Elections More Americans Identify as Republican than Democrat for the first time in 30 Years

[jeremyemilio]

ROFL

If you don't think that some of the more progressive, activist, and radical stances held and forwarded by some members of left and Democratic party aligned voices are a turn off to segments of the voting public who might otherwise be more inclined to cast their vote for or actively support Democrats, I really don't know who you are interacting with on a daily basis.

I'm often accused here of "bothsiderism." I get accused of that in real life, too. It's hard earned. I span two very different worlds. I was the son of a protestant pastor who was a died in red Trudeau (senior) Liberal, but pastoring in an extremely conservative denomination. I'm now the husband of a pastor in the same denomination who has spent 25 years dragging her district into the 21st century. I also spent 4 years as an undergrad and 6 years in grad school studying English Literature.

I'm a liberal through and through, but when talking to people who lean left or right I always find myself voicing the nuances of the ideas that are generally being missed or caricatured by those who disagree with them. Because there really is usually more going on than, "Those other people are evil, or morons, or both."

I say all of that as a preface to my experience over the past decade or so. Increasingly I am finding myself cautioning people that they shouldn't trust the Right on their apparent newfound liberalism in championing things like free speech, or that they should be careful not to fall into the trap of adopting dismissive and even dehumanizing sorts of attitudes around trans people or the homeless or people struggling with addiction. That's not so abnormal except that these are quite often the same people with whom, four years ago, I would have found myself arguing the point that there might be valid points to be made against male to female athletes competing in at least some sports, or that rioting and looting, while grounded in justified outrage about present and historical conditions, are neither legitimate nor effective forms of political action.

People that I encounter have absolutely pulled back toward the center or even the right on a number of those sorts of issues, and the more left leaning political parties seem to be scrambling a little to get back there without blowing up their coalitions.

I'm in Canada, so it's possible that the tone is different in the US, but my sense is that it's not very.

 

[HOLA]

Where in New York do you live. I literally see it every day. All the pharmacies near me have empty shelves.



I just addressed it. You literally didn't read what I just said.

I'd rather not reveal my exact location on here, but suffice it to say I'm a native New Yorker, grew up on Long Island, who has/does commuted to the city often for various reasons, and has many friends/family who live and/or work there too.

I'm very familiar with Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Bronx I've never ventured into much outside of a handful of Yankees games and to get a bite to eat afterwards. Staten Island...well I've never had a reason to ever go to that garbage dump.

 

[IDGETKTFO]

How many fingers do you have?

Im not following. What does fingers have to do with voting for Obama twice, once for Hillary, and once for Biden.

 

[Hog-train]

I'd rather not reveal my exact location on here, but suffice it to say I'm a native New Yorker, grew up on Long Island, who has/does commuted to the city often for various reasons, and has many friends/family who live and/or work there too.

I'm very familiar with Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan. The Bronx I've never ventured into much outside of a handful of Yankees games and to get a bite to eat afterwards. Staten Island...well I've never had a reason to ever go to that garbage dump.

Long Island is a huge difference from actually living within the boroughs and commuting on the subway every day.

"Commuting to the city often" sounds like you live in Westchester, NJ or LI and you visit certain places in the city. Those are essentially suburbs of NYC. I live IN the city. I take the subway every day to work.

Do you take the subway every day?

I just can't get over the arrogance of people thinking that them personally looking around and reading vibes is a better guide to what's going on in a huge city than data. Or the further arrogance of thinking that believing evidence is just an attempt to gaslight them.

I just gave data showing there's been a huge spike in assaults and theft is up as well.

I just showed a NY Times article, which is obviously a liberal publication, that shows our Mayor wants to change the bail reform laws because they're not working and causing crime and recidivism to go way up. Way to completely ignore facts.

Wouldn't you be the arrogant one then? You're literally telling people who live here that there's no crime because that belief aligns with your politics.

 

[pinger]

Anecdotes. What are they worth? All together now...

People are saying

 

[Jack V Savage]

Long Island is a huge difference from actually living within the boroughs and commuting on the subway every day.

