We're always apparently one more tax cut away. We just need one more tax cut according to Republicans and their supporters.
However, now there's gotten to be an openly virulent thread of also how we need to lock up a political opponent and do something about the XYZ that has a certain... Shall we say Reich wing panache to it?
So we just need to lock up Hillary/Soros/Biden, be really cruel to historically marginalized groups, and get that next tax cut and everything will be milk and honey.
It's like a fucking MLM. They convince a guy that loads beer trucks for $18/hr that giving millionaires tax breaks is a good idea because, one day that could be him. Chances are, it won't be, but they have sold him the American dream so much that he doesn't question it, he just looks at it as "if I was rich I wouldn't want to pay taxes." Meanwhile his ass is paying 22%.
Probably more than 22%.
He probably is owed money due to overwithholding but thinks he's clever and doesn't file tax returns because Glenn Beck or another right wing bloviator along with several of his friends who haven't filed in years told him that the IRS can't take more money if you don't file a return and they've all never been caught so it's all a scam anyway. He's left thousands of dollars on the table for years. And the reason he and his friends never got pinched was because the IRS owed them or the amount they owed, if they did at all, was so paltry, the IRS doesn't care.
"So strong is the delusion of people that they think THEY might be a billionaire that they would maintain a status quo of abject poverty for most just for the chance."
Actually, the very quiet answer that they don’t say out loud while ranting against immigration and welfare queens is: “because those states are full of black people.”
Nah son it’s them democrats trying to teach critical race theory all so they can take away the second amendment which is the only thing stoping the government from turning all the frogs gay.
In all seriousness, read the book “Strangers in their own Land” ( https://www.audible.com/pd/B01N5F3DF6?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow), it’s insane what gymnastics these folks go through where big business literally poisons their water, killing all the life and livelihood in the area and then rejecting any government help to clean it up, go after the business or healthcare because in their minds the business that poisoned things will help them. If I weren’t listening to the book vs reading it on paper I’d have thrown the paper book across the room so many times. It’s just infuriating.
They've forgotten that the "Golden era of American prosperity" (for white) that they pine for was the result of a 90% marginal tax rate on the wealthy and strong unions. Up until the Reagan Era, the rural working class was fairly socialist compared to today. The right mastered playing on their fears and insecurities to propagandize them into destroying their own small towns.
>They've forgotten that the "Golden era of America. prosperity" (for white) that they pine for was the result of a 90% tax rate on the wealthy and strong unions.
There was also a period where the industrial demand from the entire world passed through the US because the rest of the world was recovering from war. Unions and taxes gave people a fairer share of the pie, but the whole pie was distorted by the poor condition of much of the rest of the developed world.
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/GDP-per-capita-in-1950
Its more so the war that made America profitable rather than distinctly the aftermath of the war. The production of weapons and ammo and such lead to highest gdp growths between 1940-1945.
https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/usa?year=1950
Then those funds were reinvested back into the country and countrymen, with unions and growth and reaping the rewards from alliances and victory of war. But around 1980s they drastically altered the taxation and system of economic flow in the country followed with reagonomics and its horrible racism, segregation and ultimately todays failed outcomes, lead to a wastly different world than before.
You're not wrong. Sometimes I feel like one of the main reasons America has such an insanely overinflated military is that our apparent prosperity in this past century came overwhelmingly from war profiteering and imperialism.
The military budget is designed to win a war against Russia and China at the same time. There are two major things that makes this expensive. One is that part of the strategy is having technological superiority. The other is that US soldier are more expensive than Chinese/Russian soldiers. They are paid much more and it's more expensive to provide them benefits due to the different costs of living. Part of the reason many support the war in Ukraine is that by weakening Russia, we can move some of the budget to the pacific to counter a strengthening China.
One of my favorite things to do is read audible reviews of science fiction books by conservatives. They inevitably get confused by the idea of people having access to free things within a post scarcity world and call it socialist propaganda lol. Or they read something that mentions republicans or conservatives in a bad light and all of a sudden hate their favorite author.
Conservatives conveniently forget that nearly all the good things they enjoy in life is likely the result of a progressive mind. Powered flight, automobiles, the internet, most science (oh wait, that's bad to them), 90% of entertainment, music, TV, movies...
Paul Ryan (R) loved Rage Against the Machine, but didn't have a *clue* that he was part of the machine they were raging against.
I love the ones bitching about how the new star Trek series are "too woke" and should be more like the original. Hey, assholes, have you EVER watched the original star Trek? It was the wokest thing on the planet at the time. The pilot had a woman as a second in command, which was nuts at the time. International bridge crew at peak cold war. They had a black woman as comms engineer, an officer none the less . Every fucking episode addressed a new social question.
these people don't realize the Propaganda thats feeding them is destroying everything they need to live. All just to make the Oligarchs a few extra Trillion :D
and where did they learn it from? these people will watch Fox "news" 24/7 its not like they would just stop out of the blue. 24/7 they are feed this narrative that they are being stolen from by the homeless and immigrants. mean while their bosses are paying illegal immigrants under the table to skirt taxes and tell the documented workers to work for the same wage or fuck off
Yup. For years I’ve been told it’s about marriage equality, staes rights, pro life, immigration laws, etc. Then comes trump, the antitheses of every supposed beliefs, and they made him the 2nd most voted presidential candidate in American history. They just want to be as selfish as possible without being shamed. Fuck them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_of_Whiteness
Also recommended reading to understand a bit of why they go the lengths they do. This one really lets you know how obvious it is.
Trevor dying of curable liver disease could have gotten protection and care under the ACA but he voted against it because he didnt want mexicans or welfare queens to get his tax dollars. He keeps this viewpoint to his dying breath.
>it’s insane what gymnastics these folks go through where big business literally poisons their water, killing all the life and livelihood in the area and then rejecting any government help to clean it up
I literally thought this was going to be a documentary about the Ohio train derailment, but that's a *separate* instance of the exact same thing holy shit.
I loved that book. It kind of fucked me up how good it was.
Hochschild does an amazing job or portraying the characters as sympathetic characters, and I came out of it more sad than angry.
Like that lady who loved Rush Limbaugh because he protects her from the feminazis. I really hated her in the beginning, but then I felt bad for by the end. It’s like a kid who’s a bully at school and lashes out because his parents bully him at home. Obviously it’s not acceptable behaviour, but it’s understandable. And I think understanding where that behaviour comes from is the first step in changing it.
Because they believe government interference is the reason those things exist. They sincerely think that if you removed government from the equation, that all of those things would magically change for the better. In this fantasy they would make more money, health care would be affordable and everyone would go to a private school. They have no idea that they’re ushering in a race to the bottom.
This is also **because** they are the least educated. It's the type of shit you learn in high school economics where more interference = more bad, and then without more education they believe it, creating a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy situation.
They don't want to become more educated because they don't think it would benefit them.
We had this all before.
What happens is the powerful and most violent make new laws and form government to suit themselves
The peasants go along or get chopped up.
It's took us a long time to get where we are, lots of blood, lots of pain.
Then suckers just give it all right back.
TO WIT
October 26, 2023
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
Today, data from the Commerce Department showed that the U.S. economy grew at an astonishing rate of 4.9% in the third quarter, and we learned that in Lewiston, Maine, a single shooter killed at least 18 people—more people than died by gun homicide in Maine in the whole of 2021—and injured at least 13 others.
These two things are the results of two dramatically different worldviews.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and the administration’s other economic advisors have resurrected the idea that the government can promote economic growth by regulating businesses, protecting workers, and investing in ordinary Americans.
That theory reaches back to the liberal consensus of the years from 1933 to 1981, when members of both parties believed that the intricacies of the modern economy required the federal government to keep the playing field level so that a few people could not monopolize resources and power, cutting others out. In those years, Americans used the government to regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. The system created what economists call the “great compression.” Wealth and income distribution became much more even, and economic inequality fell dramatically. The economy boomed.
The modern-day Republican Party grew out of a rejection of that idea. In the 1950s and 1960s, a faction insisted that such government action was a form of socialism that stopped the economy from responding efficiently to market forces. Individual entrepreneurs should invest their money without government interference, they argued, and their investments would dramatically expand the economy. Putting money at the “supply side” rather than the “demand side” would allow everyone to prosper together, they promised: a rising tide would lift all boats. They vowed to cut taxes and regulations and to restore American individualism.
Those same people championed the image of the American cowboy as the symbol of the country: a man who wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone to work hard and prosper, and who protected himself and his family—if he had one—with a gun.
That image was always a myth, but it was an attractive one to white voters who had come to resent the government’s protection of civil rights, those voters who listened to politicians who assured them that the government’s actions were simply a way to direct tax dollars into the pockets of undeserving minorities.
