We all know that republicans only care about wealthy people. Poor people who vote Republican do so because they enjoy punching down on marginalized communities. They know that republicans don’t care about them, but “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” They’ll happily self destruct if it means they can do a genocide. These Christians are chomping at the bit to murder people they don’t like. Jesus would be so proud.
Number 20 on that list? Republican favorite boogeyman Chicago. Safer than Nashville, Tennessee. Safer than Anchorage, Alaska. Safer than Indianapolis, Indiana. Safer than Little Rock, Arkansas. But I suppose those are all “blue” cities.
I have a lot of points against conservatives but I don’t think this is one of them. It could similarly be framed as “the rich vs the poor”, and quite often we would side with the poor.
In their eyes, democrats have somehow stolen their wealth through their policies, thus making them victims of external disruption. Not saying I agree, of course, but you can see how they view it that way.
Unfortunately you are correct in that is probably how they see it. Something along the lines of, Democrats flooded the country with immigrants who stole our jobs and therefore we are poor.
Or actually shit like NAFTA and other trade agreements fucked a lot of blue workers out of their jobs.
I actually sympathise with a lot of the anger the reders have with some of the economical policies that were passed, by both sides btw since they fucked the middle class pretty hard and allowed corporations to use our infrastructure to make money while shiping jobs oversees and hiding their money in tax shelter counties all in the name of “free trade”.
It’s part of the reason the Democrats lost the rural voters so hard, is because they don’t even acknowledge this problem.
Republicans acknowledge this problem (that they also caused btw), but they acknowledge it and of course offer no solution except hate, but they are still ahead of the Democrats in the voter’s eyes becuase hey… At least they tell us there is a problem.
Interesting reading the more subtle ways people(?) are trying to manipulate on this thread. The classic: “Both parties lie/are bad” and this one “Well AKTSHUALLY the poor counties vote red because they are rural”
Couldn’t this be attributed to the lower population density of conservative areas? You would expect to see lower wealth in areas with lower population, even if the wealth per capita is higher
Objectively no, but it also makes sense to me that more densely populated areas have higher GDP per capita. All I’m saying is, it’s a hasty generalization to say “this place has more money than that place, so that place must be stupider.” Economics is way more complex than a single data point or two make it seem.
It should be noted that there are different ways to measure poverty. Occupy Democrats says its claim is based on per-person income. We looked at that, along with median household income and median family income.
By all three measures, 9 out of the 10 poorest states voted Republican in the last presidential election. (In fact, they voted Red in the last four elections.)
Not stupider. Just making choices that aren’t economically feasible and are dependent on handouts from those who make more economically sound decisions (or happen to be on top of resources that are currently valuable on the market) to maintain a lifestyle more similar to those making those more economically sound decisions. There’s more to life than money though, so just because something isn’t economically the best idea doesn’t mean its a bad idea. And I think we should still have a safety net that makes sure even people who make even bad decisions are still have a decent quality of life.
But given its typically those complaining about “handouts” like food stamps who are the biggest recipients of them, it might be in their best interest to realize they shouldn’t be voting for leopards if they don’t want their faces eaten.
I’d rather fight alongside republicans and democrats to make sure everyone lives in dignity and isn’t ground into dust by the gears of capitalism rather than pushing more red vs blue rhetoric. Fuck the politicians that put the south in the position it’s in today.
The problem is both parties are in favor of grinding people into dust to keep the gears of capitalism going, so if anything they’re more likely to team up for the opposite reason.
Right, I should’ve been more clear. I think there’s a major disconnect between what the politicians want and what people want, but I think I was referring to the people when I said republicans and democrats in my previous message since so many people identify with either group for one reason or another. Not good phrasing on my part. It probably would’ve been easier to not use labels at all, but the main topic was about red v blue, so I stayed within that idea.
I also kinda need the hope of everyone getting sick of the late stage capitalism we live in and working together to fix it somehow. It’s a lot harder to imagine that becoming a reality if it’s only a handful of people going against everyone who calls themselves democrats or republicans.
i’d rather call it “unregulated capitalism”. because it seems to work pretty goddamn well in most european countries, and they regulate to what extent you can exploit your workers. unions are a good thing for everyone.
Give me a break. If you understood conservatives economic policy you would not want anywhere near it. Unless you’re a bigot and think human suffering fuels the prosperity for a select, “morally superior”, few.
Disclaimer: I don’t live in the US and, when looking at US politicians, my opinions are most aligned with those of Bernie Sanders.
I don’t think that the problem here is the republicans or democrats, but both. These poor places have long been neglected and no politician care about states that are not swing states and have very few electors. The whole political system seems to abandon poor people, old people and people living in rural areas.
The reason why they vote for Trump is that they want to give a big middle finger to those that they see trying to dismantle their way of life: city people and rich people. Farmers work very hard to feed their country and there’s a pride in being self reliant.
Take for example modern cars, you’re not supposed to fix them yourself. That’s the producers fault. But when politicians make fuel costs go up and try to incentivize EV purchases, people can feel like their agency is taken away. The problem isn’t the fuel pricing or the drive train, but the fact that you can no longer service your own car.
This is a problem with society in general, not with republicans. The alt-right movement feeds on these fractures in society. It’s a symptom, not the underlying sickness. To combat this we need better social security, free healthcare, and more wealth redistribution.
I find that the opposite is true. Poor people tend to lean left. It’s just that conservatives don’t take care of their impoverished populations, so the whole area rots economically from the bottom up.
One example that hits particularly close to my home is how republicans are vehemently against raising the minimum wage. But they also can’t figure out why fast food joints and grocery stores around here can’t keep enough staff to stay open.
Nobody can afford to live on 7.25/hr anymore. But republicans here will never acknowledge that. So our economy suffers.
Red states also have much older and sparser populations, so obviously they’ll have less income than the blue states that house much of the young workforce.
I can usually point out why conservatives think and act a certain way. Logical from their point of view, if mostly wrong. Still, I get them.
I’ve never had an answer to this sort of post. I guess they just fall back to, “It’s $somebody_elses_fault!” And that seems to work for 'em, drives votes.
I assume their answer would be some sort of afactual “it’s because we’re wasting all our money on illegals and gay libraries!”
When my mother talks about politics she’s not really interested in facts, policies, studies, or evidence. She’s speaking from an emotional perspective. It’s why topics and goalposts shift so easily in discussions with that kind of person. It’s like trying to follow dream logic. It makes sense to the person in it, but from the outside you’re left wondering why the chickens needed new gloves. They don’t even have hands.
And they want it that way. Because they can look at their constituents, point a finger at everywhere/everyone else, and say “look what THEY’RE doing to you! They’re causing ALL of your problems!” And those people continue to eat it up, every single time.
It’s always easier to put the blame on someone else and not change anything than to accept that you might have a tiny part to play in the solution, too
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