For those that are asking how can people vote for republicans? here is your answer, in as simplified a format as I can come up with. 1. Uneducated, low-information voters - Republican policies in states they control love to underfund education programs, allowing them to seem smarter to their target audience. 2. Abuse of Christianity - They like to quote bible passages, say that they are god-fearing individuals. This appeals to evangelicals who feel like a Christian theocracy would be a good and valid form of government. 3. Fearmongering - They play on peoples irrational fears and bigotry. They implant notions like immigrants are coming to steal your jobs or liberals want to make war on Christianity/Christmas or ghetto welfare queens are mooching off your tax dollars to keep the frustration and anger felt by lower income families pointed somewhere other than the real culprits 4. Huge campaign donations - Ultra-rich millionaires and billionaires fund campaigns for republicans who promise them tax breaks. Its a form of legalized bribery (compounded further by the recent Citizens United decision) 5. Gerrymandering - Facing a growing demographic problem with rising minority voter populations, Republicans have resorted to rigging the elections by redrawing district lines so that they can isolate communities of minority voters to drastically skew vote counts to win key elections. 6. Traditionalism - Voting trends tend to echo through families, with divergence rarely occurring in successive generations. A good example of this is my own family. While I am a liberal, my father is a republican simply because he is in a higher tax bracket (as a doctor) and wants his taxes to be lower. Since I didnt grow up in his household, I was exposed to politics from his view at a much later age. My younger brother, who has spent his entire life in his household, is 17 years old and is a republican activist. He doesnt even pay taxes yet, still lives at home and advocates lower taxes. Why? Because thats the only viewpoint hes ever had in his life. There are plenty of reasons why republicans can still win elections, but by far the biggest reason is simply that not enough people vote. In comparison to other countries, our voter turnout is incredibly low. If everyone voted, republicans would never win another national election. Theyd lose 3/4 their house seats. The demographics are definitely in favor of liberals, its just hard to motivate the downtrodden or minorities to vote, and especially when its not a Presidential election year. ~fb commenter
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 03:42:36 +0000