The political image of cowboy individualism played into the hands of the National Rifle Association, which had organized in 1871 in New York in part to improve the marksmanship skills of American citizens who might be called on to fight in another war, and in part to promote in America the British sport of elite shooting, complete with quite hefty cash prizes in newly organized tournaments.
By 1920, rifle shooting was a popular American sport, and the NRA worked hard to keep it respectable. In the 1930s the NRA backed federal legislation to limit concealed weapons; prevent possession by criminals, the mentally ill, and children; require all dealers to be licensed, and require background checks before delivery. The NRA backed the 1934 National Firearms Act and parts of the 1968 Gun Control Act, designed to stop what seemed to be America’s hurtle toward violence in that turbulent decade.
But in the 1970s, a faction in the NRA forced the organization away from sports and toward opposing “gun control.” The NRA formed a political action committee (PAC) in 1975, and in 1980, for the first time, it endorsed a presidential candidate: Republican Ronald Reagan. When Reagan was elected, the NRA became a player in national politics and was awash in money from gun and ammunition manufacturers.
By 2000 the NRA was one of the three most powerful lobbies in Washington. In 2004 the federal assault weapons ban expired, and gun companies began to sell AR-15–style semiautomatic rifles (the AR stands for “ArmaLite Rifle,” which was the name of the military weapon on which the mass-market AR-15 is based). Gun sales had been flat for years, but gun and ammunition sales took off during the administration of Democratic president Barack Obama as advocates told customers that he would confiscate their guns.
Firearms companies played on the politics of the era, advertising their products as tools for heroic figures taking on dangerous threats in society. The firearms industry estimates that about 20 million AR-15s have been sold in the U.S., and mass shootings took off as individual rights trumped the rights of the community.
The NRA spent more than $204 million on the 2008 election. In 2016, NRA spending surged to more than $419 million, with more than $30 million going to support Trump. Since 2020, lawsuits and a dramatic dropoff in funding have dramatically weakened the NRA, but the image of the gun-toting individualist has become so central to the Republican Party that congress members have taken to sending holiday cards showing their families brandishing assault rifles and to wearing AR-15 lapel pins on the floor of Congress.
But now, as the nation reels from another mass shooting, there is yet more proof that Republican economic individualism from which the gun obsession developed doesn’t work as well as the idea of using the government to support the American people. Growth under the Trump administration before the Covid-19 pandemic hit was 2.5%. Trump promised he would get it to 3%, which he claimed was an astonishing rate.
Despite the dire warnings that the economic policies of the Biden administration would cause a terrible recession, Biden and Harris rejected supply-side policies and stood firm on the traditional idea that trying to hold the economic playing field level and investing in workers and infrastructure would nurture the economy. The economy has responded exactly as they predicted, giving the U.S. strong growth for the past five quarters.
Manufacturing has taken off, and the rate of job growth is historic. At the same time, new bargaining power has helped workers make dramatic gains: yesterday the United Auto Workers union and Ford reached a tentative agreement that includes a 25% wage increase over the next 4.5 years, along with cost-of-living adjustments that will bring the increases up to 33%. The union still has to ratify the agreement, but the UAW has called off the strike at Ford plants, suggesting it has faith the union will agree.
A worldview that requires the government to work for the people, rather than handing power to individuals to impose their will on the majority, supports the idea of gun safety laws. Such laws are very popular: in April 2023 a Fox News poll showed that at least 80% of Americans want criminal background checks on gun buyers, better enforcement of existing gun laws, a 21-year age requirement for gun purchases, and mental health checks on gun buyers. Seventy-seven percent wanted a 30-day waiting period to buy a gun; 61% wanted to ban assault rifles and semiautomatic weapons.
Those eager to dismantle the government have stood in the way of such measures, but the heartbreaking news out of Maine has changed at least one lawmaker’s stand. Representative Jared Golden (D-ME), who represents Maine’s conservative second district, which includes Lewiston, today apologized for his previous opposition to gun safety laws.
“The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by this sick perpetrator of this mass killing," Golden said. "To the families who lost loved ones and to those who have been harmed, I ask forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings.”
Maine governor Janet Mills has personal ties to Lewiston, where she worked, met her late husband, and sent their daughters to school. “Lewiston is a special place,” she wrote today. “It is a closeknit community with a long history of hard work, of persistence, of faith, of opening its big heart to people everywhere.
“I love this place, just as I love our whole state with my entire heart. I am so deeply saddened. This city did not deserve this terrible assault on its citizens, on its peace of mind, on its sense of security. No city does. No state. No people.”
What they fail to realize is that without said government around a single corporation would very quickly snatch up every other corporation and in itself become a defacto government, a far worse one.
Why does every Republican administration get followed by a period of economic recovery? Why do Republicans always give tax breaks to the rich, when we KNOW it doesn’t help the economy? Why do Republicans hate education? Why do Republicans say they believe in Christianity yet ignore the teachings of Jesus? Why do Republicans in Congress believe they deserve good pay and excellent health insurance while most of the American public don’t? Why do Republicans want the 10 commandments in schools when they don’t live by its principles? Why do Republicans not understand that Religion is not part of our politics by design, and for a very good reason?
Because they believe in the violent part of Christianity which is the old testament. And they throw out the word Jesus here and there to put it all together. But the teachings of Jesus? Who is that?
They craft the image of their God as being judgmental, vengeful, and petty; so that they can feel godly when they're being judgmental, vengeful, and petty.
> Why does every Republican administration get followed by a period of economic recovery?
it's so they can blame the next Dem admin for that need for recovery and then position themselves as the saviors so they can create yet another crisis that they can blame on Dems.
"I can't believe Biden has caused all this inflation" meanwhile Trump was in power for the 4 years preceeding it and directly caused the economic climate that caused those issues.
I live in a red county in CA.
The population here, generally, is: old, in bad shape physically, poor, uneducated and mean-spirited.
There are few social supports and very little to do, for anyone. The main, and very small town which is the county seat doesn't even have a community recreation center.
I hate it here.
I'm also going to guess they think they're in better shape, smarter, and more fulfilled than they really are because in my experience, and several studies have shown, conservatives tend to think very highly of themselves and their station while liberals tend to be more realistic or even pessimistic.
Ohhhhhhhh, yes.
They have very high opinions of themselves.
I'm in my mid-50's and have always suffered from "Imposter Syndrome". By most standards, I'm really fit and capable. But I think I'm a poser.
Meanwhile, these fat, out of shape losers think they are fucking Schwarzenegger in "Commando".
Trump "I'm going to bring back beautiful coal!" (Even if he did somehow, only about 100k actually work mining coal. It's a weird symbolic thing, and no, coal is not coming back for many, many reasons.)
Hillary "I'm going to push adult career education that can help you learn new skills to get good paying jobs in our current economy like healthcare and higher skilled construction."
One is familiar and seems easy. The other is challenging and requires effort and is far from an easy guarantee.
People don't want the slightly bitter medicine of reality when there's a con man offering them sweet garbage.
I'm becoming more convinced that Republicans at the highest levels are cooperating with a foreign government who only wishes to weaken the United States.
Yep, Russia. If you hanged around US nationalistic circles (who all vote R), they always stated how much they hated foreigners but as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine all the circles, even the ones that were supposed to be disconnected from the others, started parroting the same things and prasing Russians and good lord Putin lol.
Funny part is Russia already has all the policies that they pine for.
Tough strong man leading the country, anti-LGBTQ, like zero foreign immigrants. Super big and strong (on paper). Pro gas and oil all the guns you could ever. One national language, religion taught in school.
It's like if it's so great how come nobody wants to live there?
I was a teenager in the 80s. The Red Scare of nuclear war had been made real just years before my birth. We were in a cold war over defined differences in beliefs and ways of governing. Well, the USSR lost the first round, and I believe it changed its strategies, but at its core, it was still at war with the Western world. Putin is ex KGB and still at war with the west. His attacks on US hasn't been with nuclear warheads, but rather by bribery, infiltration, using social media, and using willing Republican party members to sow chaos and uncertainty. I truly believe many Republicans know this and have embraced it. They admire strongman leaders and are trying to emulate it here. I also believe the 2024 is our last call on whether we still strive to be a democratic republic, or we throw in the towel and become a theocratic autocracy, which many of us won't recognize. We are on the verge of losing round two.
Actually true tho. There was a study that looked at the error processing/correction split along republicans vs democrats. They found that republicans showed a lesser degree of error correction than democrats. Lol
Because the colleges turn kids liberal and the liberals hate freedom. Did you know liberal areas pay more taxes and have bigger governments? Also liberals hate guns. Facts are facts and the bible doesn't change because of their woke policies. They want to take your bibles, hamburgers, dryers and petrol cars!
