Submitted by AgentDaxis t3_10wmer9 in Pennsylvania
[deleted] t1_j7nyrq7 wrote
It looks like Republicans just didn't bother showing up to these. HD-35, the least Democratic district, was won by Biden by around 16 points. Tonight, the Democrat won by 58. I think this might be a consequence of the educational divide. Educated voters are the most reliable, and they have become a Democratic group.
linkdudesmash t1_j7p3si0 wrote
It’s Trump aftermath. The current Republican Party is so lost thinking they understand the population. They don’t understand the voter base. Source I am a registered republican. Fuck the current GOP.
SgtBaxter t1_j7p7jq7 wrote
Because you are an intelligent and reasonable person.
I used to be Republican because like a lot of us, that's what people around me were. I came a voting age at the end of Reagan's administration. So I voted for Bush senior.
Fast forward to the next election, I was in college and Bill Clinton came and spoke. I was interested, so I went. He sat there and actually talked to us, he answered questions. I didn't necessarily agree with everything he said, but he made me feel like if he got into office my future would be better. After that, I immediately switch my voter registration to independent, and it's been there ever since.
Forward a few more years, and I remember a few times where I actually left a job and had a better paying one the very next day. Meanwhile, Republicans were wasting my tax money with their bullshit Whitewater investigation that led to us hearing about a bj. Nothing but a bunch of clowns.
I've said it before, I say it now, and it holds true. If all you do is vote for someone based on party affiliation, you are nothing more than a slave.
HeyZuesHChrist t1_j7pc2xp wrote
What option do I have? Let’s be realistic. The Republican Party is gross. Every single one of their social stances are dog shit and hateful. They openly support fascism. They are unvotable. Voting for an independent is throwing away my vote. While Democrats are not perfect they are easily the best option by a country mile. I only have one realistic option. I wish I had more realistic choices but I don’t.
Marv95 t1_j7s9w2o wrote
You can sit out the election.
Voting for an independent isn't throwing away your vote if you know you did the right thing, and if they align with your policies more than the other 2 parties.
SpicyWokHei t1_j7smiak wrote
Voting for an Independent is not throwing away a vote. It shows people are voting for them and continues to build momentum over time. It's only a wasted vote if you dont bother voting causing a self fulfilling prophecy.
"I'm going to fail the exam, so why study?" fails exam because didn't study
linkdudesmash t1_j7pb714 wrote
Very true. I need to change to independent. I wish they would pick some average joe American. They would probably be the best (job title) we ever had. I find myself voting 3rd party a lot because the candidates are normal people.
cyvaquero t1_j7pe9kc wrote
As a former registered PA Republican who was voting mostly Dem in state and national races by 2008, do not go independent in PA's closed primary system. You lose your voice in who is on the ballot come November.
While I have my issues with Texas politics I do enjoy being an Independent and being able to vote in the primary of the party of my choice for that cycle.
These days I the only Republican that gets my vote in the general is the county tax assessor because the Dem incumbent is from a political dynasty which I'm not a fan of. However, last year I voted in the Republican primary because O'Rourke had the Dem nomination sewn up (as much as I think he is unelectable in statewide elections).
Tidusx145 t1_j7pjz3o wrote
Yup my in laws are independents and have to stay home on primary day (unless there is a special vote like a referendum, but there wasn't one last year so expect to not be able to vote some primaries).
SgtBaxter t1_j7q8oao wrote
Yes this is unfortunately something that we need to change in this state.
Rich-Hat-29 t1_j7qd86u wrote
Good to see all of you “I was once a Registered republican” sniffing your own farts here.
HeyZuesHChrist t1_j7pca3n wrote
I don’t want an average Joe American in the WH either. The average Joe is wholly unqualified for it.
Finrodsrod t1_j7ppuas wrote
Jimmy Carter was an average Joe. Great guy, inept when it came to knowing how to navigate the Washington scum. I want more like Clinton and Obama in office.
