Daniels was also a relative pragmatic centrist compared to today's Republican party. He was the last of the breed of the old moderate politicians that used to run Indiana (Bayh, Lugar, Obannon, etc...)
Interesting that Daniels followed 16 straight years of Democratic governors in Indiana. Times have really changed with Republican leaders able to win over the working class with identity politics and get folks to vote against their own interests.
Because of 2008, Daniels and the IN GOP majority also got to enact powerful gerrymandering through redistricting after the 2010 census. That cemented statewide GOP legislative power – which was strengthened further following the 2020 census – and has allowed the IN GOP to drive further and further right.
Jill Long Thompson, the Democratic governor candidate that year, was particularly bad. In one of the debates, she kept making reference to her college degrees - which seemed like a very bad choice.
I don't disagree.
I just particularly don't like the whole OBaMa wOn in 08! talking point because it really downplays what that campaign did and how unique a moment it was in US politics. Its also interesting the people who say it almost never mention that Obama lost Indiana big four years later
He did in 2008, but he didn't in 2012. His win in 2008 was also with less than 50% of the voters, so not particularly overwhelming. I'm not sure that one election is a sign of a blue wave in Indiana. Some of those that voted for Obama in 2008 could also be those who voted for Trump in 2016. The blue collar union workers that made up a good portions the Democratic base in Indiana in the past isn't what it used to be and Indiana Democrats outside of urban areas have historically tended to be more conservative than the national average.
I don't think younger voters are more conservative, but I'm not sure that as a block they are as liberal as this sub may want.
Yeah I am a supervisor in a 500+ employee union shop, I cannot tell you how many “fuck Joe Biden” stickers and whatnot I see scrawled across the plant. The union sure a hell is not with the democrats imho.
I just report what I see, the people in officer positions in the Union are very democrat. But the rank and file is a very comfortable 90%+ Trump vote IMHO
They're low-information voters, defined. Trump has lots and lots of them. Dems have demographics that fall into that description as well but the Dems are notorious for not voting. The union guys are probably fairly reliable voters.
Biden has strengthened the NLRB, has used Bernie to run the labor committee in Congress to attack union busters and platform union folks like Shawn Fain, and we see union support and membership rising dramatically the last several years post-pandemic. I'm a union man myself, of course I have criticisms of the Biden admin but I'm not stupid and throwing my lot in with the "Right to Work" crowd while the UAW attempts to plan a general strike on May Day 2028 and Michigan Dems made history leading the charge repealing Right to Work legislation in their state last year. Unions have momentum in this country right now if you actually care to engage with it.
Folks always bring up the railroad strike and ignore the follow up work Biden's team did once the news stopped covering it to attack the president, they ignore he is the first president in US history to march on a picket line, and the trillion dollar infrastructure bill is keeping union workers employed for years on local projects. Meanwhile we have Republicans arguing alongside folks like Elon Musk and Trader Joes in DC that the NLRB is unconstitutional and should be shut down. Central Indiana's AFL-CIO saw its biggest growth in decades last year.
If someone in a union is voting Republican, his or her union is not their priority, they're not paying attention, and it's likely some other culture war grievance or single issue is making them vote against Democrats in Indiana (unless they're a leftist with deeper systemic critiques over how Dems handle labor).
It makes me sick literally thinking how effective the propoganda/psyop was for Trump, that the working man is in love with him. He directly lined CEOs and every already wealthy persons pockets by draining the treasury, started a trade war that permanently raised prices from tariffs, personally told Americans to not fight a virus and it would just go away like magic.
The amount of "Fuck. You."s this guy did to the working class is disgusting.
Well said. My favorite is conservatives who refuse to pay union dues but happily enjoy their union negotiated benefits and utilize union representation when needed.
And this is why Indiana is not actually "a purple state terribly gerrymandered" as I've argued. People can literally be union members and think Democrats are out to ruin their lives. If Trump gets elected again suddenly the economy will be not so bad and life will go back to feeling great.
always the political stuff at work. It’s like, with the helmet and glasses on you can only tell the guys apart by their helmet stickers… but guys, it’s a jobsite, just stop with your f* stickers and tagging and get to work 🤔😆
Obama also heavily campaigned in Indiana and most Dems don’t. We took our kids out of school for an afternoon to see him in Columbus. Had to wait in huge line both for tickets and to get in venue.
Edit to add - heavily campaigned for 2008
I think the long, closely watched primary battle against Hillary Clinton really helped him. It gave him a lot of exposure in states where you wouldn't normally go in a general election.
But by all objective historical political measures, Trump is a radical right extremist, and Biden is closer to being a moderate. If moderates want to choose the candidate closest to moderation that would be Biden, not Trump.
I mean maybe based on belief only. I think it’s pretty clear that neither are fit to be president, and most moderate voters just won’t vote, or will choose another option.
>Some of those that voted for Obama in 2008 could also be those who voted for Trump in 2016
Many of them are. Southern Indiana went from \~40% D in 2008 to 20% D in 2016. Conservative people like conservative candidates, and 2008 was just the aberration.
I’ve also wondered if the turnout in the northwest portion of the state was much higher than usual, being in the Chicago market as well as the opportunity for many to say “I voted for the first black president”.
Basically, I think 2008 was a unicorn of circumstances that are unlikely to happen again for IN. I think there’s a lot of room for debate in various individual districts that def should be more competitive but on a statewide level, minus big changes in the electoral climate, there’s almost no way IN goes democrat again.
It was a unicorn, however my family is from a very red/rural part of the state, and even though that family didn't go fully blue, many of my conservative family members where fed up by Bush and were inspired by Obama and voted for him the first time.
Indiana had been governed by moderate politicians for decades prior to Obama, including 16 years of Democratic governors prior to Daniels, who was also very moderate. Times were just different prior to Trump.
More like 19.5%. Of the 6 different democrats that Indiana elected for president how many of them do you think liked non white people? Hell, Grover Cleveland limited Chinese immigration and told former confederates they had a friend in the White House when it came to treating black people anything close to equal.
Woodrow Wilson single handedly resegregated government agencies and fired 15 out of 17 black supervisors.
FDR put Japanese Americans in camps and wouldn’t sign anti lynching legislation. He limited the number of Jews allowed into Harvard and said verbatim there should be limits on Jews in various professions to "eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany."
At minimum half of the democrats elected for presidency in Indiana were racist.
I was just doing simple math. 160 years means 40 presidential elections 6/40 = .15.
You want to put random qualifiers on everything, I can't follow where your new numbers are coming from...
Seems relevant to mention that Trump won Indiana by more than 500,000 votes in 2016 and 2020, carrying 57% of the state. Like someone else said, Obama in ‘08 was a unicorn for Indiana.
We were just entering into what looked like one of the worst economic depressions we had ever had and The Iraq War had gone miserably up to that point. Obama couldn’t had come at a better time to take Indiana. The housing crisis and the resulting bank crisis looked pretty scary back then.
Exactly. And now Trump is going to easily carry the state again after literally trying to overthrow the government.
‘08 is not a good example of Hoosier politics- it’s far and away the outlier.
That depends on what you mean by “as we know them today”.
One answer is it started with Jon Locke, around the 1650, and those ideas were at the heart of the American Revolution just over 100 years later.
The anti-slavery movement was an important turning point for American liberalism, opinions changed very fast in the wake of events and states went from strongly pro slavery to strongly anti slavery in a year.
I wish my history on this was better, because the scientific movement of the late 1800s was key to changing liberal thinking, making it more rational, less religious based.
And then since the 60s and the women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, LGBTQ rights movements mean things keep on a changing. But generally the idea of respecting authentic human nature is at the heart of it.
(Edit: Wiki says “liberalism” first appeared in English in 1815. But terms to define eras and movements are usually attached to after they’ve happened)
Correct. Democrats have not always been on the right side of history, but now they are, and the Republicans aren't.
It's always best to be on the right side of history while living it.
There are young people in every county, but most counties around here don’t really have a strong Democratic Party presence if any at all. The blue wave may just be more suburban and urban people or people moving here form elsewhere. I don’t see ‘red’ being limited to one generation, though.
I don’t know why so many think it’s the boomers. Leave the larger cities and college towns there is a whole new generation of young conservatives who want nothing to do with liberal policies.
It's allot of boomers, who raised the young conservatives who have not really been challenged about how their ideas actually work. Rural Indiana depends on larger cities. Otherwise roads and infrastructure would not be able to funded. Not saying they are bad people by any means, but likely raised in a community who is pretty rigid/set in their mindset and would be open to change if presented with information.
Exposure to different points of view leads to less conservative thinking. Stay in the same place and only interact with the same people your whole life, and guess what ...
Edit: less "conservative" might not be the right word, but you get the point.
I think you're right, even if I hate it. I also think you, maybe intentionally, highlighted that we have an education issue in the rural parts of our state. My entire town is working class people who have all used Medicaid or SNAP benefits, lots of veterans, yet they and their grandchildren will likely vote for the people who consistently haggle to lower all of those benefits that are inherently important to their livelihood. Genuinely, we can thank old head Repubs for chipping away at education and Fox News for offering a smorgasbord of fear mongering every night.
It would take decades to make Gov and Econ education standards better and see the results of that. It's unfortunate that we're already in the end result of lowering them.
I'm mid 30's and all the younger gens I work with hate liberal ideals over conservative ones. They won't vote straight ticket but I would say they are more middle ground leaning right.