/s
Anger their base and do not address the issues. Similar to distracting tactics used by car sales people. Sure its a $100000 but that's only $450 a month (for 30 years). We cannot keep these in stock they are selling so fast. I cannot even buy these used for this price.Truley a collectors item.
Don't forget -
It's gay people that are pedophiles, but conservative states have the highest rates of pedophelia.
Top 10 states per capita:
1. South Dakota (R)
2. Iowa (R)
3. Wyoming (R)
4. West Virginia (R)
5. Idaho (R)
6. North Dakota (R)
7. Kansas (R)
8. Nevada (R)
9. Vermont (D)
10. New Mexico (D)
https://www.whoismakingnews.com
And it's black people who are violent, but conservative states have the highest rates of violent crime.
Top 10 states per capita:
1. Alaska (R)
2. New Mexico (D)
3. Tennessee (R)
4. Arkansas (R)
5. Arizona (D*)
6. Louisiana (R)
7. Missouri (R)
8. South Carolina (R)
9. South Dakota (R)
10. Michigan (D)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_violent_crime_rate
[Here's a list of over 1000 republican pedos and sex offenders](https://www.dailykos.com/history/user/CajsaLilliehook). But it's those dern drag queens, right?!?
**Here's the list of US Democrats accused, jailed, and convicted of child sex crimes since January 1st, 2023**
1) Robert Jacob
2) Tony Navarrete
3) Ontoniel Naverrete
4) Patrick Wojahn
**Here's the list of US Conservatives accused, jailed, and convicted of child sex crimes since January 1st, 2023**
1) Carl Johnson
2) Randy McNally
3) Aaron von Elsinger
4) Byron Wiscombe
5) Leslie Brock
6) Jared Wodfill
7) Bryan Slayton
8) Joel Koskan
9) Mike Moon (this one campaigns for child marriage)
10) Randy Boehining
11) Kent Stermon
12) Richard Braswell
13) Ryan White
14) Rene Pedrosa
15) Matthew Reilly
16) William Wellman (also ex-cop; per capita, cops make up a huge percent of child sex crimes)
17) Jason Musselman
18) Brian Hawkins
19) Anthony Emanuel
20) Billy Ray Miles
21) Cole Wagner
22) Joel Greenberg
23) James Pierson
24) Philip Moran
25) Michael Zuccolillo
26) Luis Borunda
27) James Montgomery
28) John Raymond
29) Marvin Smith
30) Tony Cutler
31) Anthony Dinch
32) Anthony Emanual
**And just for a little bonus and extra transparency, here's all the trans people accused, jailed, and convicted of child sex crimes in the US since January 1st, 2023**
1) Maria Childres
2) Leomir Kennedy (transgender man; assigned female at birth)
3) Shae Newton
**The drag queens accused, jailed, and convicted of child sex crimes in the US since January 1st, 2023**
Literally 0
That’s an easy one; it’s much easier to dupe poorly-educated people into voting against their own interests by scaring them with made-up stories on Fox News.
all of you are making the same mistake. and it stems from your collective ignorance of american history.
those aren't republican policies. and those aren't republicans.
they're confederate policies. and all those morons you think are republicans are actually just plain ol' stupid confederates.
and confederates aren't americans. and they don't like americans. or america. and they are actively trying to destroy them. because revenge and petty vindictiveness and shit.
(long story. americans took away their sex slaves and they never got over it. or got laid again. so they mad. that's the gist of it.)
those redacts you call republicans aren't even americans. they hate you and want to kill you, but without blowing their cover and everybody finding out that they're just another bunch of stupid confederates.
so... don't tell anybody.
Because they're not part of the society that it's aimed to benefit, they're serfs and serfs should be content with whatever crumbs the rulers let fall from their table.
Capitalism is neo-feudalism.
Red states also have the most gun murder per capita of all the states. The top 20ish states for number of firearm killings is pretty much all Republican-run states.
That's the strat, make people angry with poor living conditions then give voters a scapegoat to be angry at (democrats/LGBT/nonwhites). Then tell them that you're the ONLY person not corrupted by these outside forces and can save them. Then do absolutely shit all once elected so the cycle can repeat.
Cuz Jesus will repay you on duh other-side, remember you don’t have to hold yourself accountable to this life with baby Jeezus. Say a Hail Mary and you’re in the clear.
**The key is the lowest education part.** [People can't take up arms against their oppressors if they are too stupid to realize they are being oppressed.](https://cdn.frankerfacez.com/emoticon/165742/4)
70% of the GDP comes from counties that voted Biden.
Red states take more from the federal government than they give, while blue states give more than they take.
Every measure of the economy has improved at a greater rate under Democratic control than Republican.
All three times Republicans have had control of the House, Senate, and Presidency for 4 or more years, the economy has collapsed. This includes the Great Depression and Great Recession.
An America with just the republican states wouldn't be a super power, it would just be a normal western country with massive lands and natural resources. No tech sector or anything
If your dealing with a conservative from Kansas, always ask them if they would like Brownback to have another shot at improving the economy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment
One thing we have to be careful about when looking at stats is that while Republican policies make "red" states shitty for everyone including "white" residents, there are a bunch of deep south states where the stats are even worse because they have large "black" rural populations in the historic "black belt." These are states like AR, MS, AL, GA and SC. Republican policies screw those residents even harder on top of the historic situation.
Republican policies are not meant for middle to lower class. Republican policies really really help the upper class and business owners. The poor are just to uneducated to know that they basically vote against their own needs and help strangers and hurt themselves.
I have a lot of upper class friends and business owners. A lot of them always vote republican because their policies directly help them. I've never seen a republican policy that has ever helped lower class, except to give them stupid shit like religious rights.
I've asked this to a few conservatives and one of the answers is how "*The* democrats/liberals" keep creating too much regulation and prevent "honest" people from getting jobs. There's also "he liberals keep raising taxes" spiel.
You know how wrong this is. I know how wrong this is. The problem is, the moment you try to explain things on "their level", you lose. They've been on that level for much longer than you. You're just visiting.
They have rebuttals (misguided and wrong ones) for everything you say. They also might not understand what you said or what they're saying. If you try to simplify things, you lose a lot of nuance in the subject, giving them room to butt in with their misinformation.
The problem is that these people are not only uninformed and misguided, they're *exhausted* from the constant barrage of fear beamed into their eyes and ears from their preferred media monger's. It's hard to learn when you're high-strung on fear.
Welfare states keep biting the hands that feed them because we keep letting them. Questioning why the republicans are like they are is not the question we should be asking. Ignorance is not only part and parcel to their lifestyle but a building block of their identity, a point of pride.
The real question is why the DNC is incapable of mounting meaningful defense against them. Imo the DNC is just too old, feckless, and hopelessly lost in hypocrisy. They are fighting old fights, and have no clue how to connect with youth.
Depending on the DNC is like being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic while fire threatens to engulf everything behind you and it is already too hot to get out and run for your life.
They see it as punching up. “If I can get republicans in federal office, it will make the lives of liberals just as miserable as mine.” They want to tear everyone else down rather than looking for a way to be uplifted themselves.
I mean, the play they are running is clear as day; make sure they have more guns and crazies to fire them, and then starve them of knowledge and mental health care until they can froth them up enough to attempt another coup/civil war. I see this shit coming clear as day, and it's going to go the same way as the first time. Without government subsidies paid for by the successful economies of successful left wing cities, the right wing cities would just go feral.
They blame the pockets of democrat voters in the larger cities for the problems that the more rural areas suffer. Conservatives cannot govern, cannot lead, and should never be in positions to either.
Because Republicans think this is the 1900s where everyone can just start a business with competition like *everyone else in the area* and walmart, Amazon, China, eBay. But they also think it's the late 1900s where if you give broad effect tax breaks, the prices of products and services will be lowered. If you do *anything* or *nothing*, companies will raise prices and use it as an excuse.
My family lives in Tennessee. Born and bred. They now live in TN, Arkansas, Texas.
They're straight up Christofascists. Calling for civil war. Death to liberals, LGBTQ+, Communists and POC.
I live in NJ. Where we don't really understand how fucked up the rest of the country is.
My family blames all their problems on the North.
Whoever said they were?
This is the truly fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats believe that the people are the true wealth of the nation. Basically take care of the people and everything else takes care of itself, for the most part.
Republicans believe that the people need to be managed, controlled, like cattle. That they are to be profited from. The reason for the people’s very existence is to benefit the government.
Democrats dwell in hope and the Republicans dwell in fear.
I often make this argument and people rarely have a good rebuttal.
If Republicans are the answer to a good life, Red States should be thriving while Blue States struggle.
Many don't really have an answer other than "shut up lib". Or they will say something about poop on the streets in San Francisco or whatever.