It's such a shame that Hilary Clinton lost 2016. This country would have been so much better off economically and perhaps COvid would have not been as bad globally with a competent US lead.
Atrocious_1 t1_j7qkwy6 wrote
All those people you listed are career politicians
Finrodsrod t1_j7qpvho wrote
And...? I thought were were talking about how the average Joe doesn't get modern day politics and how they work?
raven4747 t1_j7rwpt3 wrote
politics is complicated enough that you probably want someone in that seat who knows the landscape. associating politicians with corruption but not CEOs and businessmen is hilarious.
Atrocious_1 t1_j7s0iyo wrote
Yes. What's even more hilarious is thinking any one of those people was an "average Joe".
Tidusx145 t1_j7pjrnr wrote
Careful bud. If you actually live in PA we are a closed primary state (something I disagree with heavily) and as such once you register as independent you are cutting yourself entirely out of the primary process in this state. My in laws are independents and nothing gets my father in law more annoyed than the reminder he can't vote on primary day unless there's a referendum. I worked the primaries last year and had to refuse over a dozen independents from voting because there was nothing for them to vote for.
Not saying you shouldn't change registration, do you. Just be aware that it's more than a self identity thing here, it comes with consequences.
baldude69 t1_j7pk7vh wrote
Fetterman feels pretty close to “average Joe”
I know his parents were middle class and helped support him, but he is definitely not an elite and relates to normal peoples issues way more than most politicians. I wish to see more politicians like him run for office
Finrodsrod t1_j7ppoy1 wrote
> I need to change to independent. I
No, stay registered and drive SANE candidates for primaries.
PGHNeil t1_j7psmcc wrote
No, that just means you have to abide by others' bad choices from the primary because you had to stay home in May. I hate to say it, but in the primaries it's best to vote for the weakest candidate so that you can vote for the lesser of two evils in the general election.
wagsman t1_j7q6oz6 wrote
Yeah, I honestly can't remember the last policy the party has tried to make a reality besides the 2017 tax cuts. Republicans have to stop fighting culture wars and start winning the war of ideas if they want to win back voters. The average voter wants solutions not complaints.
eMPereb t1_j7rya54 wrote
Bingo!
Abject-Rich t1_j7shciq wrote
Amén, amigo.
MomentOfXen t1_j7o0p1c wrote
Why show up? It’s all rigged right?
Seems they didn’t think that strategy through huh.
baldude69 t1_j7pkgal wrote
They went all-in on the Big Lie and it blew up in their face. We all heard the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, but apparently not all of us listened
Libsoccer20 t1_j7o0jaw wrote
This has been the biggest change in the last almost 40 years. Education between the parties has completely flipped.
Ihaveaboot t1_j7o2gs8 wrote
Senior voters are the most reliable.
By a large margin.
Mortico t1_j7oiwkf wrote
They also die of old age pretty reliably. Just wait another 10 years and the boomers will start dying off in large numbers. Everything will get better when the boomers die.
NotNowDamo t1_j7ow285 wrote
I have been saying that for 40 years.
Heathen_Mushroom t1_j7p8wju wrote
Said every generation ever.
The popularity of this fallacy is timeless. In 50 years the generation of teens and 20-something will be eager for the deaths of the unrepentantly backward, greedy and immoral Gen Z.
MongolianCluster t1_j7pa1pw wrote
Maybe. But I definitely see something in teens today that I didn't see much of in my own teen years - compassion. I'm sure it was there before, but in greater numbers teens seem to care about social issues and something bigger than themselves more than ever before.
Extreme_Qwerty t1_j7sla8t wrote
I think it's because younger Americans are getting CRUSHED by the older generation and establishment pols who don't give a fuck about them.
Azr431 t1_j7padd4 wrote
Only no. If you look at surveys or analysis of Boomers compared to every younger generation at relative age periods, Boomers have always been further to the right with narcissistic behaviors that aren’t seen in younger gens.
goplantagarden t1_j7pe43e wrote
Boomers were called the Me Generation by their own parents.