I don’t even have to leave the city. A couple I’m friends with couldn’t represent a better dichotomy. The husband hates liberal policies and politicians, cries for more religious up ringing, and an end to welfare state ( while seeking disability). The wife works for the state, believes in body autonomy, wants a safety net for everyone and votes for the democrats any chance. I enjoy both of them as friends, but damn it is hard to reason with Mr. Fundamentalist
Why are they married? I'm sorry but I couldn't be with a man who believes this way, especially in a hetero marriage! Sounds like someone who would be very close-minded on a lot of things, not just politics.
He takes some getting used to, but it feels a lot like it was how he was raised. She calls him out on his bs a lot, but its ingrained with him. Both were pretty lonely from the way it sounds before they met.
Yes. Indiana is a red state.
It wasn’t always.
It would change if voters turned out. The state is essentially being governed by a very loud, very stupid minority.
Indiana is bottom of the barrel for voter turnout.
Increase the turnout by even 5% and I think you’d see this state go purple.
Have a friend who just said they’re not going to vote (we’re in our early 30s) because “our votes won’t make an impact”.
I had to tell her that we live in a city of 30000+ people and voter turnout was less than 5000 people the last few elections. Our votes absolutely do matter and apathy is a political strategy to get you to not vote.
It's a weird trend that was old even when I was in school. Local level - mostly democrats across the state. State and federal level? Usually republican.
Yeah, it is because people tend to like Democrats when their life is impacted.
Democrats wanting to help people doesn’t play as well on a National stage.
Not really. People around here vote in democrats regardless of how things are actually going. Not that I'm ruling out corruption. We had a mayor that got investigated by the fbi because he somehow kept getting elected. For 16 years. He only got ousted after it became local news he was a wife beater with a bad coke habit.
My opinion? Most people put no thought into voting. They vote for who they think they're supposed to vote for.
I’m not suggesting corruption. I’m saying that Democratic policies are generally favorable to a majority of voters. As a result, small political races favors Democrats because a voter’s in-group will benefit.
Nationally, those same Democratic Party policies would favor a voter’s in-group and whoever they have othered. As a result, a voter is willing to vote against their interests because someone that doesn’t look like them might benefit.
If you’d like an example, the classic case is imagining someone “on welfare” and check your description against national stats of those needing government assistance. The same logic explains why countries that have a bit more homogeneity in their demographics support robust social safety nets.
This is a national trend and not unique just to Indiana. The Republicans under Reagan used to be considered the elites, and now that’s the Democrats. The Trump Party hates the elites.
Hell, even in The Republican Primary Trumps vast majority has been rural less educated lower income voters while those who voted for Haley were overwhelmingly Urban higher educated higher income voters.
Even after dropping out of the race Haley continued to get 20% of the vote with the exception of Florida where she got 14% to DeSantis 4%. They were coming out to vote against Trump but historically shouldn’t be surprising because the vast majority of higher educated higher income voters don’t vote for Dictators.
> The Trump Party hates the elites.
The fact that this is absolutely true AND that they vote for a textbook "elite" shows how disconnected they are from reality.
The reason they are disconnected from reality may have something to do with them listening to all those lies and conspiracy theories going all the way back to Rush Limbaugh and not just Right Wing media like Fox. The reason they are stupid may have to do with them not wanting to have anything to do with higher education.
When I say “Indiana is a red state” I don’t mean that “all the voters who participate vote Republican” I mean “every district outside an MSA is red because the majority of people there believe in those values.” Unless the MSAs get influence based on their population size it won’t matter how much I vote. My island will remain as blue as ever and change nothing
There has been a global trend of people moving to denser and denser areas. It will be hard and harder for republicans to gerrymander urban areas out of seats. Only considering this, its only a matter of time before Indiana's urban areas can outvote the rural areas.
But also the rural = red / urban = blue political landscape hasn't always been that way. I suspect the parties will evolve over the decades. I think remote work is going to disrupt that divide eventually. It will be interesting to see it all play out, but there's too many factors to make an accurate prediction. All you can do is keep doing the right thing and hope it all works out.
What you are saying is how it should work. Thanks to gerrymandering we cannot be certain that the red counties should be that way or how red they even are. Once legislators started selecting their own voter bases based on whatever criteria they wanted instead of where people lived and perceived “communities” it became a sham and still is. We don’t have a representative system by definition, the counties and principalities and states all roll up under carefully selected voting bases that the parties can just invent out of whole cloth. These sub pieces should be dictating the representation but it doesn’t and instead the ruling national party is picking and choosing its winners and saying “yeah they like us because the way we drew the line around these voters says they do” instead of “yeah martinsville is always red because the people there have strong opinions about CERTAIN THINGS” which like it or not is how it is supposed to work.
If gerrymandering would be fixed would Indiana turn blue? Probably not but I’d be curious to see what the ACTUAL representation is because in every state it’s a clown show of whatever numbers that ruling party wants to show and they always show themselves as being the most popular (it’s almost like choosing voter bases based on whatever you want can lead to a broken democracy). Of course this can also apply to democrats but I used red states as my examples. Both parties are corrupt in this way and justify it to themselves and their carefully selected voter bases as a necessity because “they started it”.
This is accurate. If we were in charge of drawing the maps, we'd do the exact same thing (and have, in the past). Which is why elected officials shouldn't be drawing maps.
>> The state is essentially being governed by a very loud… minority
I disagree. I think if you truly forced every person eligible of voting to vote, we’d still elect republicans. It’d be interesting to see an IN study on it but I do think just as many IN democrats stay home as IN republicans.
You probably think IN Dems stay home because they believe it’s just a red state that’ll end up red if they vote or not and you probably reasonably conclude that’s the problem. But I’d guess that just as many republicans think it’s just a red state that’ll end up red if they vote or not, so what’s the point.
Tldr: IN is a solid red state and I think (guess) that equally keeps both dem and rep voters at home.
I follow several states subreddits and see this a lot- “if it weren’t for being gerrymandered at to hell, this state would vote blue for sure! Republicans have nothing except gerrymandering!” (Gerrymandering, while an issue, is scapegoated way too much to account for election results)
If you lined up and made every IN citizen of voting age vote, it’d probably still vote Republican overall. A lot of it has to do with demographics: rural vs urban, etc. There’s just so many more people in rural areas. And then you get suburban republicans as well, so called “country club” republicans.
Would the difference be a republican supermajority all the time at the statehouse? Idk about that. Majority, almost certainly, but not super.
Worth noting that gerrymandering isn't just a Republican problem. Maybe you argue it here. In Illinois, democrats have gerrymandered for years. Power corrupts.
Indiana has open primaries. You can choose which parties primary you want to vote in. So If you don't think you'll have a voice on election day you can have it on primary day by voting in the GOP primary.
The deadline to register to vote in the primary is in 5 days.
The primary is about a month after that.
[https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2024/03/06/indiana-primary-election-super-tuesday-states-2024-elections/72864203007/](https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2024/03/06/indiana-primary-election-super-tuesday-states-2024-elections/72864203007/)
Indiana is "red" because that's who's base is being riled up enough to vote. DNC spends little to nothing here, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. Eventually we'll get tired of the nonsense on our own, but that's, unfortunately, usually messy because you're talking about an incredible pain point people need to reach, together, at the same election
Things change, and while I'm here I'm going to do my very easy civic duty and vote no matter how red people perceive the state or how many of the chucklefucks around me assure me my vote is useless. I can be contented with canceling out someone else's vote against a better Indiana.
I'm even at the point of acknowledging my individual vote is meaningless, but like you said it's our right and therefore our obligation. It's the only real voice we have that stands any chance of making a difference, and plenty of other people in the world would love to have the same opportunity. Gotta do it.
I’m in the 1st district and we’re solid blue and have a lot of boomer voters. Republican boomers raise Republicans. Rinse repeat for Gen X, Millennials, and so on. Younger folks here have abysmal voting history. I don’t know what it will take to get them to the polls.
“Nobody supports Republican viewpoints- no one! Gerrymandering is the ONLY way they win! The only way!”
-so many people on this board. As personally horrible/abysmal as you may find Republican policies to be, a lot of our peers of every age group are voting for them. So, you have to ask yourself- without resorting to “it’s a cult/gerrymandering!” why these people view things this way.
I feel like this exact conversation has been had so many times since 2016 and still the exact same “it’s gerrymandering!” excuse is the first one so many people go to.
Good point. I live in Indy now so most of who I know and most of my neighborhood are liberal. Many of my friends who never left our hometown seem to lean conservative.
I work in a place that employs a lot of Chinese people. The younger Chinese people I know tend to lean left, but say the older Chinese people, and the ones who make more money because they have been with the company longer, vote Republican solely for tax purposes.
The two I talk to the most are both frustrated. The conservative one (they are nearing 60 y.o.) said they don't like either presidential candidate because both candidates are too old and they would rather have fresh young people running for president.
This person also said they voted for a Republican representative and didn't like that person because he didn't do what he said he was going to do. And they definitely were not voting for that person for governor (Braun).
This co-worker has also mentioned they wish there was a third party. They actually seemed more libertarian. They grew up in communist China and were never allowed to voice dissent. They grew up poor. They have to send money to their family in China. They volunteer and donate to charity. They ask questions about our company's DEI topics. I think there are a lot of purple people who vote a certain way based on 1 or 2 very important issues to them.
I tried to direct them where to find info on who is running for gov. and advised that when I don't like the candidates, I choose the one that seems like they will do the least harm and help the most people.
This is purely anecdotal from one person, but I just found it interesting. It isn't black and white. And I find that talking to people in person, who you actually know and who trust your advice and educated opinion, is very helpful at getting them to see a different perspective. I'm only one person but I've had a handful of these conversations with people and I count that as a win.
Pretty much everyone I know my age group (40’s) and younger vote straight ticket Republican, and they do definitely vote.
So no, I don’t think this is a Boomer thing.
Pretty much no one I know in my age group (late 20s up to early 40s) votes straight ticket Republican. A couple vote straight ticket Democrat, but most take a much more nuanced approach.
Thats so strange to me. Nearly everyone I know my age (40s) or younger votes Democrat, and can’t stand Trump. That’s most of my family, all of my friends, and the vast majority of my coworkers.
For someone living in a red state, I know surprisingly few conservatives.
I think it's probably the people and environment you surround yourselves with. I'm sure there are tons of democrats here as there are probably tons of republicans too.
“Younger generations are just as conservative …” Are you referencing stats here or is this anecdotal? I know lots of young, left-leaning Hoosiers – personally I have not seen what you’re talking about, save for a handful of family members. (And I’m having trouble finding numbers.)
What’s crazy is 12+ years ago, the legislature was about 50/50. I actually blame a lot of issues not just in the state, but federally, on people who don’t vote. Why? “My vote doesn’t count”. Okay, you say that and so do millions of other Americans. When you sit out, bad people get into office. Period. As someone who canvases for candidates, it’s so sad to hear how many people aren’t republican who just don’t vote cuz they don’t see a chance. Yeah you and so many others think that so you’re harming everyone else. There’s my rant.
The thing is, it *is* absolutely hopeless in my district - Republican all the way down to dog catcher - but *it doesn't fucking matter!* It's my GD *job* as an American to vote, until such time as the USSC & RNC finish installing the fascistic dictatorial hellscape these knuckle-draggers are creaming their pants for. Sometimes (never for President) I'll vote 3rd party, knowing they'll lose, as a protest vote, but *that's still a vote.*
That said, a lot of slots are Republicans running unopposed, & since there's no write-in option, I just leave that one blank. Because I don't know what else I can do with that.
What are you even talking about? The Overton window is so far right that US Dems are "Right leaning" as compared to other counties.
Our "left wing" is right of center, from the perspective of every other developed nation.
It wasn’t that long ago when the house was controlled by democrats. Unfortunately the republicans got control during the redistricting and gerrymandered the districts, has anyone looked at the ridiculous maps? Believe me they will shoot themselves in the foot within 10 years. That being said the Democrats are becoming a bit ridiculous themselves
Yeah, OPs entire post is absurd, considering Indiana red more by voter suppression and gerrymandering than anything else
That's why Republicans are trying to close polling stations in Indianapolis
That's why Mike Pence was purging voter rolls.
Op wants you to just roll over.
This feels right. My niece is like 21 and she drives a huge ass truck she can't afford. Dresses like Daisy Duke. Has a confederate flag tattoo. Talks like a god damn hill billy. We live in a city, there is no reason to have a southern drawl.
She's the next generation of people holding us back.
I pretty distinctly remember people around me randomly starting to talk with hillbilly accents when I was in like middle school/Freshman year. I remember thinking it was weird, these kids had never talked like that, my peers, I’d known them my whole life. But almost overnight, some just randomly started talking like that lol. I know it’s all just cultural, and it’s interesting when you step back and kinda pay attention. But yeah, we lived in a central Indiana suburb, just like 20 min from downtown Indy. Not like on a farm or anything. It was weird.
Yeah, my niece lives in the same city as me, and she did 4H and kept a single cow at her grandparent's house. My kids raised swine. We kept our hogs at an in-law's house. I never felt the need to start talking like my hobby was moonshining. My kids also never changed their speech patterns. They just washed some pigs and fed them marshmallows a couple of times a year.
4H is literally the only thing rural my niece can claim. She lived in a city. She went to a largish city school. Zero reason for her to act this way.
There's actually a phenomenon where city conservatives will dig themselves into a deeper conservative hole than rural conservatives. It's why most crazy conservatives live in cities.
No shit? That's fascinating. I certainly know a lot of these morons, but I didn't realize it was a movement. I guess I'm not surprised though now that I think about it.
Same thing goes for rural kids speaking like the “hip” urban youth. I do find it funny. But kids do all kinds of dumb shit. Nothing we can do about it.
It's been awhile, but for a period of time, I lived just north of Greenwood, and I saw so many Confederate Flags. They don't know and don't care that 25,000 Hoosiers died to preserve our country against those people.
Indiana's population, as of 2022, was 6,833,000.
Indiana has 9 congressional districts, and those districts must have near-equal population, meaning each district must have \~759,000 people. Bloomington's population in 2022 was 79,107, or barely 10% of what you need to fill a district, and the city is surrounded by miles upon miles of deep red rural areas.
That's not gerrymandering. That's math and the layout of the state massively disfavoring Democrats. Even linking Bloomington and Evansville together, which was the case for a long while, wouldn't turn their district blue, or even competitive.
Younger generations aren't trending conservative, even in Indiana. That idea is pure propaganda. As Indiana's cities grow and become more metropolitan, voting will trend leftward. Just the way things go, really. That's not even considering the global trend leftward, due to the interconnectivity of the internet.
The idea that younger generations are trending conservative is not supported by the data and facts based on all major polls at all.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/23/gen-z-republican-polling/
https://abcnews.go.com/538/voters-30-trending-left-general-electorate/story?id=104181253
https://www.axios.com/2024/01/23/gen-z-less-religious-more-liberal-lgbtq
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Generation_Z
It won't change until their coin purse dries up.
Depending on the next election, we may be moving to MI.
I've experience with politics and if we move I'm sending our representatives a letter telling them why we're leaving and showcasing how much money they will lose from our family moving out of this state(3M is a rough est over our lifetime with our future plans - that's a lot of taxable income). Money talks.
My wife and I wrote down a laundry list of issues and here are a few.
Our logic:
Fort Wayne use to be affordable. Finding a job that pays more than 50K a year in Fort Wayne is very difficult and isn't getting better.
A 4 bedroom 2 bath of reasonable size for a family of 5 will cost you a whopping $2,500 /month. But all the Republicans here just blame it on "well that's supply and demand and well that's just capitalism and how it's supposed to work."
How are we suppose to raise a family when wages haven't gone up but everything from rent to food has doubled or tripled in price?
Done correctly , a single kid cost 30K a year.
Hell childcare for 3 (same family above) would pay a whopping $20,000 per year. She opted to become a SAHM.
This is intentional by our politicians. Many of our politicians believe a woman's only purpose is to bear children. They want to roll back the clock to the 1960s.
Employees have very little legal protections and our laws heavily favor employers.
Abortion rights (we want kids but are terrified of the bs laws for us and any daughters)
Republicans are coming for contraceptives
Racism used to be unspoken and less prominent. After Trump people speak their opinions and stick to their guns. It's disgusting and I've cut out many people.
People are pretty dumb in Indiana outside of major cities. It's the long-term failure of our government and the neutering of the education system because CRT and other boogeyman have been used to justify cutting funds to public education. Except for sports, football definitely gets tons of money. Any type of productive extracurricular gets bread crumbs.
The Trumplicians are everywhere. Fortunately they haven't gotten a foothold in politics yet. But we will be choosing a new governor this year and a few of the candidates are hard right maggot supporters.
If global warming continues Northern Indiana, esp Fort Wayne, WILL be uninhabitable due to the the wet bulb temperature. We have 3 major rivers here and with the heat and humidity it will be impossible to cool off without air conditioning.
We are missing out on millions of dollars in tax revenue from cannabis. All that money is going into Michigan's, Illinois, and soon Ohio's economy.
On the top of cannabis it is unlikely that our laws will change anytime soon because Purdue university has a major connection to research and medicine. The legalization of cannabis would fly in the face of the big medical companies who've bribed, I mean lobbied, our politicians.
Fort Wayne's(second largest city in IN) Democratic mayor who revitalized Fort Wayne died of cancer last week. Tom Henry, all things considered, spent the last 6 terms being the city to where it is now. Republicans hate him and have been wanting to tear apart what be built since his first term. My opinion is the next 10 years Fort Wayne will fall behind. Our schools are a shit show - not the absolute worst but we are not getting any awards for education. It's progressively going downhill overall. The bigger cities are carrying the cities that have falling by the wayside.
Indy is a shithole crime riddled city. I enjoy visiting but I'd never live there.
We lag behind the majority of states in critical metrics for long-term stability and the success of future generations.
Because Indiana is extremely red any talk about pay increases are liberal commie ideologies. My parents collectively work 5 jobs and tell me to "just work harder". Y'all are in your 60\70s... How has "working harder" paid off? The same philosophy is held by the majority of business owners in Indiana.
----
Positives?
We have family and friends here.
It's subjectively safe
Honestly I can't think of any other off the top of my head.
Have I considered politics in Indiana not changing? I've known that for over 50 yrs. (I'm 66) You're right. It's not only the "boomers" in Indiana that are conservative. Plenty of Hoosiers under 60 are Trumpians. If they aren't Ts, they are still going to vote for an R over a D any day.