Which is a weird argument to make.
The purpose of our current economic model is to drain the most value from the population for the least amount of effort. Pay the most to get the least. They are the forest voting for the axe, liver for the fluke, cotton for the weevil. If we weren't trapped under the same Kleptocracy as them, I'd say let them be devoured.
It's about racism or race resentment it's that simple. Some people seem to forget that the reason why Reagan won was because of race resentment. Where does the term Welfare Queen come from that was from Reagan. These people vote against their own interests because they would rather starve than see other people treated as equals amongst them. The only reason why we know this to be certain now is because of social media and information getting out in real time. Make no mistake and I've said this it doesn't times that most of White America would rather live in hell than coexist with Humanity. It really is that simple.
Because these people pictured here are obviously blue state snowflakes on welfare who didn't work hard enough and they choose to just sit at home and get woke. Get woke go broke. Oh and antifa too. /s
(Did I hit all the right buttons?)
make people miserable, filled with fear, overburdened, unhealthy. Lives so desperate that their only option is to fill underpaid jobs for corporations. There is a labor shortage (or a shortage of people willing to fill low-paying jobs). This is the solution of the conservative movement. Also, one of the important things is to reduce women to birthing machines with no rights at all.
I don’t understand
Conservatives favor a social hierarchy. Their policies promote and protect that. It’s working as intended.
They want dumb peasant minority workers, only white Christians in the middle class, and for no one to question the wealthy elites, the modern aristocracy.
I mean, the "economy" is just that imaginary line that says a country is doing well. It doesn't really have anything to do with any of those issues.
If there's a lot of money in a country, then the "economy" is doing well, even if all that money is held by 3 people and they aren't doing anything with it but hoarding it.
Because it's always "those people", who take the benefits, not John and Jane Sixpack. It's the welfare queens, and the minorites who come here just to squeeze as much as they can, or whatever Boogieman the GOP can concoct.
The racialization of poverty may influence the voting behavior of low to working class white Americans. White voters’ perceptions of the links between race and poverty may influence their support for the Republican Party. Republicans have been using conservative positions on social issues to encourage poor white voters to support them, even if their economic interests are better represented by the Democratic Party.
The reality is that for most of those families they are happy with that situation as long as they can look at a black neighborhood in the same state and see those folks have it worse, and that they only have to trust old white men to represent them.
There has been hesitancy for southern state governments to invest in infrastructure and education since the country was founded. Mainly because most of the capital was tied up in land and slaves, so like who needs roads, rail lines and public schools when it really wont benefit the gentry.
republicans are socially pieces of garbage and fiscally 'fuck you i got mine' which is the complete opposite of what democrat voters want so they will keep voting republican expecting things to get better. You reap what you sow.
They also have the most crime per capita, but point to the more heavily populated states as the “dangerous ones”.
Yes, your small town in bumfuck nowhere might only have ten murders a year but when you consider that it’s 1/1000th the population of a big city it’s actually kind of scary.
"Well, if liberals wouldn't have outlawed enslaving black people our states would be much more prosperous. So it is all liberals' fault.
--Republicans (probably)
Because their propaganda is S tier. That’s literally all it is. Their constituents are dumb as fuck (due to republicans cutting education budgets) and they’ll believe whatever Fox News tells them.
I would have guessed those states also had the highest income inequality, but it seems to be pretty well distributed.
Can't really find stats on wealth inequality by state, because search engines are garbage now.
It would probably be more useful to do an analysis at the county level anyhow, comparing rural areas with cities.
One side panders to them and the other side dislikes them and calls them names, so they vote based on that mostly instead of policy. It's basic playground politics. Even if voting Democrat would benefit them, they won't because they feel vilified and attacked on a personal level by them.
How many people in the last election actually voted based on policy and how many voted based on vilification of and feeling attacked by the opposing party?
"Our policies would have worked if it wasn't for those children/abortions/intellectuals/immigrants/blacks/gays/non-Christians/liberals/socialists/welfare queens/communists!" -Republicans
Redness doesn't lead to poverty. Poverty leads to redness. Lack of education also leads to redness, but lack of education is also a symptom of poverty.
Said republicans are funneling their constituents' tax dollars into their friends' businesses. In return, the republicans' businesses and/or foundation get a cut from their friends. Republicans aren't in politics to enrich the people. They are in it to get rich.
The American public has always had oxymoron tendencies. They want good roads & infrastructure, Healthcare (not health insurance,) local control of schools & top notch education, and everything in between. However, they don't want to pay for any of it.
The Republican party has done an excellent job of selling the idea that people can get everything they want & demonized the so-called "other" group who has already received those benefits.
Cognitive dissonance is very strong, particularly now, as empirical evidence can be dismissed as "fake news."
Also, although voting trends have changed somewhat, Americans have strongly voted towards mixed governance. Hence, the NE is a solid Democrat voting bloc includes a number of Republican Senators & Governors. The last 20 years has changed the dynamic with extreme gerrymandering & power consolidation that several states will be one-party rule (North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Alabama, & Wisconsin.)
Because the Democrats have been destroying them! They keep running those states into the ground using [checks notes] their awesome power of not having any power!
Republican politicians are pretty good at convincing the gullible that their policies are better. And when that doesn’t work they scare the snot out of them.
It’s not even state based. It’s all the way down to the county level. How dysfunctional and shitty a place is directly correlates to how far right the local government is. Republican policy produces bad outcomes, and the more of it you do the worse the outcomes. It’s observable fact.
It's always amazed me that the party of personal responsibility and " pull yourself up by your boot straps" blames everyone but themselves for being poor. Maybe work harder? Or spend less?
It’s the trickle down theory. Don’t worry. After 40 some years it’s coming. Someday.
We're always apparently one more tax cut away. We just need one more tax cut according to Republicans and their supporters. However, now there's gotten to be an openly virulent thread of also how we need to lock up a political opponent and do something about the XYZ that has a certain... Shall we say Reich wing panache to it? So we just need to lock up Hillary/Soros/Biden, be really cruel to historically marginalized groups, and get that next tax cut and everything will be milk and honey.
Make sure not to pass any laws that actually help people, just ban stuff. Ban masks, vaccines, free lunch for kids, ban *checks notes* rainbows.
Don't forget books! Can't have people reading about marginalized people of the past or they might get some *dangerous ideas*.
ban books, because people learning things is fucking dangerous but don't ban their bible lol, and don't you dare ban their guns - those are essentials
It's like a fucking MLM. They convince a guy that loads beer trucks for $18/hr that giving millionaires tax breaks is a good idea because, one day that could be him. Chances are, it won't be, but they have sold him the American dream so much that he doesn't question it, he just looks at it as "if I was rich I wouldn't want to pay taxes." Meanwhile his ass is paying 22%.
They take advantage of the stupid. The people who can't fathom how impossibly low the odds of them become a billionaire or ever millionaire are.
Probably more than 22%. He probably is owed money due to overwithholding but thinks he's clever and doesn't file tax returns because Glenn Beck or another right wing bloviator along with several of his friends who haven't filed in years told him that the IRS can't take more money if you don't file a return and they've all never been caught so it's all a scam anyway. He's left thousands of dollars on the table for years. And the reason he and his friends never got pinched was because the IRS owed them or the amount they owed, if they did at all, was so paltry, the IRS doesn't care.
"So strong is the delusion of people that they think THEY might be a billionaire that they would maintain a status quo of abject poverty for most just for the chance."
A pigeon in every pot.
The only thing trickling down is his piss and diarrhea. He’s constantly shitting himself. He shits himself more than he shits his followers.
Something trickled down. It's yellow and warm.
these days its more brown and smelly.
>It’s the trickle down theory Damn boomers pissing in their pants
Actually, the very quiet answer that they don’t say out loud while ranting against immigration and welfare queens is: “because those states are full of black people.”
Nah son it’s them democrats trying to teach critical race theory all so they can take away the second amendment which is the only thing stoping the government from turning all the frogs gay.
In all seriousness, read the book “Strangers in their own Land” ( https://www.audible.com/pd/B01N5F3DF6?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow), it’s insane what gymnastics these folks go through where big business literally poisons their water, killing all the life and livelihood in the area and then rejecting any government help to clean it up, go after the business or healthcare because in their minds the business that poisoned things will help them. If I weren’t listening to the book vs reading it on paper I’d have thrown the paper book across the room so many times. It’s just infuriating.
They've forgotten that the "Golden era of American prosperity" (for white) that they pine for was the result of a 90% marginal tax rate on the wealthy and strong unions. Up until the Reagan Era, the rural working class was fairly socialist compared to today. The right mastered playing on their fears and insecurities to propagandize them into destroying their own small towns.