"Commuting to the city often" sounds like you live in Westchester, NJ or LI and you visit certain places in the city. Those are essentially suburbs of NYC. I live IN the city. I take the subway every day to work.

Do you take the subway every day?



I just gave data showing there's been a huge spike in assaults and theft is up as well.

I just showed a NY Times article, which is obviously a liberal publication, that shows our Mayor wants to change the bail reform laws because they're not working and causing crime and recidivism to go way up. Way to completely ignore facts.

Wouldn't you be the arrogant one then? You're literally telling people who live here that there's no crime because that belief aligns with your politics.

You said it feels like the '90s, even though the evidence shows a huge decline in crime (also way off recent highs). And you're saying that anyone who trusts data over your interpretation of vibes is "gaslighting" you.

 

[Hog-train]

You said it feels like the '90s, even though the evidence shows a huge decline in crime (also way off recent highs). And you're saying that anyone who trusts data over your interpretation of vibes is "gaslighting" you.

I literally showed there is a spike in assaults and thefts. Not my "vibes."

 

[Jack V Savage]

I literally showed there is a spike in assaults and thefts. Not my "vibes."

Crime is down, yes? Way off recent highs and recent highs were below the '90s, right? Why do you have to be so dramatic? Just be honest from the start.

 

[Hog-train]

Crime is down, yes? Way off recent highs and recent highs were below the '90s, right? Why do you have to be so dramatic? Just be honest from the start.

Yea certain crimes like murder and property crimes are down, but assaults and robberies are up. In Central Park, felony assaults increased by 57% in 2024 compared to 2023.

Overall offenses are up. That means not only counting the 7 major felonies, but everything, which includes misdemeanors and violations. Those have all been rising sharply over recent years, reaching levels not seen in a decade. This underreported fact may help explain why many New Yorkers think the city’s quality of life is deteriorating.

Theft and robberies are rampant yet not really prosecuted, so don't get counted in these "crime is down" stats.

The bail reform laws that got passed make it so the lower level offenses just get let go. Then they come out immediately after a night in a holding cell and re-offend.

 

[HOLA]

Long Island is a huge difference from actually living within the boroughs and commuting on the subway every day.

No, it's really not. In fact, if anything, some of the neighborhoods in Nassau are rougher than what's left in areas of the city in recent years. Roosevelt, Uniondale, areas.

"Commuting to the city often" sounds like you live in Westchester, NJ or LI and you visit certain places in the city. Those are essentially suburbs of NYC. I live IN the city. I take the subway every day to work.

Do you take the subway every day?

I live on Long Island. No, I don't take the subway every day, but I've taken it thousands of times. Probably going back to 2000 or so. No more crazies now than there was then, in my experience.

I just gave data showing there's been a huge spike in assaults and theft is up as well.

I just showed a NY Times article, which is obviously a liberal publication, that shows our Mayor wants to change the bail reform laws because they're not working and causing crime and recidivism to go way up. Way to completely ignore facts.

Wouldn't you be the arrogant one then? You're literally telling people who live here that there's no crime because that belief aligns with your politics.

I'm literally not telling people who live there that there is no crime. Reread what I wrote if that's what you think.

 

[Hog-train]

No, it's really not. In fact, if anything, some of the neighborhoods in Nassau are rougher than what's left in areas of the city in recent years. Roosevelt, Uniondale, areas.

Nassau and places like that are less densely populated than the boroughs. I'm well aware of Long Island too as my stepdad lives there and I'm going there tomorrow. I don't think pharmacy shelves are completely empty in LI as it is here.

I'm in Manhattan and the CVS shelves are empty because people are shoplifting everything and the stuff that's there is locked down with key. People openly come in and just take things in big bags.

I live on Long Island. No, I don't take the subway every day, but I've taken it thousands of times. Probably going back to 2000 or so. No more crazies now than there was then, in my experience.

There are definitely more crazies and more aggressive as well. I take the subway every day.

I'm literally not telling people who live there that there is no crime. Reread what I wrote if that's what you think.