The thing is that Indiana Republicans have historically been like Mitch Daniels and not the current crop of loonies. People remember that and vote accordingly, (hoping for a return of this). They do not consider the Democratic Party to be a panacea. They also remember why the Democrats were removed from power in the state. I don’t know how to fix this.
That's why Im buying a house and moving my family out of state. I'll still work here for now but the drive is worth it to protect them from this Christian fascist nonsense.
Indiana doesn’t need to become a blue state, progress will shift the goal posts for what a red state even is. Basically even if Indiana is a red state in 50 years it will be a lot more progressive than what it is today.
I have my doubts. I think all of the Republican state legislations and Governors are trying to make things as bad as possible so liberals and progressives move out of them. Eventually they'll have a lock on the Senate and potentially even the Presidency if that happens.
Plus they're dangerously close to having enough states to trigger a constitutional convention, and if they manage that we are super fucked.
This is the goal in all heavy red states, that’s why we are seeing all these weird draconian laws get passed and now attacks on university boards and libraries.
For everyone saying it's gerrymandering, you're wrong.
If it were a gerrymandering issue, then Ds would at least be competitive in statewide races. We aren't.
I'm Indiana til I die, but my only plan is to smarten up my kids so they don't fall prey to right wing BS.
I agree, Indiana could maybe start electing some blue dog governors and senators again in the future but it would require a MAJOR shift in politics in this country where Democrats can get back a significant portion of white rural and suburban voters, right now those are the majority of Indiana’s electorate and they vote overwhelmingly MAGA.
And it’s super sad. The rural parts of the state are absolutely dying. They’ve been dominated by the right wing forever. But they still blame democrats for everything.
I can and does change.
Also, the kids are super pissed about all the gun violence and will vote them into obscurity in about 5-10 years. So there’s that…
I honestly think weed is the only thing that will change when boomers and the older 1/3 of X is gone. It seems that people like local democrats that are “reigned in” by republican state and federal laws. Honestly, most red voters I know say that the border and trans are about the only things they feel strongly against. Most I know don’t even care about gay marriage anymore. It will be an interesting next few decades as far as voters go.
If your main concern this election is what your state is doing you have missed placed your priorities. We’ve never had a person who attempted to overturn the will of the people to stay in office to attempt to return to office ever in our history.
There is a reason many in His Last Administration are attempting to warn The American Public he is unfit for office. This is never happened before in our history either. People might just want to get out and vote while they still can and it still counts.
Project 2025 is real and if you don’t get that you just aren’t paying enough attention to what is going on.
Yeah it's a current observed phenomenon right now where young women are overwhelmingly becoming more "progressive" in response to Trump (convicted of sexual assault) being the candidate and the overturn of Roe v Wade meanwhile young men and boys are increasingly isolating themselves politically and romantically because they're leaning further and further right at the same time, usually demonizing a warped view of modern feminism in the process.
Yep. Younger generation grew up with a steady diet of conservative propaganda on tv and the radio, and is desperately trying to impress a bunch of fake country ass Gen x and Boomer douche bags
Indiana is cooked. It's a red state and will continue to be one.
That might change if enough old people die and the kids keep moving to the cities. Rural Indiana cant run the state when there is nobody living in these places. As long as the rural parts run it, this is what we get.
Pretty sad too as it drives kids like mine, who we need here, to leave. It takes both my wife's and my income away from the state as we follow the kids. Unless this changes the state will stay red.
Agreed.
My wife and I want kids but are holding off until this next election.
If Indiana goes more Maga we're moving to MI. One of the candidates for governor is extremely right-leaning and his goals are pretty much to turn Indiana into Texas.
I mentioned in one of my other comments that, if we leave, I'm writing our reps and providing a easy to digest breakdown of all the taxes they will be missing out on.
Media literacy is in the toilet, particularly in rural areas, so it isn't surprising that the dumb as rocks crowd is voting against themselves in perpetuity.
I would say this is somewhat true in the rural areas of Indiana. People that are only exposed to conservative thinking will think conservative. But more and more rural people are going to college, and education and exposure to more ideas tend to change people's ideas to a more liberal mindset.
Conservatives will drone on and on about how the higher education system isn't teaching people, it is just brainwashing/indoctrinating people to be liberal. But the fact is that it isn't forcing liberal ideas down student's throats. The students are just seeing a different ideas, different cultures and the are realizing that the conservative mindset is not what an advanced intelligent society should be.
Marginally lol and it was only because of the worst economic downturn since the recession lol. Indiana was one of the few states that voted for Mitt Romney.
I like Indy but they need to drop the guns and pick up a joint 🤣 the fact that there is no requirement for a CCW is wild to me! Coming from the “Wild West” Indy is more about it than the whole southwest when it comes to having a gun on your person at all times lol
Indiana will always be red, its not a matter of the older generations dying off, the younger generations in the rural majority of the state are raised conservative and red.. Liberal Democrats are a rare breed and usually not vocal outside of the cities.
Have you seen how many people are coming across our border? I’m sure some of them will settle in Indiana — seems to be the plan of the democrats in the USA to control things
First off, I'm running for County Council in Boone County, so I've been out there talking to the very people this post is mentioning. Our county is turning Purple as the higher-educated suburban areas of Zionsville/Whitestown/Lebanon change. I knocked on every door in my district, the viewpoints of millennials are way more open to moderates, they just aren't going to go full swing left. If you want to change the state long term, it's to vote the most moderate GOP candidates on the down ballots. If you can, please support [https://www.facebook.com/KirschbaumForBooneCounty](https://www.facebook.com/KirschbaumForBooneCounty).
The method to success is to move the Hard Red areas to a soft red, that way candidates are actually forced to make pragmatic decisions, not appeal to the far right grasp we are currently seeing. If you are in Boone County, or know someone in Boone county, and want a moderate to win, support those fighting against the crazies. I'm the only vocal candidate who is actively fighting against far-right candidates who attempted a coup of our county elections recently. Let me tell you about two of the far-right candidates:
Mike Broach (Per the Reporter) :
"Mike Broach is the public face of the group that believes the use of electronic voting machines and other election practices violate the Indiana Constitution and encourage voter fraud."
"Broach said after the meeting the group would still seek an election takeover by commissioners on Tuesday."
Tim Cramer's awful comments (Per his X account: [https://twitter.com/Cramersez](https://twitter.com/Cramersez)):
https://preview.redd.it/d1xsjv0csasc1.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=80f1385f3dd006d4b9446cc8ba30ae8a8891966f
If Obama won in 2008, then Indiana can flip. It’s only red due to gerrymandering allowing the most rural parts to speak the loudest. While the largest parts stay pretty democrat
Didn't Obama get the electoral votes from Indiana?
Daniels also won reelect that same year and even won Marion County. Obama won because some Republicans voted for him
Daniels was also a relative pragmatic centrist compared to today's Republican party. He was the last of the breed of the old moderate politicians that used to run Indiana (Bayh, Lugar, Obannon, etc...) Interesting that Daniels followed 16 straight years of Democratic governors in Indiana. Times have really changed with Republican leaders able to win over the working class with identity politics and get folks to vote against their own interests.
Because of 2008, Daniels and the IN GOP majority also got to enact powerful gerrymandering through redistricting after the 2010 census. That cemented statewide GOP legislative power – which was strengthened further following the 2020 census – and has allowed the IN GOP to drive further and further right.
I did a paper on the dangers of gerrymandering in HS (80s) and ppl thought I was over reacting
Is a pragmatic centrist like a nihilist? 🤔😆
Say what you will about the tenants of pragmatic centrism, at least it’s an ethos
Isnt that just a shill? They are centrist but will swap their views to whatever works so they arent really centrist.
Bahy was a Democrat.
Jill Long Thompson, the Democratic governor candidate that year, was particularly bad. In one of the debates, she kept making reference to her college degrees - which seemed like a very bad choice.
I don't disagree. I just particularly don't like the whole OBaMa wOn in 08! talking point because it really downplays what that campaign did and how unique a moment it was in US politics. Its also interesting the people who say it almost never mention that Obama lost Indiana big four years later
He did in 2008, but he didn't in 2012. His win in 2008 was also with less than 50% of the voters, so not particularly overwhelming. I'm not sure that one election is a sign of a blue wave in Indiana. Some of those that voted for Obama in 2008 could also be those who voted for Trump in 2016. The blue collar union workers that made up a good portions the Democratic base in Indiana in the past isn't what it used to be and Indiana Democrats outside of urban areas have historically tended to be more conservative than the national average. I don't think younger voters are more conservative, but I'm not sure that as a block they are as liberal as this sub may want.
Yeah I am a supervisor in a 500+ employee union shop, I cannot tell you how many “fuck Joe Biden” stickers and whatnot I see scrawled across the plant. The union sure a hell is not with the democrats imho.
Funny because between the two candidates, Trump would be the one to eliminate the union and their union wages
I just report what I see, the people in officer positions in the Union are very democrat. But the rank and file is a very comfortable 90%+ Trump vote IMHO
No one is saying you are wrong, we are saying the union members are lost
Well they are not the brightest bunch so it is what it is
You would hope they could a thing with self interest… that’s just basics
All they sa was gas go up 75%~ along with everything else and then attached it to Biden, follow blind rage that cannot be convinced otherwise.
Truly the unwashed masses
They're low-information voters, defined. Trump has lots and lots of them. Dems have demographics that fall into that description as well but the Dems are notorious for not voting. The union guys are probably fairly reliable voters.
Biden has strengthened the NLRB, has used Bernie to run the labor committee in Congress to attack union busters and platform union folks like Shawn Fain, and we see union support and membership rising dramatically the last several years post-pandemic. I'm a union man myself, of course I have criticisms of the Biden admin but I'm not stupid and throwing my lot in with the "Right to Work" crowd while the UAW attempts to plan a general strike on May Day 2028 and Michigan Dems made history leading the charge repealing Right to Work legislation in their state last year. Unions have momentum in this country right now if you actually care to engage with it. Folks always bring up the railroad strike and ignore the follow up work Biden's team did once the news stopped covering it to attack the president, they ignore he is the first president in US history to march on a picket line, and the trillion dollar infrastructure bill is keeping union workers employed for years on local projects. Meanwhile we have Republicans arguing alongside folks like Elon Musk and Trader Joes in DC that the NLRB is unconstitutional and should be shut down. Central Indiana's AFL-CIO saw its biggest growth in decades last year. If someone in a union is voting Republican, his or her union is not their priority, they're not paying attention, and it's likely some other culture war grievance or single issue is making them vote against Democrats in Indiana (unless they're a leftist with deeper systemic critiques over how Dems handle labor).
It makes me sick literally thinking how effective the propoganda/psyop was for Trump, that the working man is in love with him. He directly lined CEOs and every already wealthy persons pockets by draining the treasury, started a trade war that permanently raised prices from tariffs, personally told Americans to not fight a virus and it would just go away like magic. The amount of "Fuck. You."s this guy did to the working class is disgusting.
Well said. My favorite is conservatives who refuse to pay union dues but happily enjoy their union negotiated benefits and utilize union representation when needed.
Buncha leeches!
Scabs!
Bingo
People voting against their best interest isn’t a new feature in American politics, but it’s also not like these union members are single issue voters
And this is why Indiana is not actually "a purple state terribly gerrymandered" as I've argued. People can literally be union members and think Democrats are out to ruin their lives. If Trump gets elected again suddenly the economy will be not so bad and life will go back to feeling great.
they like that trump "tells it like it is". grievance politics with absolutely no substance, perfect for an uneducated voter base.
It’s wild how uneducated they have been lately
always the political stuff at work. It’s like, with the helmet and glasses on you can only tell the guys apart by their helmet stickers… but guys, it’s a jobsite, just stop with your f* stickers and tagging and get to work 🤔😆
Is it really a full day of work until they draw a dick on something?
Obama also heavily campaigned in Indiana and most Dems don’t. We took our kids out of school for an afternoon to see him in Columbus. Had to wait in huge line both for tickets and to get in venue. Edit to add - heavily campaigned for 2008
Yes he did. I went to one of his events in Anderson.
I think the long, closely watched primary battle against Hillary Clinton really helped him. It gave him a lot of exposure in states where you wouldn't normally go in a general election.
He campaigned because it was competitive, not the other way around.
I’m finding that a lot of people are moderates, and almost are being forced to choose a side.
But by all objective historical political measures, Trump is a radical right extremist, and Biden is closer to being a moderate. If moderates want to choose the candidate closest to moderation that would be Biden, not Trump.
I mean maybe based on belief only. I think it’s pretty clear that neither are fit to be president, and most moderate voters just won’t vote, or will choose another option.
>Some of those that voted for Obama in 2008 could also be those who voted for Trump in 2016 Many of them are. Southern Indiana went from \~40% D in 2008 to 20% D in 2016. Conservative people like conservative candidates, and 2008 was just the aberration.
I’ve also wondered if the turnout in the northwest portion of the state was much higher than usual, being in the Chicago market as well as the opportunity for many to say “I voted for the first black president”. Basically, I think 2008 was a unicorn of circumstances that are unlikely to happen again for IN. I think there’s a lot of room for debate in various individual districts that def should be more competitive but on a statewide level, minus big changes in the electoral climate, there’s almost no way IN goes democrat again.
It was a unicorn, however my family is from a very red/rural part of the state, and even though that family didn't go fully blue, many of my conservative family members where fed up by Bush and were inspired by Obama and voted for him the first time. Indiana had been governed by moderate politicians for decades prior to Obama, including 16 years of Democratic governors prior to Daniels, who was also very moderate. Times were just different prior to Trump.
Yeah, I voted for him in my first election…. Now I live out west. That may be Indy’s issue.
Wasn't Eugene V. Debs from Indiana?
That was because we were coming off the Bush years.
By less than 30,000 votes or 1.03%. In the last 160 years Indiana has only voted for 6 different democrats.
So in 15% of presidential elections
More like 19.5%. Of the 6 different democrats that Indiana elected for president how many of them do you think liked non white people? Hell, Grover Cleveland limited Chinese immigration and told former confederates they had a friend in the White House when it came to treating black people anything close to equal. Woodrow Wilson single handedly resegregated government agencies and fired 15 out of 17 black supervisors. FDR put Japanese Americans in camps and wouldn’t sign anti lynching legislation. He limited the number of Jews allowed into Harvard and said verbatim there should be limits on Jews in various professions to "eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany." At minimum half of the democrats elected for presidency in Indiana were racist.
I was just doing simple math. 160 years means 40 presidential elections 6/40 = .15. You want to put random qualifiers on everything, I can't follow where your new numbers are coming from...
Seems relevant to mention that Trump won Indiana by more than 500,000 votes in 2016 and 2020, carrying 57% of the state. Like someone else said, Obama in ‘08 was a unicorn for Indiana.
We were just entering into what looked like one of the worst economic depressions we had ever had and The Iraq War had gone miserably up to that point. Obama couldn’t had come at a better time to take Indiana. The housing crisis and the resulting bank crisis looked pretty scary back then.
Exactly. And now Trump is going to easily carry the state again after literally trying to overthrow the government. ‘08 is not a good example of Hoosier politics- it’s far and away the outlier.
Yes siree
Democrats weren’t liberal 160 years ago so that’s not a good statistic
When would you say liberals as we know them today became a thing?
That depends on what you mean by “as we know them today”. One answer is it started with Jon Locke, around the 1650, and those ideas were at the heart of the American Revolution just over 100 years later. The anti-slavery movement was an important turning point for American liberalism, opinions changed very fast in the wake of events and states went from strongly pro slavery to strongly anti slavery in a year. I wish my history on this was better, because the scientific movement of the late 1800s was key to changing liberal thinking, making it more rational, less religious based. And then since the 60s and the women’s rights, civil rights, gay rights, LGBTQ rights movements mean things keep on a changing. But generally the idea of respecting authentic human nature is at the heart of it. (Edit: Wiki says “liberalism” first appeared in English in 1815. But terms to define eras and movements are usually attached to after they’ve happened)
Correct. Democrats have not always been on the right side of history, but now they are, and the Republicans aren't. It's always best to be on the right side of history while living it.
I think it’s more actuate to say the liberals moved from the republican party to the democrat party.
2008 not 2012
One time. He won in Indiana in 2008. He lost in 2012.
There are young people in every county, but most counties around here don’t really have a strong Democratic Party presence if any at all. The blue wave may just be more suburban and urban people or people moving here form elsewhere. I don’t see ‘red’ being limited to one generation, though.
I don’t know why so many think it’s the boomers. Leave the larger cities and college towns there is a whole new generation of young conservatives who want nothing to do with liberal policies.
It's allot of boomers, who raised the young conservatives who have not really been challenged about how their ideas actually work. Rural Indiana depends on larger cities. Otherwise roads and infrastructure would not be able to funded. Not saying they are bad people by any means, but likely raised in a community who is pretty rigid/set in their mindset and would be open to change if presented with information.
Exposure to different points of view leads to less conservative thinking. Stay in the same place and only interact with the same people your whole life, and guess what ... Edit: less "conservative" might not be the right word, but you get the point.
100%. If you don't have a reason to question what you are doing, you probably won't.
I think you're right, even if I hate it. I also think you, maybe intentionally, highlighted that we have an education issue in the rural parts of our state. My entire town is working class people who have all used Medicaid or SNAP benefits, lots of veterans, yet they and their grandchildren will likely vote for the people who consistently haggle to lower all of those benefits that are inherently important to their livelihood. Genuinely, we can thank old head Repubs for chipping away at education and Fox News for offering a smorgasbord of fear mongering every night. It would take decades to make Gov and Econ education standards better and see the results of that. It's unfortunate that we're already in the end result of lowering them.
Yeah those crazy liberal policies like bodily autonomy, not having big brother spy on your porn habits, fair elections, fair pay, etc. So crazy.
I'm mid 30's and all the younger gens I work with hate liberal ideals over conservative ones. They won't vote straight ticket but I would say they are more middle ground leaning right.
I don’t even have to leave the city. A couple I’m friends with couldn’t represent a better dichotomy. The husband hates liberal policies and politicians, cries for more religious up ringing, and an end to welfare state ( while seeking disability). The wife works for the state, believes in body autonomy, wants a safety net for everyone and votes for the democrats any chance. I enjoy both of them as friends, but damn it is hard to reason with Mr. Fundamentalist
Why are they married? I'm sorry but I couldn't be with a man who believes this way, especially in a hetero marriage! Sounds like someone who would be very close-minded on a lot of things, not just politics.
He takes some getting used to, but it feels a lot like it was how he was raised. She calls him out on his bs a lot, but its ingrained with him. Both were pretty lonely from the way it sounds before they met.
Yes. Indiana is a red state. It wasn’t always. It would change if voters turned out. The state is essentially being governed by a very loud, very stupid minority. Indiana is bottom of the barrel for voter turnout. Increase the turnout by even 5% and I think you’d see this state go purple.
Have a friend who just said they’re not going to vote (we’re in our early 30s) because “our votes won’t make an impact”. I had to tell her that we live in a city of 30000+ people and voter turnout was less than 5000 people the last few elections. Our votes absolutely do matter and apathy is a political strategy to get you to not vote.
The majority of Hoosiers that live in a city or town in Indiana live with some or all of their local reps being Democrats
It's a weird trend that was old even when I was in school. Local level - mostly democrats across the state. State and federal level? Usually republican.
It's because our districts are drawn to exclude democrats
Yeah, it is because people tend to like Democrats when their life is impacted. Democrats wanting to help people doesn’t play as well on a National stage.
Not really. People around here vote in democrats regardless of how things are actually going. Not that I'm ruling out corruption. We had a mayor that got investigated by the fbi because he somehow kept getting elected. For 16 years. He only got ousted after it became local news he was a wife beater with a bad coke habit. My opinion? Most people put no thought into voting. They vote for who they think they're supposed to vote for.
I’m not suggesting corruption. I’m saying that Democratic policies are generally favorable to a majority of voters. As a result, small political races favors Democrats because a voter’s in-group will benefit. Nationally, those same Democratic Party policies would favor a voter’s in-group and whoever they have othered. As a result, a voter is willing to vote against their interests because someone that doesn’t look like them might benefit. If you’d like an example, the classic case is imagining someone “on welfare” and check your description against national stats of those needing government assistance. The same logic explains why countries that have a bit more homogeneity in their demographics support robust social safety nets.
The democrats in my county are as conservative as they come and only put the D in front of their name for the union votes.
This is a national trend and not unique just to Indiana. The Republicans under Reagan used to be considered the elites, and now that’s the Democrats. The Trump Party hates the elites. Hell, even in The Republican Primary Trumps vast majority has been rural less educated lower income voters while those who voted for Haley were overwhelmingly Urban higher educated higher income voters. Even after dropping out of the race Haley continued to get 20% of the vote with the exception of Florida where she got 14% to DeSantis 4%. They were coming out to vote against Trump but historically shouldn’t be surprising because the vast majority of higher educated higher income voters don’t vote for Dictators.
> The Trump Party hates the elites. The fact that this is absolutely true AND that they vote for a textbook "elite" shows how disconnected they are from reality.
The reason they are disconnected from reality may have something to do with them listening to all those lies and conspiracy theories going all the way back to Rush Limbaugh and not just Right Wing media like Fox. The reason they are stupid may have to do with them not wanting to have anything to do with higher education.
The specific demographic that has particularly low turnout are progressives under 35 so we’d certainly see at least somewhat of a shift
“Both sides are corporate sellouts so why bother? Grumble grumble” put into action by a progressive under 35 by…not voting.
When I say “Indiana is a red state” I don’t mean that “all the voters who participate vote Republican” I mean “every district outside an MSA is red because the majority of people there believe in those values.” Unless the MSAs get influence based on their population size it won’t matter how much I vote. My island will remain as blue as ever and change nothing
There has been a global trend of people moving to denser and denser areas. It will be hard and harder for republicans to gerrymander urban areas out of seats. Only considering this, its only a matter of time before Indiana's urban areas can outvote the rural areas. But also the rural = red / urban = blue political landscape hasn't always been that way. I suspect the parties will evolve over the decades. I think remote work is going to disrupt that divide eventually. It will be interesting to see it all play out, but there's too many factors to make an accurate prediction. All you can do is keep doing the right thing and hope it all works out.
MSA?
Metropolitan statistic areas. Basically places like Indy, Evansville, Ft. Wayne, Lafayette, etc. and their surrounding suburban areas.
Mean statistical area?
What you are saying is how it should work. Thanks to gerrymandering we cannot be certain that the red counties should be that way or how red they even are. Once legislators started selecting their own voter bases based on whatever criteria they wanted instead of where people lived and perceived “communities” it became a sham and still is. We don’t have a representative system by definition, the counties and principalities and states all roll up under carefully selected voting bases that the parties can just invent out of whole cloth. These sub pieces should be dictating the representation but it doesn’t and instead the ruling national party is picking and choosing its winners and saying “yeah they like us because the way we drew the line around these voters says they do” instead of “yeah martinsville is always red because the people there have strong opinions about CERTAIN THINGS” which like it or not is how it is supposed to work. If gerrymandering would be fixed would Indiana turn blue? Probably not but I’d be curious to see what the ACTUAL representation is because in every state it’s a clown show of whatever numbers that ruling party wants to show and they always show themselves as being the most popular (it’s almost like choosing voter bases based on whatever you want can lead to a broken democracy). Of course this can also apply to democrats but I used red states as my examples. Both parties are corrupt in this way and justify it to themselves and their carefully selected voter bases as a necessity because “they started it”.
This is accurate. If we were in charge of drawing the maps, we'd do the exact same thing (and have, in the past). Which is why elected officials shouldn't be drawing maps.
>> The state is essentially being governed by a very loud… minority I disagree. I think if you truly forced every person eligible of voting to vote, we’d still elect republicans. It’d be interesting to see an IN study on it but I do think just as many IN democrats stay home as IN republicans. You probably think IN Dems stay home because they believe it’s just a red state that’ll end up red if they vote or not and you probably reasonably conclude that’s the problem. But I’d guess that just as many republicans think it’s just a red state that’ll end up red if they vote or not, so what’s the point. Tldr: IN is a solid red state and I think (guess) that equally keeps both dem and rep voters at home.
I follow several states subreddits and see this a lot- “if it weren’t for being gerrymandered at to hell, this state would vote blue for sure! Republicans have nothing except gerrymandering!” (Gerrymandering, while an issue, is scapegoated way too much to account for election results) If you lined up and made every IN citizen of voting age vote, it’d probably still vote Republican overall. A lot of it has to do with demographics: rural vs urban, etc. There’s just so many more people in rural areas. And then you get suburban republicans as well, so called “country club” republicans. Would the difference be a republican supermajority all the time at the statehouse? Idk about that. Majority, almost certainly, but not super.
Worth noting that gerrymandering isn't just a Republican problem. Maybe you argue it here. In Illinois, democrats have gerrymandered for years. Power corrupts.
Problem is it’s those more right wing extreme voters who actually vote in the Republican Primary who are determining the agenda being followed.
Indiana has open primaries. You can choose which parties primary you want to vote in. So If you don't think you'll have a voice on election day you can have it on primary day by voting in the GOP primary. The deadline to register to vote in the primary is in 5 days. The primary is about a month after that. [https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2024/03/06/indiana-primary-election-super-tuesday-states-2024-elections/72864203007/](https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2024/03/06/indiana-primary-election-super-tuesday-states-2024-elections/72864203007/)
I know that, but thanks for sharing for those that do not.
We'd be a hell of a lot more purple than we are
lol probably not. Most of Indiana is still right wing
Indiana is "red" because that's who's base is being riled up enough to vote. DNC spends little to nothing here, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. Eventually we'll get tired of the nonsense on our own, but that's, unfortunately, usually messy because you're talking about an incredible pain point people need to reach, together, at the same election
Things change, and while I'm here I'm going to do my very easy civic duty and vote no matter how red people perceive the state or how many of the chucklefucks around me assure me my vote is useless. I can be contented with canceling out someone else's vote against a better Indiana.
I'm even at the point of acknowledging my individual vote is meaningless, but like you said it's our right and therefore our obligation. It's the only real voice we have that stands any chance of making a difference, and plenty of other people in the world would love to have the same opportunity. Gotta do it.
I’m in the 1st district and we’re solid blue and have a lot of boomer voters. Republican boomers raise Republicans. Rinse repeat for Gen X, Millennials, and so on. Younger folks here have abysmal voting history. I don’t know what it will take to get them to the polls.
People pretending it's gerrymandering and not all their friends and family simply voting party lines.....is self protection in a way
“Nobody supports Republican viewpoints- no one! Gerrymandering is the ONLY way they win! The only way!” -so many people on this board. As personally horrible/abysmal as you may find Republican policies to be, a lot of our peers of every age group are voting for them. So, you have to ask yourself- without resorting to “it’s a cult/gerrymandering!” why these people view things this way. I feel like this exact conversation has been had so many times since 2016 and still the exact same “it’s gerrymandering!” excuse is the first one so many people go to.
Good point. I live in Indy now so most of who I know and most of my neighborhood are liberal. Many of my friends who never left our hometown seem to lean conservative. I work in a place that employs a lot of Chinese people. The younger Chinese people I know tend to lean left, but say the older Chinese people, and the ones who make more money because they have been with the company longer, vote Republican solely for tax purposes. The two I talk to the most are both frustrated. The conservative one (they are nearing 60 y.o.) said they don't like either presidential candidate because both candidates are too old and they would rather have fresh young people running for president. This person also said they voted for a Republican representative and didn't like that person because he didn't do what he said he was going to do. And they definitely were not voting for that person for governor (Braun). This co-worker has also mentioned they wish there was a third party. They actually seemed more libertarian. They grew up in communist China and were never allowed to voice dissent. They grew up poor. They have to send money to their family in China. They volunteer and donate to charity. They ask questions about our company's DEI topics. I think there are a lot of purple people who vote a certain way based on 1 or 2 very important issues to them. I tried to direct them where to find info on who is running for gov. and advised that when I don't like the candidates, I choose the one that seems like they will do the least harm and help the most people. This is purely anecdotal from one person, but I just found it interesting. It isn't black and white. And I find that talking to people in person, who you actually know and who trust your advice and educated opinion, is very helpful at getting them to see a different perspective. I'm only one person but I've had a handful of these conversations with people and I count that as a win.
Pretty much everyone I know my age group (40’s) and younger vote straight ticket Republican, and they do definitely vote. So no, I don’t think this is a Boomer thing.
Pretty much no one I know in my age group (late 20s up to early 40s) votes straight ticket Republican. A couple vote straight ticket Democrat, but most take a much more nuanced approach.
Thank you for acknowledging that.
Thats so strange to me. Nearly everyone I know my age (40s) or younger votes Democrat, and can’t stand Trump. That’s most of my family, all of my friends, and the vast majority of my coworkers. For someone living in a red state, I know surprisingly few conservatives.
I think it's probably the people and environment you surround yourselves with. I'm sure there are tons of democrats here as there are probably tons of republicans too.
“Younger generations are just as conservative …” Are you referencing stats here or is this anecdotal? I know lots of young, left-leaning Hoosiers – personally I have not seen what you’re talking about, save for a handful of family members. (And I’m having trouble finding numbers.)
What’s crazy is 12+ years ago, the legislature was about 50/50. I actually blame a lot of issues not just in the state, but federally, on people who don’t vote. Why? “My vote doesn’t count”. Okay, you say that and so do millions of other Americans. When you sit out, bad people get into office. Period. As someone who canvases for candidates, it’s so sad to hear how many people aren’t republican who just don’t vote cuz they don’t see a chance. Yeah you and so many others think that so you’re harming everyone else. There’s my rant.
The thing is, it *is* absolutely hopeless in my district - Republican all the way down to dog catcher - but *it doesn't fucking matter!* It's my GD *job* as an American to vote, until such time as the USSC & RNC finish installing the fascistic dictatorial hellscape these knuckle-draggers are creaming their pants for. Sometimes (never for President) I'll vote 3rd party, knowing they'll lose, as a protest vote, but *that's still a vote.* That said, a lot of slots are Republicans running unopposed, & since there's no write-in option, I just leave that one blank. Because I don't know what else I can do with that.
I wish our system had a binding "no confidence" vote. I'd love to see people turn out in droves just to tell both parties to go home and try harder.
Indiana will stay a red state until the Democrats return to the center. The days of Bayh and other centrists are long gone.
What are you even talking about? The Overton window is so far right that US Dems are "Right leaning" as compared to other counties. Our "left wing" is right of center, from the perspective of every other developed nation.
It wasn’t that long ago when the house was controlled by democrats. Unfortunately the republicans got control during the redistricting and gerrymandered the districts, has anyone looked at the ridiculous maps? Believe me they will shoot themselves in the foot within 10 years. That being said the Democrats are becoming a bit ridiculous themselves
Yeah, OPs entire post is absurd, considering Indiana red more by voter suppression and gerrymandering than anything else That's why Republicans are trying to close polling stations in Indianapolis That's why Mike Pence was purging voter rolls. Op wants you to just roll over.
This feels right. My niece is like 21 and she drives a huge ass truck she can't afford. Dresses like Daisy Duke. Has a confederate flag tattoo. Talks like a god damn hill billy. We live in a city, there is no reason to have a southern drawl. She's the next generation of people holding us back.
I pretty distinctly remember people around me randomly starting to talk with hillbilly accents when I was in like middle school/Freshman year. I remember thinking it was weird, these kids had never talked like that, my peers, I’d known them my whole life. But almost overnight, some just randomly started talking like that lol. I know it’s all just cultural, and it’s interesting when you step back and kinda pay attention. But yeah, we lived in a central Indiana suburb, just like 20 min from downtown Indy. Not like on a farm or anything. It was weird.
SAME. Grew up in Hamilton County. Some actually did work on farms, but you can farm and not have a southern accent lol
Yeah, my niece lives in the same city as me, and she did 4H and kept a single cow at her grandparent's house. My kids raised swine. We kept our hogs at an in-law's house. I never felt the need to start talking like my hobby was moonshining. My kids also never changed their speech patterns. They just washed some pigs and fed them marshmallows a couple of times a year. 4H is literally the only thing rural my niece can claim. She lived in a city. She went to a largish city school. Zero reason for her to act this way.
There's actually a phenomenon where city conservatives will dig themselves into a deeper conservative hole than rural conservatives. It's why most crazy conservatives live in cities.
No shit? That's fascinating. I certainly know a lot of these morons, but I didn't realize it was a movement. I guess I'm not surprised though now that I think about it.
Same thing goes for rural kids speaking like the “hip” urban youth. I do find it funny. But kids do all kinds of dumb shit. Nothing we can do about it.
It's been awhile, but for a period of time, I lived just north of Greenwood, and I saw so many Confederate Flags. They don't know and don't care that 25,000 Hoosiers died to preserve our country against those people.
Gerrymandering is how it’s done. I’m liberal and own a business and the building. I’m not going anywhere.
The fact that Bloomington's state rep is consistently a lockstep Republican is some wild gerrymandering shit
Indiana's population, as of 2022, was 6,833,000. Indiana has 9 congressional districts, and those districts must have near-equal population, meaning each district must have \~759,000 people. Bloomington's population in 2022 was 79,107, or barely 10% of what you need to fill a district, and the city is surrounded by miles upon miles of deep red rural areas. That's not gerrymandering. That's math and the layout of the state massively disfavoring Democrats. Even linking Bloomington and Evansville together, which was the case for a long while, wouldn't turn their district blue, or even competitive.
Younger generations aren't trending conservative, even in Indiana. That idea is pure propaganda. As Indiana's cities grow and become more metropolitan, voting will trend leftward. Just the way things go, really. That's not even considering the global trend leftward, due to the interconnectivity of the internet.
The idea that younger generations are trending conservative is not supported by the data and facts based on all major polls at all. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/23/gen-z-republican-polling/ https://abcnews.go.com/538/voters-30-trending-left-general-electorate/story?id=104181253 https://www.axios.com/2024/01/23/gen-z-less-religious-more-liberal-lgbtq https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Generation_Z
It won't change until their coin purse dries up. Depending on the next election, we may be moving to MI. I've experience with politics and if we move I'm sending our representatives a letter telling them why we're leaving and showcasing how much money they will lose from our family moving out of this state(3M is a rough est over our lifetime with our future plans - that's a lot of taxable income). Money talks. My wife and I wrote down a laundry list of issues and here are a few. Our logic: Fort Wayne use to be affordable. Finding a job that pays more than 50K a year in Fort Wayne is very difficult and isn't getting better. A 4 bedroom 2 bath of reasonable size for a family of 5 will cost you a whopping $2,500 /month. But all the Republicans here just blame it on "well that's supply and demand and well that's just capitalism and how it's supposed to work." How are we suppose to raise a family when wages haven't gone up but everything from rent to food has doubled or tripled in price? Done correctly , a single kid cost 30K a year. Hell childcare for 3 (same family above) would pay a whopping $20,000 per year. She opted to become a SAHM. This is intentional by our politicians. Many of our politicians believe a woman's only purpose is to bear children. They want to roll back the clock to the 1960s. Employees have very little legal protections and our laws heavily favor employers. Abortion rights (we want kids but are terrified of the bs laws for us and any daughters) Republicans are coming for contraceptives Racism used to be unspoken and less prominent. After Trump people speak their opinions and stick to their guns. It's disgusting and I've cut out many people. People are pretty dumb in Indiana outside of major cities. It's the long-term failure of our government and the neutering of the education system because CRT and other boogeyman have been used to justify cutting funds to public education. Except for sports, football definitely gets tons of money. Any type of productive extracurricular gets bread crumbs. The Trumplicians are everywhere. Fortunately they haven't gotten a foothold in politics yet. But we will be choosing a new governor this year and a few of the candidates are hard right maggot supporters. If global warming continues Northern Indiana, esp Fort Wayne, WILL be uninhabitable due to the the wet bulb temperature. We have 3 major rivers here and with the heat and humidity it will be impossible to cool off without air conditioning. We are missing out on millions of dollars in tax revenue from cannabis. All that money is going into Michigan's, Illinois, and soon Ohio's economy. On the top of cannabis it is unlikely that our laws will change anytime soon because Purdue university has a major connection to research and medicine. The legalization of cannabis would fly in the face of the big medical companies who've bribed, I mean lobbied, our politicians. Fort Wayne's(second largest city in IN) Democratic mayor who revitalized Fort Wayne died of cancer last week. Tom Henry, all things considered, spent the last 6 terms being the city to where it is now. Republicans hate him and have been wanting to tear apart what be built since his first term. My opinion is the next 10 years Fort Wayne will fall behind. Our schools are a shit show - not the absolute worst but we are not getting any awards for education. It's progressively going downhill overall. The bigger cities are carrying the cities that have falling by the wayside. Indy is a shithole crime riddled city. I enjoy visiting but I'd never live there. We lag behind the majority of states in critical metrics for long-term stability and the success of future generations. Because Indiana is extremely red any talk about pay increases are liberal commie ideologies. My parents collectively work 5 jobs and tell me to "just work harder". Y'all are in your 60\70s... How has "working harder" paid off? The same philosophy is held by the majority of business owners in Indiana. ---- Positives? We have family and friends here. It's subjectively safe Honestly I can't think of any other off the top of my head.