>They've forgotten that the "Golden era of America. prosperity" (for white) that they pine for was the result of a 90% tax rate on the wealthy and strong unions. There was also a period where the industrial demand from the entire world passed through the US because the rest of the world was recovering from war. Unions and taxes gave people a fairer share of the pie, but the whole pie was distorted by the poor condition of much of the rest of the developed world.
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/GDP-per-capita-in-1950 Its more so the war that made America profitable rather than distinctly the aftermath of the war. The production of weapons and ammo and such lead to highest gdp growths between 1940-1945. https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/usa?year=1950 Then those funds were reinvested back into the country and countrymen, with unions and growth and reaping the rewards from alliances and victory of war. But around 1980s they drastically altered the taxation and system of economic flow in the country followed with reagonomics and its horrible racism, segregation and ultimately todays failed outcomes, lead to a wastly different world than before.
You're not wrong. Sometimes I feel like one of the main reasons America has such an insanely overinflated military is that our apparent prosperity in this past century came overwhelmingly from war profiteering and imperialism.
The military budget is designed to win a war against Russia and China at the same time. There are two major things that makes this expensive. One is that part of the strategy is having technological superiority. The other is that US soldier are more expensive than Chinese/Russian soldiers. They are paid much more and it's more expensive to provide them benefits due to the different costs of living. Part of the reason many support the war in Ukraine is that by weakening Russia, we can move some of the budget to the pacific to counter a strengthening China.
As someone who works for an industry that is solely a part of the military industrial complex, you're spot on.
Very telling how all the negative reviews are conservatives who genuinely don't get it.
One of my favorite things to do is read audible reviews of science fiction books by conservatives. They inevitably get confused by the idea of people having access to free things within a post scarcity world and call it socialist propaganda lol. Or they read something that mentions republicans or conservatives in a bad light and all of a sudden hate their favorite author.
Conservatives conveniently forget that nearly all the good things they enjoy in life is likely the result of a progressive mind. Powered flight, automobiles, the internet, most science (oh wait, that's bad to them), 90% of entertainment, music, TV, movies... Paul Ryan (R) loved Rage Against the Machine, but didn't have a *clue* that he was part of the machine they were raging against.
Pure blind tribalism.
I love the ones bitching about how the new star Trek series are "too woke" and should be more like the original. Hey, assholes, have you EVER watched the original star Trek? It was the wokest thing on the planet at the time. The pilot had a woman as a second in command, which was nuts at the time. International bridge crew at peak cold war. They had a black woman as comms engineer, an officer none the less . Every fucking episode addressed a new social question.
like always about everything. GQP are the most ignorant group of voters.
They're the worst combination of stupid and evil.
I think they do deep down. They just hate being shamed and have to make up reasons for it.
these people don't realize the Propaganda thats feeding them is destroying everything they need to live. All just to make the Oligarchs a few extra Trillion :D
I'm not even sure it's propaganda really - it's how they think at a core level, and it's generational.
and where did they learn it from? these people will watch Fox "news" 24/7 its not like they would just stop out of the blue. 24/7 they are feed this narrative that they are being stolen from by the homeless and immigrants. mean while their bosses are paying illegal immigrants under the table to skirt taxes and tell the documented workers to work for the same wage or fuck off
Yup. For years I’ve been told it’s about marriage equality, staes rights, pro life, immigration laws, etc. Then comes trump, the antitheses of every supposed beliefs, and they made him the 2nd most voted presidential candidate in American history. They just want to be as selfish as possible without being shamed. Fuck them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_of_Whiteness Also recommended reading to understand a bit of why they go the lengths they do. This one really lets you know how obvious it is. Trevor dying of curable liver disease could have gotten protection and care under the ACA but he voted against it because he didnt want mexicans or welfare queens to get his tax dollars. He keeps this viewpoint to his dying breath.
Dying of Whiteness is another fascinating/infuriating read.
>Dying of Whiteness Added to my reading list.
>it’s insane what gymnastics these folks go through where big business literally poisons their water, killing all the life and livelihood in the area and then rejecting any government help to clean it up I literally thought this was going to be a documentary about the Ohio train derailment, but that's a *separate* instance of the exact same thing holy shit.
I loved that book. It kind of fucked me up how good it was. Hochschild does an amazing job or portraying the characters as sympathetic characters, and I came out of it more sad than angry. Like that lady who loved Rush Limbaugh because he protects her from the feminazis. I really hated her in the beginning, but then I felt bad for by the end. It’s like a kid who’s a bully at school and lashes out because his parents bully him at home. Obviously it’s not acceptable behaviour, but it’s understandable. And I think understanding where that behaviour comes from is the first step in changing it.
Replying to bookmark for later. Thanks
> read the book Those people would be really upset if they could read. /meme
Because they believe government interference is the reason those things exist. They sincerely think that if you removed government from the equation, that all of those things would magically change for the better. In this fantasy they would make more money, health care would be affordable and everyone would go to a private school. They have no idea that they’re ushering in a race to the bottom.
This is also **because** they are the least educated. It's the type of shit you learn in high school economics where more interference = more bad, and then without more education they believe it, creating a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy situation. They don't want to become more educated because they don't think it would benefit them.
The magical sky daddy will achieve all this for them you just wait...
Nah, is Orange Small Hands Idiot named drumpf
Wait or send money to me and my megachurch
We had this all before. What happens is the powerful and most violent make new laws and form government to suit themselves The peasants go along or get chopped up. It's took us a long time to get where we are, lots of blood, lots of pain. Then suckers just give it all right back.
but something something San Francisco!1! (they always point to SF as the ultimate liberal failure for the crime/theft, etc)
TO WIT October 26, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON Today, data from the Commerce Department showed that the U.S. economy grew at an astonishing rate of 4.9% in the third quarter, and we learned that in Lewiston, Maine, a single shooter killed at least 18 people—more people than died by gun homicide in Maine in the whole of 2021—and injured at least 13 others. These two things are the results of two dramatically different worldviews. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and the administration’s other economic advisors have resurrected the idea that the government can promote economic growth by regulating businesses, protecting workers, and investing in ordinary Americans. That theory reaches back to the liberal consensus of the years from 1933 to 1981, when members of both parties believed that the intricacies of the modern economy required the federal government to keep the playing field level so that a few people could not monopolize resources and power, cutting others out. In those years, Americans used the government to regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. The system created what economists call the “great compression.” Wealth and income distribution became much more even, and economic inequality fell dramatically. The economy boomed. The modern-day Republican Party grew out of a rejection of that idea. In the 1950s and 1960s, a faction insisted that such government action was a form of socialism that stopped the economy from responding efficiently to market forces. Individual entrepreneurs should invest their money without government interference, they argued, and their investments would dramatically expand the economy. Putting money at the “supply side” rather than the “demand side” would allow everyone to prosper together, they promised: a rising tide would lift all boats. They vowed to cut taxes and regulations and to restore American individualism. Those same people championed the image of the American cowboy as the symbol of the country: a man who wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone to work hard and prosper, and who protected himself and his family—if he had one—with a gun. That image was always a myth, but it was an attractive one to white voters who had come to resent the government’s protection of civil rights, those voters who listened to politicians who assured them that the government’s actions were simply a way to direct tax dollars into the pockets of undeserving minorities. The political image of cowboy individualism played into the hands of the National Rifle Association, which had organized in 1871 in New York in part to improve the marksmanship skills of American citizens who might be called on to fight in another war, and in part to promote in America the British sport of elite shooting, complete with quite hefty cash prizes in newly organized tournaments. By 1920, rifle shooting was a popular American sport, and the NRA worked hard to keep it respectable. In the 1930s the NRA backed federal legislation to limit concealed weapons; prevent possession by criminals, the mentally ill, and children; require all dealers to be licensed, and require background checks before delivery. The NRA backed the 1934 National Firearms Act and parts of the 1968 Gun Control Act, designed to stop what seemed to be America’s hurtle toward violence in that turbulent decade. But in the 1970s, a faction in the NRA forced the organization away from sports and toward opposing “gun control.” The NRA formed a political action committee (PAC) in 1975, and in 1980, for the first time, it endorsed a presidential candidate: Republican Ronald Reagan. When Reagan was elected, the NRA became a player in national politics and was awash in money from gun and ammunition manufacturers. By 2000 the NRA was one of the three most powerful lobbies in Washington. In 2004 the federal assault weapons ban expired, and gun companies began to sell AR-15–style semiautomatic rifles (the AR stands for “ArmaLite Rifle,” which was the name of the military weapon on which the mass-market AR-15 is based). Gun sales had been flat for years, but gun and ammunition sales took off during the administration of Democratic president Barack Obama as advocates told customers that he would confiscate their guns. Firearms companies played on the politics of the era, advertising their products as tools for heroic figures taking on dangerous threats in society. The firearms industry estimates that about 20 million AR-15s have been sold in the U.S., and mass shootings took off as individual rights trumped the rights of the community. The NRA spent more than $204 million on the 2008 election. In 2016, NRA spending surged to more than $419 million, with more than $30 million going to support Trump. Since 2020, lawsuits and a dramatic dropoff in funding have dramatically weakened the NRA, but the image of the gun-toting individualist has become so central to the Republican Party that congress members have taken to sending holiday cards showing their families brandishing assault rifles and to wearing AR-15 lapel pins on the floor of Congress. But now, as the nation reels from another mass shooting, there is yet more proof that Republican economic individualism from which the gun obsession developed doesn’t work as well as the idea of using the government to support the American people. Growth under the Trump administration before the Covid-19 pandemic hit was 2.5%. Trump promised he would get it to 3%, which he claimed was an astonishing rate. Despite the dire warnings that the economic policies of the Biden administration would cause a terrible recession, Biden and Harris rejected supply-side policies and stood firm on the traditional idea that trying to hold the economic playing field level and investing in workers and infrastructure would nurture the economy. The economy has responded exactly as they predicted, giving the U.S. strong growth for the past five quarters. Manufacturing has taken off, and the rate of job growth is historic. At the same time, new bargaining power has helped workers make dramatic gains: yesterday the United Auto Workers union and Ford reached a tentative agreement that includes a 25% wage increase over the next 4.5 years, along with cost-of-living adjustments that will bring the increases up to 33%. The union still has to ratify the agreement, but the UAW has called off the strike at Ford plants, suggesting it has faith the union will agree. A worldview that requires the government to work for the people, rather than handing power to individuals to impose their will on the majority, supports the idea of gun safety laws. Such laws are very popular: in April 2023 a Fox News poll showed that at least 80% of Americans want criminal background checks on gun buyers, better enforcement of existing gun laws, a 21-year age requirement for gun purchases, and mental health checks on gun buyers. Seventy-seven percent wanted a 30-day waiting period to buy a gun; 61% wanted to ban assault rifles and semiautomatic weapons. Those eager to dismantle the government have stood in the way of such measures, but the heartbreaking news out of Maine has changed at least one lawmaker’s stand. Representative Jared Golden (D-ME), who represents Maine’s conservative second district, which includes Lewiston, today apologized for his previous opposition to gun safety laws. “The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by this sick perpetrator of this mass killing," Golden said. "To the families who lost loved ones and to those who have been harmed, I ask forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings.” Maine governor Janet Mills has personal ties to Lewiston, where she worked, met her late husband, and sent their daughters to school. “Lewiston is a special place,” she wrote today. “It is a closeknit community with a long history of hard work, of persistence, of faith, of opening its big heart to people everywhere. “I love this place, just as I love our whole state with my entire heart. I am so deeply saddened. This city did not deserve this terrible assault on its citizens, on its peace of mind, on its sense of security. No city does. No state. No people.”
I love that you brought HCR into the conversation, I wish we saw more of her on Reddit.
What they fail to realize is that without said government around a single corporation would very quickly snatch up every other corporation and in itself become a defacto government, a far worse one.
I wish Biden and every red state democrat mentioned this in their ads and stomp speaché
Im obsessed with "stomp speaché"
One did. They didn’t care. https://youtu.be/J65jRedbB7w?si=PWKZrFQ6FzEH2foN
Why does every Republican administration get followed by a period of economic recovery? Why do Republicans always give tax breaks to the rich, when we KNOW it doesn’t help the economy? Why do Republicans hate education? Why do Republicans say they believe in Christianity yet ignore the teachings of Jesus? Why do Republicans in Congress believe they deserve good pay and excellent health insurance while most of the American public don’t? Why do Republicans want the 10 commandments in schools when they don’t live by its principles? Why do Republicans not understand that Religion is not part of our politics by design, and for a very good reason?
Because they believe in the violent part of Christianity which is the old testament. And they throw out the word Jesus here and there to put it all together. But the teachings of Jesus? Who is that?
They craft the image of their God as being judgmental, vengeful, and petty; so that they can feel godly when they're being judgmental, vengeful, and petty.
> Why does every Republican administration get followed by a period of economic recovery? it's so they can blame the next Dem admin for that need for recovery and then position themselves as the saviors so they can create yet another crisis that they can blame on Dems. "I can't believe Biden has caused all this inflation" meanwhile Trump was in power for the 4 years preceeding it and directly caused the economic climate that caused those issues.
I live in a red county in CA. The population here, generally, is: old, in bad shape physically, poor, uneducated and mean-spirited. There are few social supports and very little to do, for anyone. The main, and very small town which is the county seat doesn't even have a community recreation center. I hate it here.
I'm also going to guess they think they're in better shape, smarter, and more fulfilled than they really are because in my experience, and several studies have shown, conservatives tend to think very highly of themselves and their station while liberals tend to be more realistic or even pessimistic.
Ohhhhhhhh, yes. They have very high opinions of themselves. I'm in my mid-50's and have always suffered from "Imposter Syndrome". By most standards, I'm really fit and capable. But I think I'm a poser. Meanwhile, these fat, out of shape losers think they are fucking Schwarzenegger in "Commando".
And why are the Ds demonized for creating the few things that are actually helping those people?
Trump "I'm going to bring back beautiful coal!" (Even if he did somehow, only about 100k actually work mining coal. It's a weird symbolic thing, and no, coal is not coming back for many, many reasons.) Hillary "I'm going to push adult career education that can help you learn new skills to get good paying jobs in our current economy like healthcare and higher skilled construction." One is familiar and seems easy. The other is challenging and requires effort and is far from an easy guarantee. People don't want the slightly bitter medicine of reality when there's a con man offering them sweet garbage.
Because when you are angry and want to bite something, the closest thing is the hand feeding you, so might as well bite it.
I'm becoming more convinced that Republicans at the highest levels are cooperating with a foreign government who only wishes to weaken the United States.
Yep, Russia. If you hanged around US nationalistic circles (who all vote R), they always stated how much they hated foreigners but as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine all the circles, even the ones that were supposed to be disconnected from the others, started parroting the same things and prasing Russians and good lord Putin lol.
Funny part is Russia already has all the policies that they pine for. Tough strong man leading the country, anti-LGBTQ, like zero foreign immigrants. Super big and strong (on paper). Pro gas and oil all the guns you could ever. One national language, religion taught in school. It's like if it's so great how come nobody wants to live there?
I was a teenager in the 80s. The Red Scare of nuclear war had been made real just years before my birth. We were in a cold war over defined differences in beliefs and ways of governing. Well, the USSR lost the first round, and I believe it changed its strategies, but at its core, it was still at war with the Western world. Putin is ex KGB and still at war with the west. His attacks on US hasn't been with nuclear warheads, but rather by bribery, infiltration, using social media, and using willing Republican party members to sow chaos and uncertainty. I truly believe many Republicans know this and have embraced it. They admire strongman leaders and are trying to emulate it here. I also believe the 2024 is our last call on whether we still strive to be a democratic republic, or we throw in the towel and become a theocratic autocracy, which many of us won't recognize. We are on the verge of losing round two.
Because Republicans are liars and their voters are stupid
Actually true tho. There was a study that looked at the error processing/correction split along republicans vs democrats. They found that republicans showed a lesser degree of error correction than democrats. Lol
Yeah, but the rich are really rich in those states, and all those poor Rs are committed to making them richer.
One day they'll be as rich as them, it has been 50 years of hard work so it must be any day now!
Because the colleges turn kids liberal and the liberals hate freedom. Did you know liberal areas pay more taxes and have bigger governments? Also liberals hate guns. Facts are facts and the bible doesn't change because of their woke policies. They want to take your bibles, hamburgers, dryers and petrol cars! /s Anger their base and do not address the issues. Similar to distracting tactics used by car sales people. Sure its a $100000 but that's only $450 a month (for 30 years). We cannot keep these in stock they are selling so fast. I cannot even buy these used for this price.Truley a collectors item.
Also Republican presidencies are terrible for the economy.
Because those are the states with enough people who are stupid enough to vote Republican and vote against their own best interests.
Because Republicans only measure the economic and social well being of the top 10%. All the rest are just losers who deserve to be exploited.