Atrocious_1 t1_j7qlwu2 wrote
Or even their own parents.
It's really even more important that boomers are removed from any sort of decision making, political and corporate, than it is them being unable to vote. They've been incompetently running things for the past 30 years and it needs to stop.
PPQue6 t1_j7peyf9 wrote
Yep, I work with plenty of younger people who are right of Tucker Carlson... I can't believe people still believe in this logical fallacy.
baldude69 t1_j7pmfmr wrote
Yes but you also live in Erie according to your flair.. big cities are growing, fueled by young adults flocking to them, and these metros and their surrounding suburbs are where progressive thought is causing all these state election upsets.
There will always be conservative young adults thanks to their conservative parents, but most of them are located in rural or rural-adjacent areas, so I wouldn’t trust this anecdotal sample as a solid indicator, for the same reason I wouldn’t trust West Philadelphia as a sample for what the rest of the state is like
PPQue6 t1_j7px3zt wrote
That's a fair point.
Jasontheperson t1_j7qy40g wrote
Are they straight up fascist?
PJSeeds t1_j7rhtmf wrote
Yeah, to the right of Tucker Carlson is where you get into openly calling for genocide instead of just dog whistling about it.
Mortico t1_j7pcns5 wrote
Nope. The boomers are a huge generation. They have immense political power, and they use it. They pass laws that are meant to help themselves at the expense of everyone else. When they were young, they voted for laws that help young people, and civil rights. Then they passed laws that help middle aged people starting careers. Then they passed laws that lowered their taxes because they were now rich.
At the expense of everyone else.
Our bridges are falling down around us, there's lead pipes, decades of pollution, and so on. It will take decades to undo the damage the boomers have done to America. All because they wanted lower taxes so they could keep more money for themselves.
My generation, and those that follow will have to pick up the tab for all of that neglect. It will cost 10x as much to fix all this shit than if we had just maintained it.
Don't even get me started on healthcare. Healthcare in this country is geared towards serving the boomers. They had pensions and good insurance when it was cheap, and now they have Medicare. They want to make sure we don't get universal healthcare because it doesn't benefit them at all.
This entire country was ruined by the boomers and I cannot 2ait until they all die. Bunch of selfish, short-sighted assholes who ruined this planet and are laughing all the way to the bank.
goplantagarden t1_j7pf4tb wrote
Boomers also handed over vast power to corporations in the name of their almighty god, capitalism; creating the billionaire class that sends dark money to any candidate who supports their investor's portfolios and unchecked growth.
Boomers and corporations quite literally made it legal to poison the environment, kill off habitats, and change the climate. To the point people are dying and they still don't care.
Heathen_Mushroom t1_j7pi126 wrote
People forget, or never knew, that the Boomers were considered (and considered themselves) a highly progressive generation. They were the generation that basically started the broad acceptance of the civil rights movement, sexual liberation, women's lib, the anti-war movement, anti-capitalism in the West, and the first to really broadly support environmentalism.
They couldn't wait until the older generation that started two world wars, committed genocides, and dropped nuclear bombs on civilian cities died off.
The famous saying, "Don't trust anyone over 30." was a Boomer invention.
Does any of this sound familiar?The lack of knowledge of social history of just the preceding generation, not to mention past centuries, is either down to a failure of schools or supreme narcissism.
Mortico t1_j7pk0s0 wrote
I study history, economics, geography, geopolitics a dn so on as a hobby. For decades.
They did start these movements, yes. I said as much when I said they voted for civil rights and freedoms for young people. WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG PEOPLE.
They voted for whatever suited their demographic the best. Most generations do that, but because they are a huge portion of the electorate, they always go their way.
They are the same people who run universities like businesses, charge too much for shit education, and then vote against student loan forgiveness.
They own the universities now, that's why. They don't care about young people now, they only cared about young people when they were young.