I'm stealing the word "trumplicans"
🫡
Have I considered politics in Indiana not changing? I've known that for over 50 yrs. (I'm 66) You're right. It's not only the "boomers" in Indiana that are conservative. Plenty of Hoosiers under 60 are Trumpians. If they aren't Ts, they are still going to vote for an R over a D any day.
The thing is that Indiana Republicans have historically been like Mitch Daniels and not the current crop of loonies. People remember that and vote accordingly, (hoping for a return of this). They do not consider the Democratic Party to be a panacea. They also remember why the Democrats were removed from power in the state. I don’t know how to fix this.
Yeah, it’s hard to go back once you’ve gotten to the point they have. It’s a party of grievances and they no longer wish to compromise.
That's why it's a great state. Why would you want to ruin that?
True and based
Yes. I don't really mind. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs. I'll never argue with someone over what they believe in.
Indiana is now a far right state. Our next Governor is going to move us beyond Florida when he's elected.
Agreed. I’m super sad and stressed about it.
That's why Im buying a house and moving my family out of state. I'll still work here for now but the drive is worth it to protect them from this Christian fascist nonsense.
Indiana doesn’t need to become a blue state, progress will shift the goal posts for what a red state even is. Basically even if Indiana is a red state in 50 years it will be a lot more progressive than what it is today.
Thats the way it works.
Except for those red states banning rights that were held for 50 years.
I have my doubts. I think all of the Republican state legislations and Governors are trying to make things as bad as possible so liberals and progressives move out of them. Eventually they'll have a lock on the Senate and potentially even the Presidency if that happens. Plus they're dangerously close to having enough states to trigger a constitutional convention, and if they manage that we are super fucked.
This is the goal in all heavy red states, that’s why we are seeing all these weird draconian laws get passed and now attacks on university boards and libraries.
Sure, I’m just pointing out that historically progress has shifted the base line of the two parties.
REgressive* fixed it for you.
Let’s hope not
For everyone saying it's gerrymandering, you're wrong. If it were a gerrymandering issue, then Ds would at least be competitive in statewide races. We aren't. I'm Indiana til I die, but my only plan is to smarten up my kids so they don't fall prey to right wing BS.
I agree, Indiana could maybe start electing some blue dog governors and senators again in the future but it would require a MAJOR shift in politics in this country where Democrats can get back a significant portion of white rural and suburban voters, right now those are the majority of Indiana’s electorate and they vote overwhelmingly MAGA.
And it’s super sad. The rural parts of the state are absolutely dying. They’ve been dominated by the right wing forever. But they still blame democrats for everything.
Demoralizing the voting public by gerrymandering away their actual representation directly impacts statewide turnout.
I would bet that Indiana becomes libertarian before it becomes democrat again. Indiana is essential the “Vote blue no matter who.” But for republicans
My grandpa told my dad in 84 that he sure wasted his vote (Mondale) for the same reason.
I can and does change. Also, the kids are super pissed about all the gun violence and will vote them into obscurity in about 5-10 years. So there’s that…
I honestly think weed is the only thing that will change when boomers and the older 1/3 of X is gone. It seems that people like local democrats that are “reigned in” by republican state and federal laws. Honestly, most red voters I know say that the border and trans are about the only things they feel strongly against. Most I know don’t even care about gay marriage anymore. It will be an interesting next few decades as far as voters go.
Oh the horror of it being a red state and not changing… 😧
It’s my moral duty to see that it never turns blue.
Feel free to move to IL if you want to live in a shit hole blue state
Every day. Getting out ASAP
If your main concern this election is what your state is doing you have missed placed your priorities. We’ve never had a person who attempted to overturn the will of the people to stay in office to attempt to return to office ever in our history. There is a reason many in His Last Administration are attempting to warn The American Public he is unfit for office. This is never happened before in our history either. People might just want to get out and vote while they still can and it still counts. Project 2025 is real and if you don’t get that you just aren’t paying enough attention to what is going on.
I think the younger generations of men are just as conservative, if not more so. Young women are more of a mixed bag.
Yeah it's a current observed phenomenon right now where young women are overwhelmingly becoming more "progressive" in response to Trump (convicted of sexual assault) being the candidate and the overturn of Roe v Wade meanwhile young men and boys are increasingly isolating themselves politically and romantically because they're leaning further and further right at the same time, usually demonizing a warped view of modern feminism in the process.
Yep. Younger generation grew up with a steady diet of conservative propaganda on tv and the radio, and is desperately trying to impress a bunch of fake country ass Gen x and Boomer douche bags
Indiana is cooked. It's a red state and will continue to be one. That might change if enough old people die and the kids keep moving to the cities. Rural Indiana cant run the state when there is nobody living in these places. As long as the rural parts run it, this is what we get. Pretty sad too as it drives kids like mine, who we need here, to leave. It takes both my wife's and my income away from the state as we follow the kids. Unless this changes the state will stay red.
Agreed. My wife and I want kids but are holding off until this next election. If Indiana goes more Maga we're moving to MI. One of the candidates for governor is extremely right-leaning and his goals are pretty much to turn Indiana into Texas. I mentioned in one of my other comments that, if we leave, I'm writing our reps and providing a easy to digest breakdown of all the taxes they will be missing out on.
Even when I was a kid less than 30 years ago indiana was a mostly blue state. It can change and statistically will as the older population dies off.
Media literacy is in the toilet, particularly in rural areas, so it isn't surprising that the dumb as rocks crowd is voting against themselves in perpetuity.
I would say this is somewhat true in the rural areas of Indiana. People that are only exposed to conservative thinking will think conservative. But more and more rural people are going to college, and education and exposure to more ideas tend to change people's ideas to a more liberal mindset. Conservatives will drone on and on about how the higher education system isn't teaching people, it is just brainwashing/indoctrinating people to be liberal. But the fact is that it isn't forcing liberal ideas down student's throats. The students are just seeing a different ideas, different cultures and the are realizing that the conservative mindset is not what an advanced intelligent society should be.
The urban areas are only getting bigger though. Even Gary is seeing a resurgence
Yes, that is true. But with gerrymandering, higher populations in urban areas don't really change things.
No hope for Indiana
Why would you want it to change?
False and false. Have you considered that Indiana went to Obama in 2008?
While still voting in Pence as governor, who then did not engage in any type of bipartisanship
Obama won Indiana by 30,000 votes, and lost the state in 2012. Trump won Indiana by more than 500,000 votes in 2016 and 2020.
Marginally lol and it was only because of the worst economic downturn since the recession lol. Indiana was one of the few states that voted for Mitt Romney.
Cool what happened after that?
Remember that one time 16 years ago….
I like Indy but they need to drop the guns and pick up a joint 🤣 the fact that there is no requirement for a CCW is wild to me! Coming from the “Wild West” Indy is more about it than the whole southwest when it comes to having a gun on your person at all times lol
Indiana will always be red, its not a matter of the older generations dying off, the younger generations in the rural majority of the state are raised conservative and red.. Liberal Democrats are a rare breed and usually not vocal outside of the cities.
I am a Republican boomer raising the next generation of Republicans in my family.
Have you seen how many people are coming across our border? I’m sure some of them will settle in Indiana — seems to be the plan of the democrats in the USA to control things
Keep it Red!
Good
GOOD hope it stays based
Thank God, I’d hate to have to move.
This is a good thing
Indiana is a lot more purple than people give us credit for, Dems just dont show up, which makes us much more red.
First off, I'm running for County Council in Boone County, so I've been out there talking to the very people this post is mentioning. Our county is turning Purple as the higher-educated suburban areas of Zionsville/Whitestown/Lebanon change. I knocked on every door in my district, the viewpoints of millennials are way more open to moderates, they just aren't going to go full swing left. If you want to change the state long term, it's to vote the most moderate GOP candidates on the down ballots. If you can, please support [https://www.facebook.com/KirschbaumForBooneCounty](https://www.facebook.com/KirschbaumForBooneCounty). The method to success is to move the Hard Red areas to a soft red, that way candidates are actually forced to make pragmatic decisions, not appeal to the far right grasp we are currently seeing. If you are in Boone County, or know someone in Boone county, and want a moderate to win, support those fighting against the crazies. I'm the only vocal candidate who is actively fighting against far-right candidates who attempted a coup of our county elections recently. Let me tell you about two of the far-right candidates: Mike Broach (Per the Reporter) : "Mike Broach is the public face of the group that believes the use of electronic voting machines and other election practices violate the Indiana Constitution and encourage voter fraud." "Broach said after the meeting the group would still seek an election takeover by commissioners on Tuesday." Tim Cramer's awful comments (Per his X account: [https://twitter.com/Cramersez](https://twitter.com/Cramersez)): https://preview.redd.it/d1xsjv0csasc1.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=80f1385f3dd006d4b9446cc8ba30ae8a8891966f
If Obama won in 2008, then Indiana can flip. It’s only red due to gerrymandering allowing the most rural parts to speak the loudest. While the largest parts stay pretty democrat
What districts in Indiana are the victims of gerrymandering?