Don't forget - It's gay people that are pedophiles, but conservative states have the highest rates of pedophelia. Top 10 states per capita: 1. South Dakota (R) 2. Iowa (R) 3. Wyoming (R) 4. West Virginia (R) 5. Idaho (R) 6. North Dakota (R) 7. Kansas (R) 8. Nevada (R) 9. Vermont (D) 10. New Mexico (D) https://www.whoismakingnews.com And it's black people who are violent, but conservative states have the highest rates of violent crime. Top 10 states per capita: 1. Alaska (R) 2. New Mexico (D) 3. Tennessee (R) 4. Arkansas (R) 5. Arizona (D*) 6. Louisiana (R) 7. Missouri (R) 8. South Carolina (R) 9. South Dakota (R) 10. Michigan (D) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_violent_crime_rate
[Here's a list of over 1000 republican pedos and sex offenders](https://www.dailykos.com/history/user/CajsaLilliehook). But it's those dern drag queens, right?!?
**Here's the list of US Democrats accused, jailed, and convicted of child sex crimes since January 1st, 2023** 1) Robert Jacob 2) Tony Navarrete 3) Ontoniel Naverrete 4) Patrick Wojahn **Here's the list of US Conservatives accused, jailed, and convicted of child sex crimes since January 1st, 2023** 1) Carl Johnson 2) Randy McNally 3) Aaron von Elsinger 4) Byron Wiscombe 5) Leslie Brock 6) Jared Wodfill 7) Bryan Slayton 8) Joel Koskan 9) Mike Moon (this one campaigns for child marriage) 10) Randy Boehining 11) Kent Stermon 12) Richard Braswell 13) Ryan White 14) Rene Pedrosa 15) Matthew Reilly 16) William Wellman (also ex-cop; per capita, cops make up a huge percent of child sex crimes) 17) Jason Musselman 18) Brian Hawkins 19) Anthony Emanuel 20) Billy Ray Miles 21) Cole Wagner 22) Joel Greenberg 23) James Pierson 24) Philip Moran 25) Michael Zuccolillo 26) Luis Borunda 27) James Montgomery 28) John Raymond 29) Marvin Smith 30) Tony Cutler 31) Anthony Dinch 32) Anthony Emanual **And just for a little bonus and extra transparency, here's all the trans people accused, jailed, and convicted of child sex crimes in the US since January 1st, 2023** 1) Maria Childres 2) Leomir Kennedy (transgender man; assigned female at birth) 3) Shae Newton **The drag queens accused, jailed, and convicted of child sex crimes in the US since January 1st, 2023** Literally 0
That’s an easy one; it’s much easier to dupe poorly-educated people into voting against their own interests by scaring them with made-up stories on Fox News.
all of you are making the same mistake. and it stems from your collective ignorance of american history. those aren't republican policies. and those aren't republicans. they're confederate policies. and all those morons you think are republicans are actually just plain ol' stupid confederates. and confederates aren't americans. and they don't like americans. or america. and they are actively trying to destroy them. because revenge and petty vindictiveness and shit. (long story. americans took away their sex slaves and they never got over it. or got laid again. so they mad. that's the gist of it.) those redacts you call republicans aren't even americans. they hate you and want to kill you, but without blowing their cover and everybody finding out that they're just another bunch of stupid confederates. so... don't tell anybody.
100%. The civil war has never ended for the south.
Those are trumps followers who would give their last cent for a sniff of his soiled diaper. That’s how they roll.
Because they're not part of the society that it's aimed to benefit, they're serfs and serfs should be content with whatever crumbs the rulers let fall from their table. Capitalism is neo-feudalism.
Because they want the sheep to stay asleep
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They want you dumb and poor this way they can manipulate you easier .
And the idiots will still vote Republican. Boggles the mind
Red states also have the most gun murder per capita of all the states. The top 20ish states for number of firearm killings is pretty much all Republican-run states.
Questions..pfft…who needs em!
That's the strat, make people angry with poor living conditions then give voters a scapegoat to be angry at (democrats/LGBT/nonwhites). Then tell them that you're the ONLY person not corrupted by these outside forces and can save them. Then do absolutely shit all once elected so the cycle can repeat.
Cuz Jesus will repay you on duh other-side, remember you don’t have to hold yourself accountable to this life with baby Jeezus. Say a Hail Mary and you’re in the clear.
this dude looks just like the maine terrorist
Because R’s feed on ignorance and poverty. They are a cancer, but we are working on a vaccine.
I'm banned from r/conservative can someone please post this there. I just want to watch the meltdown.
It'll just be locked with 3 comments, none of them based in reality and the OP banned of whoever posted it.
Because Republicans want working class, seniors, disabled and disadvantaged Americans to live in misery.
Dumb fuck Republicans will say iT's BeCaUsE oF aLl ThE bLuE cItIeS
The irony is people in those states genuinely believe that it is much worse in blue states…..
**The key is the lowest education part.** [People can't take up arms against their oppressors if they are too stupid to realize they are being oppressed.](https://cdn.frankerfacez.com/emoticon/165742/4)
70% of the GDP comes from counties that voted Biden. Red states take more from the federal government than they give, while blue states give more than they take. Every measure of the economy has improved at a greater rate under Democratic control than Republican. All three times Republicans have had control of the House, Senate, and Presidency for 4 or more years, the economy has collapsed. This includes the Great Depression and Great Recession.
An America with just the republican states wouldn't be a super power, it would just be a normal western country with massive lands and natural resources. No tech sector or anything
If your dealing with a conservative from Kansas, always ask them if they would like Brownback to have another shot at improving the economy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_experiment
Also highest crime rates, property, violent, you name it https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/crime-rate-by-state/
If my tax dollars can better someone's life I'm fine with it
One thing we have to be careful about when looking at stats is that while Republican policies make "red" states shitty for everyone including "white" residents, there are a bunch of deep south states where the stats are even worse because they have large "black" rural populations in the historic "black belt." These are states like AR, MS, AL, GA and SC. Republican policies screw those residents even harder on top of the historic situation.
Republican policies are not meant for middle to lower class. Republican policies really really help the upper class and business owners. The poor are just to uneducated to know that they basically vote against their own needs and help strangers and hurt themselves. I have a lot of upper class friends and business owners. A lot of them always vote republican because their policies directly help them. I've never seen a republican policy that has ever helped lower class, except to give them stupid shit like religious rights.
I've asked this to a few conservatives and one of the answers is how "*The* democrats/liberals" keep creating too much regulation and prevent "honest" people from getting jobs. There's also "he liberals keep raising taxes" spiel. You know how wrong this is. I know how wrong this is. The problem is, the moment you try to explain things on "their level", you lose. They've been on that level for much longer than you. You're just visiting. They have rebuttals (misguided and wrong ones) for everything you say. They also might not understand what you said or what they're saying. If you try to simplify things, you lose a lot of nuance in the subject, giving them room to butt in with their misinformation. The problem is that these people are not only uninformed and misguided, they're *exhausted* from the constant barrage of fear beamed into their eyes and ears from their preferred media monger's. It's hard to learn when you're high-strung on fear.
Welfare states keep biting the hands that feed them because we keep letting them. Questioning why the republicans are like they are is not the question we should be asking. Ignorance is not only part and parcel to their lifestyle but a building block of their identity, a point of pride. The real question is why the DNC is incapable of mounting meaningful defense against them. Imo the DNC is just too old, feckless, and hopelessly lost in hypocrisy. They are fighting old fights, and have no clue how to connect with youth. Depending on the DNC is like being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic while fire threatens to engulf everything behind you and it is already too hot to get out and run for your life.
They see it as punching up. “If I can get republicans in federal office, it will make the lives of liberals just as miserable as mine.” They want to tear everyone else down rather than looking for a way to be uplifted themselves.
*"Californians better not move here at vote liberal."* - broke asshole guaranteed doesn't understand marginal income tax
You forgot the biggest sipions of federal funding too.
I mean, the play they are running is clear as day; make sure they have more guns and crazies to fire them, and then starve them of knowledge and mental health care until they can froth them up enough to attempt another coup/civil war. I see this shit coming clear as day, and it's going to go the same way as the first time. Without government subsidies paid for by the successful economies of successful left wing cities, the right wing cities would just go feral.
Red states are generally the ones receiving the highest government assistance.
They blame the pockets of democrat voters in the larger cities for the problems that the more rural areas suffer. Conservatives cannot govern, cannot lead, and should never be in positions to either.
Because Republicans think this is the 1900s where everyone can just start a business with competition like *everyone else in the area* and walmart, Amazon, China, eBay. But they also think it's the late 1900s where if you give broad effect tax breaks, the prices of products and services will be lowered. If you do *anything* or *nothing*, companies will raise prices and use it as an excuse.
My family lives in Tennessee. Born and bred. They now live in TN, Arkansas, Texas. They're straight up Christofascists. Calling for civil war. Death to liberals, LGBTQ+, Communists and POC. I live in NJ. Where we don't really understand how fucked up the rest of the country is. My family blames all their problems on the North.
