment, too. Bonus Election Content: Today, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch was arrested in a federal sex-trafficking case alleging he "coerced young men to engage in sex acts with him through the promise of a career in modeling." If true, Mike Jeffries has exhibited absolutely despicable, rot-in-HE-double-hockey-sticks behavior. But what's Abercrombie to do about it? Ever since Jeffries left the cologne emporium in 2014, Abercrombie has been trying — and somehow succeeding — to distance itself from the greased-up teenage torsos of yore. In 2017, when CEO Fran Horowitz took over, the retail chain embarked on what Kim Bhasin once called "the great purge of abs." Gone were the sex-forward billboards and shirtless door-greeters. In the absence of toxic masculinity, Abercrombie flourished with a woman at the helm. The mall has-been became relevant again among Gen Zers on TikTok and adult men nostalgic for its signature scent. Now, Abercrombie has been thrust back into the spotlight, thanks to a man who seemingly couldn't keep his hands to himself over a decade ago. It highlights how women like Horowitz are often given the hardest, messiest CEO jobs. Consider the recent upheavals with pharmacy chains: Beth Kowitt says these companies "were a bright spot for female leaders — one of the few sectors in corporate America where women could make it to the very top." But recent ousters of female CEOs at Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid show the sector wasn't ever concerned with fostering new leaders. Instead, "each company had an impossible job that needed to get done. And impossible jobs often go to women." "It's a classic glass cliff scenario," Beth explains. "A variation of the glass ceiling, this theory holds that women are mostly likely to get a shot at a big job when a company is in crisis." This latest news from Abercrombie is a reminder that women are too often stuck doing the cleanup. Bonus CEO Reading: Disney is struggling with its succession plan. But elevating the former CEO of Morgan Stanley to chairman is a giant step in the right direction. — Beth Kowitt So, China has a dupe for Instagram called Xiaohongshu. The name translates to "Little Red Book," which sounds pretty Mao Zedong-coded to me, but no, the founders insist the site bears no relation to the former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. The app has netted over 300 million active users, roughly half of whom are Gen Zers. It's now the fastest-growing social media platform in China, having recently garnered $1 billion in quarterly sales. "The vast majority — 89% — of Xiaohongshu's monthly active users are based in China," Catherine Thorbecke notes. And they all want to travel: "It has become the driving force in Chinese tourists' destinations abroad," she writes. The app has propelled daka (punch card tourism), where herds of young travelers take pit stops for photos at aesthetically pleasing locations. While bouncing from geotag to geotag is a boon for the travel industry, daka does have a dark side. This past April, a selfie gone wrong sent one tourist careening into the "highly acidic crater lake" of Indonesia's Ijen volcano. "Doing it for the 'gram" is all fun and games until it turns deadly. Now the app comes with a warning: "Safety first." What does "Puma" mean to you? To sneakerheads, it's a German footwear brand. To safari enthusiasts, it's a mountain lion. To birders, it's a large North American swallow. But to Justin Fox, it's a Public Use Microdata Area. US Census officials "partition each state or equivalent entity into geographic areas containing no fewer than 100,000 people each." There are 2,486 PUMAs in total, but not all areas are alike: In 2023, 35.9% of the employed residents of Apex and Holly Springs, North Carolina mainly worked from home. "That's up from 32.7% in 2022, even as the national work-from-home percentage fell to 13.8% from 15.2%," Justin writes. Interestingly, a lot of the other WFH hot spots are in suburbs, too.  Speaking of working and homes: The UK has a deficit of around 4 million houses, "yet development is often resisted fiercely where it's most needed," Matthew Brooker writes. And when homes do get built, they're not big enough. "The price and availability of land are one reason that newly built homes are smaller, closer together and bestowed with fewer community assets such as green spaces, schools, shops and doctor's surgeries." Sounds like a blueprint for a miserable existence, and Matthew says that's by design: "If [developers] build cookie-cutter estates of uniform drabness, so what? Supply is so limited that buyers are almost guaranteed." Nothing like "uniform drabness" to get all those creative WFH juices flowing again! Ugh. More investment is essential to boost the UK's sluggish growth. — Bloomberg's editorial board Medical professionals aren't being trained on a very real threat: climate change. — Lara Williams Harvard's Gaza protest raises questions about freedom of speech. —Noah Feldman China's stimulus is way more than just one "damn number." — Shuli Ren The artificial intelligence power drain demands a novel solution. — Liam Denning France's drama over pain relievers is about a deeper ailment: underinvestment. — Lionel Laurent "I love my job but I'd take a sabbatical to write this test." — Matt Levine Dementia patients are unknowingly fueling campaigns. Climate change and xenophobia are a dangerous combo. The Los Angeles Times is going endorsement-less. Trump's obsession with Hitler's generals is deepening. Stay away from frozen waffles and Big Macs. Gentle parenting has gone too far. Ethel Cain says there's an irony epidemic. Japan's smart toilets are on fire (literally). (h/t Andrea Felsted) Drop your phone on a hike? Don't try to rescue it. (h/t Lisa Jarvis) Notes: Please send fresh waffles and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Threads, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment