Politics Democrats have owned this state for decades - what do we have to show for it?

[Natebishop3]

For most of my life, Democrats have straight up owned this state. What good have they done? I'm genuinely asking. What have they done with that power that has made this state better?

I'm not saying that any of the bums that the GOP has trotted out could do better, but we keep electing and re-electing the same people, meanwhile this state is horrible in many of the areas that Democrats are supposed to be champions.

Education? Horrible.

Health care? Horrible.

Mental illness and homelessness? Horrible.

Someone please tell me what positives the past 30 years of Democrat governors has yielded. I'm looking for actual examples.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

A high minimum wage?

 

[Natebishop3]

A high minimum wage?

That hasn't helped me at all. In fact, my salary didn't go up one bit, so all it did was raise the cost of everything else. It devalued the dollar for me.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

The marijuanas are legal.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

That hasn't helped me at all. In fact, my salary didn't go up one bit, so all it did was raise the cost of everything else. It devalued the dollar for me.

Now I call BS on that one, your salary doubled when they raised the bottle and can deposit from .05 to .10.

 

[Natebishop3]

Now I call BS on that one, your salary doubled when they raised the bottle and can deposit from .05 to .10.

Wrong. That just means people are less likely to give me their cans!

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Wrong. That just means people are less likely to give me their cans!

That's funny, I used to always put my bottles and cans on the street next to the recycle bin on trash day. Now I keep them and turn them in myself. Those little fuckers add up.

But holy hell those bottle and can machines suck.

 

[Lanny]

Wrong. That just means people are less likely to give me their cans!

Cans? My wife has great cans. I'm always grabbing her cans.

 

[Natebishop3]

That's funny, I used to always put my bottles and cans on the street next to the recycle bin on trash day. Now I keep them and turn them in myself. Those little fuckers add up.

But holy hell those bottle and can machines suck.

That's because they're using computers from the 90s.

 

[Natebishop3]

Cans? My wife has great cans. I'm always grabbing her cans.

Me too!

 

[donkiez]

Blaming health care and mental illness on the Democrats is not really fair. It's a national problem that is very muddy. If anything I think they are the ones make real efforts to make that better. I am disappointed by our education and homeless issues though, we could clearly do better on both fronts. Business seems to be doing well here, I am currently on a recruiting trip actually, looking to hire more people and move them to Oregon.

 

[Lanny]

Me too!

You're grabbing my wife's cans? Where's my shotgun.

 

[Lanny]

Blaming health care and mental illness on the Democrats is not really fair. It's a national problem that is very muddy. If anything I think they are the ones make real efforts to make that better. I am disappointed by our education and homeless issues though, we could clearly do better on both fronts. Business seems to be doing well here, I am currently on a recruiting trip actually, looking to hire more people and move them to Oregon.

Homelessness is also a national problem.
Education has been improving every year for the last several years. Not fast enough but it is going in the right direction. Knute wants to pay for improved education by cutting PERS which, as near as I can tell, can't be done due to contractual requirements and a need to hire people who know their ass from a hole in the ground, since we won't offer competitive wages. Brown wants to improve education for the most disadvantaged of us and at an early age.

 

[Natebishop3]

Blaming health care and mental illness on the Democrats is not really fair. It's a national problem that is very muddy. If anything I think they are the ones make real efforts to make that better. I am disappointed by our education and homeless issues though, we could clearly do better on both fronts. Business seems to be doing well here, I am currently on a recruiting trip actually, looking to hire more people and move them to Oregon.

We can definitely blame Oregon for the horrible mismanagement of money for health care. It has been one debacle after another. Cover Oregon was a prime example.

https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-health-authority-medicaid-audit-money/

https://www.statesmanjournal.com/st...16/05/31/blame-cover-oregon-failure/85174300/

 

[santeesioux]

I have noticed it has gotten a lot worse in the past couple of years with homelessness, education, drugs on the streets, the wildfire problem where you can't breath outside from July 4th until Halloween. I doubt Knute could have fixed most of those though.

 

[Lanny]

We can definitely blame Oregon for the horrible mismanagement of money for health care. It has been one debacle after another. Cover Oregon was a prime example.

https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-health-authority-medicaid-audit-money/

https://www.statesmanjournal.com/st...16/05/31/blame-cover-oregon-failure/85174300/

Are you referring to the Oracle Corp. debacle? I'd like to say something about that. Some time ago my college buddy was the President of a company owned by Larry Ellison, who also owns Oracle Corp. My buddy quit because he felt Larry was not ethical. Hence, I think I have some understanding on why Oracle tried to take Oregon's money for doing a half assed job. In other words, we got cheated. I do blame Oregon for not monitoring the work they way a customer should.

 

[Lanny]

I have noticed it has gotten a lot worse in the past couple of years with homelessness, education, drugs on the streets, the wildfire problem where you can't breath outside from July 4th until Halloween. I doubt Knute could have fixed most of those though.

The wildfire problem can be directly blamed on Global Warming. Note how that's affecting every state in the West and numerous places around the world.

 

[Rhal]

GoP should blame themselves for putting out such horrible candidates. I did not want Kate Brown to win but knute buehler was just an awful candidate, really felt like voting for knute buehler is voting for the same policies that ran Kansas into the ground.

 

[Rhal]

Blaming health care and mental illness on the Democrats is not really fair. It's a national problem that is very muddy. If anything I think they are the ones make real efforts to make that better. I am disappointed by our education and homeless issues though, we could clearly do better on both fronts. Business seems to be doing well here, I am currently on a recruiting trip actually, looking to hire more people and move them to Oregon.

Health Care has also turned into a partisan issue where the GoP has fought tooth and nail to try and fight the Democrats on it in every way possible when it should be a US issue not a Dem or GoP issue.

 

[donkiez]

We can definitely blame Oregon for the horrible mismanagement of money for health care. It has been one debacle after another. Cover Oregon was a prime example.

https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-health-authority-medicaid-audit-money/

https://www.statesmanjournal.com/st...16/05/31/blame-cover-oregon-failure/85174300/

Cover Oregon was a mess, Oracle kind of screwed us though. None of that has affected actual health care though. Our coverage and health care standards are pretty decent compared to other states.

I would also add the the plus colum public transportation here is fantastic and our environmental protections are pretty good also.

 

[Natebishop3]

GoP should blame themselves for putting out such horrible candidates. I did not want Kate Brown to win but knute buehler was just an awful candidate, really felt like voting for knute buehler is voting for the same policies that ran Kansas into the ground.

But shouldn't our state be a socialist mecca with Democrats in power for literally decades, completely unchecked? Shouldn't our education system be #1 in the nation?

In fact, many of the things that liberals love about Oregon was enacted by a Republican Governor.

 

[Natebishop3]

public transportation here is fantastic

ho-lee-shit it's really not. Go visit Europe and then tell me that our public transit fantastic. It's completely garbage.

 

[donkiez]

ho-lee-shit it's really not. Go visit Europe and then tell me that our public transit fantastic. It's completely garbage.

I use public transportation here daily and I've been to Europe. While we are not at European standards I challenge you to go spend time in South Carolina or Georgia and use their public transportation. Portland trimet is awesome, safe and easy to use.

 

[Hoopguru]

Cans? My wife has great cans. I'm always grabbing her cans.

that a boy!

 

[Lanny]

I use public transportation here daily and I've been to Europe. While we are not at European standards I challenge you to go spend time in South Carolina or Georgia and use their public transportation. Portland trimet is awesome, safe and easy to use.

When I lived in Seattle, the mayor lamented how great Portland's Tri Met was and how he wished Seattle had gone that route. Nothing like a good mass transit system.
My only question is with the new fare inspection guidelines passed down by the court, how are we going to get people to pay their fare?

 

[Hoopguru]

Even my wife a teacher for 40 years says unfortunately the school system is broke in this State and the students and parents are the ones paying for it. Benchmarked against other states we are laggards in this area.
If there is not a plan to significantly improve the system from one year to the next it will only get worse.

 

[donkiez]

When I lived in Seattle, the mayor lamented how great Portland's Tri Met was and how he wished Seattle had gone that route. Nothing like a good mass transit system.
My only question is with the new fare inspection guidelines passed down by the court, how are we going to get people to pay their fare?

Fare is a pretty low income for trimet anyway. It's a net loss no matter what. If it was up to me it would be a completely free service. Honor system works for me though, I think it will work for most people also.

 

[Natebishop3]

I use public transportation here daily and I've been to Europe. While we are not at European standards I challenge you to go spend time in South Carolina or Georgia and use their public transportation. Portland trimet is awesome, safe and easy to use.

How much money has South Carolina or Georgia spent on public transportation? We have spent millions upon millions on our system, and it doesn't work. It's at capacity and it barely dents our traffic problems. I rode Max for years, and it's completely full. The park and ride parking lots of completely full. It doesn't make a bit of difference. The bus systems are horribly designed and it takes hours to get anywhere.

In Munich, they have an an above ground train that circles the perimeter of the city and then they have underground trains that run throughout the inside of the city. You can get anywhere in the city in 30-40 minutes. In Portland you have to ride downtown to get anywhere, so it would have taken my wife 1.5 hours to get from SW Portland (only 10 minutes from downtown) to Hillsboro. Similarly, it would take me around 1.5 hours to get to Hillsboro from PDX.

The trains are too small. The parking for the trains is too small. And we have spent tooooooooons of money on this system.

 

[Lanny]

Even my wife a teacher for 40 years says unfortunately the school system is broke in this State and the students and parents are the ones paying for it. Benchmarked against other states we are laggards in this area.
If there is not a plan to significantly improve the system from one year to the next it will only get worse.

You've gotta convince people to pony up.
There are places to cut spending and there are places to increase spending and cutting school funding is not a good place to cut funding.

 

[Lanny]

How much money has South Carolina or Georgia spent on public transportation? We have spent millions upon millions on our system, and it doesn't work. It's at capacity and it barely dents our traffic problems. I rode Max for years, and it's completely full. The park and ride parking lots of completely full. It doesn't make a bit of difference. The bus systems are horribly designed and it takes hours to get anywhere.

In Munich, they have an an above ground train that circles the perimeter of the city and then they have underground trains that run throughout the inside of the city. You can get anywhere in the city in 30-40 minutes. In Portland you have to ride downtown to get anywhere, so it would have taken my wife 1.5 hours to get from SW Portland (only 10 minutes from downtown) to Hillsboro. Similarly, it would take me around 1.5 hours to get to Hillsboro from PDX.

The trains are too small. The parking for the trains is too small. And we have spent tooooooooons of money on this system.

The only times I ever saw the Max trains full up were when Blazer games let out.
Now, if the trains are full and the traffic is still heavy, imagine how heavy the traffic would be if Max had to shut down.