I had my college tuition paid for by rich boomers. But I still empathize with students today, because they get such a shit deal. I was fortunate, but the boomers don't see things that way. They feel they earned everything they stole through hard work and determination. But they are totally blind to the fact that they've been rigging the system in their favor for decades, and that they happen to come of age during one of the most productive and prosperous times in American history. Sure they contributed to that, but college was cheap, houses were cheap, jobs were plentiful, they paid well, people had job security and pensions and unions.
Then they voted to TAKE ALL OF THAT AWAY from everyone else the second they sat in the manager's chair. Pensions have been looted, college is a scam, houses are criminally overpriced, wages haven't changed in 30 years. How old were boomers 30 years ago? They were 40 years old. They froze wages and gave themselves raises and lower taxes the second they didn't need them for themselves anymore.
Boomers own 65% of the square footage of this country's housing. Millennials own 4%.
The only saving grace is that housing prices will crash when no one can afford to buy all these boomer mansions. But it will destroy the entire world economy. The boomers won't care, because they will be dead. The rest of us have to clean up the mess they made.
Redlar t1_j7qxezj wrote
>The only saving grace is that housing prices will crash when no one can afford to buy all these boomer mansions
As much as I would love for this to happen you may be forgetting that houses are being bought by investment firms as part of investment portfolios that are then rented out or bought by companies solely to use as airbnbs
Boomer money isn't going to the younger generations, it's going to be vacuumed up by nursing homes, expensive healthcare, and reverse mortgages.
Corporations not people will be seeing the money, we will be left with the scraps that they so generously bestow upon us
Mortico t1_j7r3pw3 wrote
Entirely possible. At this point I expect to inherit nothing.
baldude69 t1_j7pnxfj wrote
For sure they pioneered much of this thought, but they grew up in fat times, and when things got tough(er) they turned to Reagan, who granted was largely buoyed by their parents generation. Their turn to conservatism is nothing short of astounding and honestly seems very self-serving.
I do credit them with bringing ideas like gay rights, racial equality, environmental stewardship, and much more into mainstream thought and education, and doing some amazing things along the way, but the shift to the right blows me away, even among some of my childhood friends parents.
I’m not going to say Millenials grew up in the toughest of times, but we have witnessed a large erosion of the middle class in our own lifetimes, seen the hypocrisy of the billionaire class and their purchased politicians, and the complacency (at best) of the boomer generation, seen good jobs become more and more out of reach, healthcare worsen, pensions disappear, and more. So I don’t think we will go the same route as boomers, and I do think we are to and demand change, because right now we have a broken system that is propping up the oldest generation and not doing much for anyone else. The boomers and golden generation have obstructed this change at every opportunity, but their time is nigh, and change will come
nouveau_user t1_j7pls61 wrote
but isn't it true?
with the 'greatest generation' the jim crow era died
with the 'silent generation' mcarthyism died
with the 'baby boomers' this rebirth of racism will fade
I'm hoping with GenX religion will die
Heathen_Mushroom t1_j7ppu9u wrote
This is basically my point. Ethics and morals tend to change incrementally. The idea that one generation holds the key to a moral evolution that will usher in an epoch of utopian social harmony is just painfully naive, and rolls around every 20-30 years or so. I have seen it twice in my lifetime already.
My parents thought their grandparents' generation's passing would solve the world's problems.
I thought the passing of my grandparents' generation would solve the world's problems.
Now Gen Z thinks the passing of my parents' generation will solve the world's problems.
Gen Z's children will think my generation's passing will solve the world's problems.
Gen Z's grandchildren will think Gen Z's passing will solve the world's problems.
And each of these generations think they are the pinnacle of moral enlightenment rather than a step on the ladder.
Excelius t1_j7peww6 wrote
> In 50 years the generation of teens and 20-something will be eager for the deaths of the unrepentantly backward, greedy and immoral Gen Z.