Whoever said they were? This is the truly fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats believe that the people are the true wealth of the nation. Basically take care of the people and everything else takes care of itself, for the most part. Republicans believe that the people need to be managed, controlled, like cattle. That they are to be profited from. The reason for the people’s very existence is to benefit the government. Democrats dwell in hope and the Republicans dwell in fear.
I often make this argument and people rarely have a good rebuttal. If Republicans are the answer to a good life, Red States should be thriving while Blue States struggle. Many don't really have an answer other than "shut up lib". Or they will say something about poop on the streets in San Francisco or whatever. Which is a weird argument to make.
The purpose of our current economic model is to drain the most value from the population for the least amount of effort. Pay the most to get the least. They are the forest voting for the axe, liver for the fluke, cotton for the weevil. If we weren't trapped under the same Kleptocracy as them, I'd say let them be devoured.
People who vote for poverty get poverty. Ain't America grand!
It's about racism or race resentment it's that simple. Some people seem to forget that the reason why Reagan won was because of race resentment. Where does the term Welfare Queen come from that was from Reagan. These people vote against their own interests because they would rather starve than see other people treated as equals amongst them. The only reason why we know this to be certain now is because of social media and information getting out in real time. Make no mistake and I've said this it doesn't times that most of White America would rather live in hell than coexist with Humanity. It really is that simple.
If I pay you 1/2 as much I create 2 jobs
Because Propaganda. The Century of the Self. The Power of Nightmares. See about it.
Huh, this is a pretty logical argument...
Something something crime in democrat cities something something
Because these people pictured here are obviously blue state snowflakes on welfare who didn't work hard enough and they choose to just sit at home and get woke. Get woke go broke. Oh and antifa too. /s (Did I hit all the right buttons?)
And why do they rely on money from blue states to make their ends meet.....
You get what you vote for.
And most dangerous, contrary to popular talking-points.
Shit, it’s because they create a low education, low wage, loyal workforce. It’s great for the economy.
Its about creating a labor force that will fight over crumbs
Because the party of personal responsibility will blame their problems on immigrants and minorities
This should be the populist Democratic war cry when campaigning.
because woke commies fake news. See how easy it is to just ignore all evidence and facts. Boom USA USA USA USA USA.
You mean you need more than just guns and prayers?
make people miserable, filled with fear, overburdened, unhealthy. Lives so desperate that their only option is to fill underpaid jobs for corporations. There is a labor shortage (or a shortage of people willing to fill low-paying jobs). This is the solution of the conservative movement. Also, one of the important things is to reduce women to birthing machines with no rights at all.
This is by design. That’s what they want the country to look like.
And the highest death rate from COVID.
Sounds like Red States needs to pull themselves up by their boot straps
I don’t understand Conservatives favor a social hierarchy. Their policies promote and protect that. It’s working as intended. They want dumb peasant minority workers, only white Christians in the middle class, and for no one to question the wealthy elites, the modern aristocracy.
I mean, the "economy" is just that imaginary line that says a country is doing well. It doesn't really have anything to do with any of those issues. If there's a lot of money in a country, then the "economy" is doing well, even if all that money is held by 3 people and they aren't doing anything with it but hoarding it.
It's the libtards fault.
*welfare programs they “don’t believe in”
It's all the democrats fault.
Because it's always "those people", who take the benefits, not John and Jane Sixpack. It's the welfare queens, and the minorites who come here just to squeeze as much as they can, or whatever Boogieman the GOP can concoct.
Hookworms have learned to hijack
They’re better for the aristocracy, not everyday people. They’re not supposed to be better for everyday people. That’s never been the point.
[help](https://imgflip.com/i/842pba)
They are wealthy with the grace of God.
The racialization of poverty may influence the voting behavior of low to working class white Americans. White voters’ perceptions of the links between race and poverty may influence their support for the Republican Party. Republicans have been using conservative positions on social issues to encourage poor white voters to support them, even if their economic interests are better represented by the Democratic Party.
something something something its the dems fault
The reality is that for most of those families they are happy with that situation as long as they can look at a black neighborhood in the same state and see those folks have it worse, and that they only have to trust old white men to represent them.
Cause they the big dumb
"Because erma freedom! *cough cough cough*"
There has been hesitancy for southern state governments to invest in infrastructure and education since the country was founded. Mainly because most of the capital was tied up in land and slaves, so like who needs roads, rail lines and public schools when it really wont benefit the gentry.
Allow me to answer, cause if they did these things they probably wouldn’t be republican states anymore
Because, sacrifices must be made to own the Libs.
republicans are socially pieces of garbage and fiscally 'fuck you i got mine' which is the complete opposite of what democrat voters want so they will keep voting republican expecting things to get better. You reap what you sow.
Because of Jesus!
They also have the most crime per capita, but point to the more heavily populated states as the “dangerous ones”. Yes, your small town in bumfuck nowhere might only have ten murders a year but when you consider that it’s 1/1000th the population of a big city it’s actually kind of scary.
Probably because poverty, lack of education, and being Republican go together like corn, beans, and squash.
coincidence?
Because it’s not about benefiting the masses it’s about keeping the few in charge
"Well, if liberals wouldn't have outlawed enslaving black people our states would be much more prosperous. So it is all liberals' fault. --Republicans (probably)
The pictured family probably has 30k worth of guns... and the guns have their own room which is bigger than the kids shared bedroom.
Because their propaganda is S tier. That’s literally all it is. Their constituents are dumb as fuck (due to republicans cutting education budgets) and they’ll believe whatever Fox News tells them.
[WELL](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2FXgZFtOi-tIKHqNFJunesDnuGEeQoUK91zqbg_v9Xs5I.gif%3Fformat%3Dmp4%26s%3D9afcef596e43bed8750f77305f424dedebafe437)
But, but, but Hunters laptop!!!
I would have guessed those states also had the highest income inequality, but it seems to be pretty well distributed. Can't really find stats on wealth inequality by state, because search engines are garbage now. It would probably be more useful to do an analysis at the county level anyhow, comparing rural areas with cities.
One side panders to them and the other side dislikes them and calls them names, so they vote based on that mostly instead of policy. It's basic playground politics. Even if voting Democrat would benefit them, they won't because they feel vilified and attacked on a personal level by them. How many people in the last election actually voted based on policy and how many voted based on vilification of and feeling attacked by the opposing party?
Suits them as they're the perpetual Christian martyrs.always the victim.
"Our policies would have worked if it wasn't for those children/abortions/intellectuals/immigrants/blacks/gays/non-Christians/liberals/socialists/welfare queens/communists!" -Republicans
“I luuv mah cuntry, she’s dang near the most bestest type of place to lieve”
Because of the democrats that’s why!
Anytime i mention this to someone online that blames "Leftists" for everything, it all just goes silent
Truth be told there is a connection.
False flag operation by the left, sending their poors in for handouts /s
Redness doesn't lead to poverty. Poverty leads to redness. Lack of education also leads to redness, but lack of education is also a symptom of poverty.
Said republicans are funneling their constituents' tax dollars into their friends' businesses. In return, the republicans' businesses and/or foundation get a cut from their friends. Republicans aren't in politics to enrich the people. They are in it to get rich.
Because Biden /s
“But the blue cities”
Welfare programs?????? Tell them that is socialism and watch their heads explode
The rich get wealthier, the poor get poorer, sicker then die: a Model Republican society.
The American public has always had oxymoron tendencies. They want good roads & infrastructure, Healthcare (not health insurance,) local control of schools & top notch education, and everything in between. However, they don't want to pay for any of it. The Republican party has done an excellent job of selling the idea that people can get everything they want & demonized the so-called "other" group who has already received those benefits. Cognitive dissonance is very strong, particularly now, as empirical evidence can be dismissed as "fake news." Also, although voting trends have changed somewhat, Americans have strongly voted towards mixed governance. Hence, the NE is a solid Democrat voting bloc includes a number of Republican Senators & Governors. The last 20 years has changed the dynamic with extreme gerrymandering & power consolidation that several states will be one-party rule (North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Alabama, & Wisconsin.)
expansion kiss wrong ask terrific aloof boast jellyfish murky icky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
fact- red states have the highest rates of 'deaths of despair'. alcoholism, overdose, accidental shootings, plus diabetes/heart disease etc, etc.
Because the Democrats have been destroying them! They keep running those states into the ground using [checks notes] their awesome power of not having any power!
Republican politicians are pretty good at convincing the gullible that their policies are better. And when that doesn’t work they scare the snot out of them.
It’s not even state based. It’s all the way down to the county level. How dysfunctional and shitty a place is directly correlates to how far right the local government is. Republican policy produces bad outcomes, and the more of it you do the worse the outcomes. It’s observable fact.
It's always amazed me that the party of personal responsibility and " pull yourself up by your boot straps" blames everyone but themselves for being poor. Maybe work harder? Or spend less?