You're telling me there is the same level as there has always been. That's simply not true.

 

[Rob Battisti]

I literally showed there is a spike in assaults and thefts. Not my "vibes."

 

[fedorthegoat777]

As I got older, I started to move more towards the left with the Democrats save the environment policies and anti war mongering policies.

This administration is more pro war than others, it seems as if that is no longer a policy of theirs. Also the open borders is a huge negative along with goofy DEI and all the crazy woke stuff.

Democrats were once the party of the people, that seems to no longer be the case. Now they are the party of the minorities, illegal immigrants, and sexually confused. No longer for the average American.

 

[Jack V Savage]

If you don't think that some of the more progressive, activist, and radical stances held and forwarded by some members of left and Democratic party aligned voices are a turn off to segments of the voting public who might otherwise be more inclined to cast their vote for or actively support Democrats, I really don't know who you are interacting with on a daily basis.

I'm often accused here of "bothsiderism." I get accused of that in real life, too. It's hard earned. I span two very different worlds. I was the son of a protestant pastor who was a died in red Trudeau (senior) Liberal, but pastoring in an extremely conservative denomination. I'm now the husband of a pastor in the same denomination who has spent 25 years dragging her district into the 21st century. I also spent 4 years as an undergrad and 6 years in grad school studying English Literature.

I'm a liberal through and through, but when talking to people who lean left or right I always find myself voicing the nuances of the ideas that are generally being missed or caricatured by those who disagree with them. Because there really is usually more going on than, "Those other people are evil, or morons, or both."

I say all of that as a preface to my experience over the past decade or so. Increasingly I am finding myself cautioning people that they shouldn't trust the Right on their apparent newfound liberalism in championing things like free speech, or that they should be careful not to fall into the trap of adopting dismissive and even dehumanizing sorts of attitudes around the trans people or the homeless or people struggling with addiction. That's not so abnormal except that these are quite often the same people with whom, four years ago, I would have found myself arguing the point that there might be valid points to be made against male to female athletes competing in at least some sport, or that rioting and looting, while grounded in justified outrage about present and historical conditions, are neither legitimate nor effective forms of political action.

People that I encounter have absolutely pulled back toward the center or even the right on a number of those sorts of issues, and the more left leaning political parties seem to be scrambling a little to get back there without blowing up their coalitions.

I'm in Canada, so it's possible that the tone is different in the US, but my sense is that it's not very.

There was a leftward move between 2016 and 2020, in part because of Trump and in part, I think, because Bernie's surprising run in 2016 gave people the wrong idea about what voters wanted. But Biden won the 2020 primary and generally, Democrats got the message about that.

The problem--the obstacle to clarity on this stuff--is that a lot of people are incentives to be blind. The opposite party always wants to portray their opponents as extremists, while extremists on each side always want to portray the closer party as sellouts to the opposition. That background makes reasonable people seem like allies of one of those two factions and leads to people tuning out. I argued with a lot of leftist nuts in 2016 and a bit beyond who claimed that Democrats were moving right, and now I find myself arguing more with rightist nuts who don't admit that they have moved right.

 

[USA!USA!]

The extremes on both sides have tainted both left and right. I miss having real, respectable and congenial candidates.

Now every candidate paints the other side as evil and talks about how they will destroy the country.. we are all Americans - be fucking civil for Christ’s sake. That goes for the right AND the left.

This started with Trump. There is no denying that. He brought a showmanship to politics and the disregard for decency. Don’t care what you think about his politics - you can’t deny that part of his campaigns and presidency. He has changed the game for the worse.

 

[HOLA]

Nassau and places like that are less densely populated than the boroughs. I'm well aware of Long Island too as my stepdad lives there and I'm going there tomorrow.

Sure, in the real The Great Gatsby areas. But if you're familiar with it you'd know nothing magical happens when you go from like Great Neck to Bayside. It's the same shit, except you can't turn right on red in Queens. The area around Hofstra, NCC, The Coliseum, Hempstead turnpike, is just as urban if not more than many areas of the city.