More like millennials probably. Millennials are the second largest generational cohort after boomers, so will have massive electoral heft once the boomers shed their mortal coil.
Gen Z are probably going to be another Gen X type situation, always living in the shadow of their numerically larger predecessors.
Edit: Correction, millennials outnumber boomers as of 2019.
UnionThug456 t1_j7pj8c0 wrote
That may not be true because it's always been the case in the past that generations have gotten more conservative with age while younger generations were more progressive. That's the biggest reason older people are hated. It's the backwards, conservative "F you, I got mine" politics.
But studies show that millenials are just becoming more progressive with age. If the trend continues, millenials may not be hated for their politics the way that the current older generations are.
baldude69 t1_j7ploxm wrote
Perhaps. I am a believer in generational progressivism, and millennials grew up in a time where many progressive ideas were in mainstream education - gay rights, racial equality, recycling/environmental activism
Of course most of these things were ideas that boomers propagated in the cultural Revolution of the 60s/70s, but I believe the Reagan years supported largely by the “Golden Generation” fucked this country up pretty good
I also recognize that millennials will become slightly more conservative as they age, but we have also been witness to multiple recessions, 9/11, MAGA, growing wealth inequality, striking of Roe V. Wade, and a tough job market. I don’t think that we will slide as far to the right as Boomers. The thing I worry about most is the erosion of education and the long term implications that has for Gen Z and Alpha. I do believe in them to demand better, and believe Millenials will not go the same route as Boomers to obstruct them.
Finrodsrod t1_j7pp52q wrote
No sorry, Boomers are a special case. They're not called the "Me Generation" for nothing.
Heathen_Mushroom t1_j7psz2m wrote
Like I said, history repeats itself.
If you don't think that Gen Z are navel gazers, allow me to present TikTok, r/imthemaincharacter, and look-at-me-ism.
I think Gen Z is comprised of a majority of good people, but there is a mega strain of narcissistic, self-righteous, attention whoring, and it is all laid out on social media.
Finrodsrod t1_j7ptyab wrote
Gen Z are still kids - the oldest in their early 20's. Kids are stupid.
69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_j7pwoxg wrote
Boomers are the only generation I can think of in human history who actively and deliberately made things worse for their own children so they could prolong their own hedonism a little longer.
They are a historically terrible generation.
69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_j7pwcq7 wrote
Have you talked to Gen X lately? The 50-something white guy with shitty facial hair and Dave Matthews Band stickers on his pickup truck is a reliable conservative voter nowadays.
[deleted] t1_j7o7vgl wrote
True, but I'm only speaking about the educational divide, and educated voters are more reliable than uneducated voters.
69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_j7pw97n wrote
Senior voters have nothing better to do, that's why they're the most reliable.
If you want younger people to vote you've got to make time and room for them to do so, i.e. make election day a holiday.
0_0here t1_j7p4xlf wrote
People are tired of the crazies and are not going to turn out for them anymore.
HeyZuesHChrist t1_j7pchfb wrote
I think this is the reason. Look at the midterms. A red wave that was supposed to be a massacre was not even close to that. It was a fantastic disappointment for the GOP. People are tired of the crazy morons and they have made it clear they’d rather stay home than vote for them. They won’t change anything for 2024 either. And the GOP will stay home.
[deleted] t1_j7pgbsh wrote
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Tidusx145 t1_j7pk6s0 wrote
That's why I'm always impressed with folks who admit they were in a cult. It's easier to just pretend it didn't happen and that you weren't conned into giving your time and identity to another person. But those who admit at least have a chance to grow and not repeat the same mistakes. Not so sure about those who try to forget.
[deleted] t1_j7rd109 wrote
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Sybertron t1_j7pmtgq wrote
Well all elections are fake so why bother.
Ya keep thinking that republicans :)
BrowniesAndMilk1 t1_j7p1p8z wrote
Lmao cool broooooooo
[deleted] t1_j7roj0e wrote
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