In many of the areas of Brooklyn that were rough 30 years ago, your greatest inconvenience today would probably be some passive aggressive hipster on his vespa scooter, or some asshole in his spandex and bicycle who thinks he owns the road.

There are definitely more crazies and more aggressive as well. I take the subway every day.

Well, it sounds like we've had different experiences.

You're telling me there is the same level as there has always been. That's simply not true.

Not that it's always been. Things, as far as I understand, were much worse in the 70's and 80's. But I have 20 years of experience. More than 20, actually. Cut class all the time and went in with my friends plenty even before 9/11. And it does not seem worse to me. My sister's husband works in finance on Broadway and has for 25 years. Does not seem worse to him.

This does not, to be clear, mean there isn't any crime, of course there is, and It's really silly that I have to make that clarification.

 

[Corona]

Yea certain crimes like murder and property crimes are down, but assaults and robberies are up. In Central Park, felony assaults increased by 57% in 2024 compared to 2023.

Overall offenses are up. That means not only counting the 7 major felonies, but everything, which includes misdemeanors and violations. Those have all been rising sharply over recent years, reaching levels not seen in a decade. This underreported fact may help explain why many New Yorkers think the city’s quality of life is deteriorating.

Theft and robberies are rampant yet not really prosecuted, so don't get counted in these "crime is down" stats.

The bail reform laws that got passed make it so the lower level offenses just get let go. Then they come out immediately after a night in a holding cell and re-offend.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Yea certain crimes like murder and property crimes are down, but assaults and robberies are up. In Central Park, felony assaults increased by 57% in 2024 compared to 2023.

Good lord, this is a dishonest approach. We started talking about the country, then moved to NYC, and now you're just looking at Central Park, where then numbers are so low, a huge percentage change is possible with very little change. I freely grant that within a city that has extremely low and falling crime, there are pockets that have higher rates that can rise.

Overall offenses are up. That means not only counting the 7 major felonies, but everything, which includes misdemeanors and violations. Those have all been rising sharply over recent years, reaching levels not seen in a decade. This underreported fact may help explain why many New Yorkers think the city’s quality of life is deteriorating.

Theft and robberies are rampant yet not really prosecuted, so don't get counted in these "crime is down" stats.

My dude, do you really think it never occurred to people who study crime for a living that prosecutions don't map perfectly to instances? When crimes are counted, people don't just look at prosecutions. There are victim surveys, for example.

 

[fedoriswar37]

Oddly enough that lines up with registered democrats identifying as inanimate fucking objects or animals. Strange

 

[jeremyemilio]

Can I see an example of blatant support of racism in the Republican Party and its policy supporting such?

That's not what I was suggesting. I stated that the Republicans need to root out the racists amongst them. It's not as though the chance never arises.

The opportunity was there in Charlottesville, for instance. I'm not going to pretend that what Trump said there lacked nuance and was an endorsement of racist neo-Nazis, as it has been presented by some. But he also had a chance to just say, straight up, "We get that some people have good faith objections to the removal of historical statues, but we condemn hatred and racism." Likewise, said people with the "good faith objections" had a similar opportunity to just exit the scene, condemn the racism, and mount their objections in another venue that didn't put them in alignment with racists.

Ditto for January 6th. When the Dixie flag comes out, you kind of have a choice there. You can send those guys packing, or you can go packing. What you can't do is march around with the guy holding the Dixie flag and then hope that black people will vote with you.

These aren't one off events, either. Go to the comment section of any YouTube video concerned with race relations or issues arising in urban centers. One minute you see a conservative debating the finer details of reparations or gun violence or police brutality and the next minute you are picturing him caught right in the middle of a nod of his head as the guy he thought his ally on the issues throws out some wild racial slur or slander. Conservative leaning people really need to be primed up, ready, and willing to turn on a dime in those moments and say some version of, "I'm sorry that I was having a good faith debate with my left leaning brother, over here, with whom I disagree, and that seems to have given you the mistaken impression that I am your ally in hate. I'm not. You are my enemy."

A little more of that sort of thing on the right would go a long way.