Don't understand how some groups will vote for GOP candidates!

[Northern Light]

It's because people have been effectively lead to believe that things which are against their own interest are actually for their interest.

The psychology of this is really interesting and complex. Usually the political will is shifted through gradual titration. An idea that would seem bad if presented all at once can be viewed as good if slowly introduced over time, until the People can be turned against themselves and it seems perfectly natural. Some of the stuff being presented as "good" these days would have laughed a candidate out of town a mere 30 years ago. It's because of titration. People will accept more and more violations as long as they happen gradually enough that they can emotionally cope and readjust their comfort zone.

More than greed, anger, hope and love... fear is the most predictable of human responses and the easiest to control. If you invent a problem concerning enough to people, their logic will turn off and they'll give their trust over to you. It doesn't matter if the problem is real or not, it's all in your delivery. Politics are the psychology of hope and fear, at least when it comes to the masses.

I personally think the conservative element in the U.S. is its biggest drawback from entering the modern world of its other liberal democratic allies. It's not to say that liberalism is all sunshine and roses because it's not, but the problems that the U.S. is still struggling with (like healthcare and retirement) have been put to rest in other countries, countries who have moved on to other sets of problems. The fundamentalism and extremism we're seeing from the left right now is mostly in reaction to the right.

 

[celticwar17]

So you must have voted for Obama in 2012 as he was doing a great job of pulling us out of the deepest recession we had since the depression even without the help of the GOP. NO, I bet you did not vote for him. I bet you voted for his GOP opponent like a good little GOPer.

I voted Libertarian...

And no.... Obama did no such thing.... presidents don't do such things. Markets bounce themselves back from a recession. A president can enact police's that slow that bounce back... but it is largely out of a President's hands.

I am in the camp that Obama should have let some things fail, instead of bailing out the banks and corporations like a good little crony capitalist...... but I understand the opposing argument and I don't blame him, it would have taken some big guts(Like Iceland had), I don't think the GoP or Mitt Romney would have done anything differently...

What Obama did absolutely fail at was do a huge "Stimulus" Package that did absolutely nothing but waste money... the majority of it's ventures failed.

Ot was one of the slowest economic recoveries since the great depression.

 

[Greenbeard]

The left have been using this fear to drum up votes for a very long time.

The GOP won its House majority on the back of a surge of older voters turning out in 2010 ("Greedy Geezers?) in response to the GOP's electoral strategy of fearmongering around the structural Medicare reforms the Dems were making ("Ads Use Medicare Cuts as Rallying Point").

Meanwhile those reforms are bearing fruit.

Medicare’s cost surprise: It’s going down

One of the best-kept secrets in American health care might be that Medicare spending — in important ways — is going down. . .

But there’s a sliver of hope buried in federal data: During the Obama era, Medicare’s per-person spending barely budged, inching up only about 1 percent per year. That’s less than the rate of inflation, meaning that per-person Medicare costs, when adjusted for inflation, have been going down.

Only one party has introduced structural reforms to Medicare in the past decade. And it wasn't the GOP.

I remember decades ago Democrats rallying cry that Republicans want to take social security away. It's actually very dishonest to do this but, hey, it's politics. That's what

Everyone, including Democrats, know that Republicans wanted to do away with the ACA and replace it with a better market based system.

You can cut the crap, we all already got to see what the GOP wanted when they tried to ram through their atrocious health bills last year. That awful legislation was universally reviled.

The GOP Health Care Bill Is Unpopular Even In Republican Districts
The GOP Health Care Bill Is A Historically Unpopular Piece Of Legislation
Poll: Only 12% of Americans support the Senate health care plan
Just 17 Percent of Americans Approve of Republican Senate Health Care Bill
81% of Voters Don't Like How Republicans Are Handling Health Care

 

[Moderate Right]

Decades ago? What the...? You mean just last week.

My favorite leftist BS is when they say GOP'ers want to take away their SS checks, kick them out of their house, push them over a cliff and make them eat Alpo on the way down.

What I meant was that it started decades ago. It's actually far worse today. The left says Republicans are fighting a war against women, minorities, the poor, seniors, immigrants, children, and probably cute puppy dogs.

 

[Thoreau72]

There are several large groups that will vote overwhelmingly for GOP seemingly against there own interests. I will use the older white group as a good example. They have overwhelmingly voted for GOP candidates in the last election and will not doubt do the same in 2018. Yet they must know that to do so will hurt them financially. McConnell has made it plain that if they retain control of Congress they are going to pay for the first Trump tax cut by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. McConnell has also said that there is another tax cut in the offing and it will be even deeper than the first. Trump says it will be for the middle class, but looking at the last two GOP tax cuts makes me question that statement. We heard the same thing about the present Tax cut which 83% went to the top 10%. And if the GOP plans to cut Social Security, and Medicare, which a majority goes to the older Americans, to offset the first tax cut, how much deeper will they have to cut or eliminate those programs to offset the cost of the second tax cut. Do all of these older white Americans have brain damage, or don't they believe that McConnell is telling the truth? I remember in the 2016 election where the talking heads talked to people in Kentucky who were on the ACA, Obamacare, and were asked why they were voting for the Republican candidate when he said he would do away with the ACA. They said it was only political talk and the GOP would never really try to do away with the ACA. They got a huge surprise, didn't they? DO these older white Americans really believe that the GOP won't cut or eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?

Many elements of truth there.

With our two party system, voting is really an exercise in illusory behavior, isn't it?

 

[Hypothetical]

if the politicians would stop borrowing from Social security to fund other crap, it would probably be fine.

the groups will vote for whoever they feel represents them the best... they have rather limited choices, what with money hungry Republicans who would rather just do away with all social programs and democrats who see the constitution as a rag to wipe their ass with if it doesn't allow them to dictate who can do what at any given time.

 

[DamnYankee]

What I meant was that it started decades ago. It's actually far worse today. The left says Republicans are fighting a war against women, minorities, the poor, seniors, immigrants, children, and probably cute puppy dogs.

LOL, I knew what you meant. Just being a smartass.

 

[akyron]

I've never voted in my own own interest.... I will always vote for what I think is most fair, in the vision of and what's best for the country.

It seems to be a big philosophical separation... that government is meant to cater to do you and your own interests.

Look out....you are about to be crucified for being a nationalist.

 

[LowDown]

There are several large groups that will vote overwhelmingly for GOP seemingly against there own interests. I will use the older white group as a good example. They have overwhelmingly voted for GOP candidates in the last election and will not doubt do the same in 2018. Yet they must know that to do so will hurt them financially. McConnell has made it plain that if they retain control of Congress they are going to pay for the first Trump tax cut by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. McConnell has also said that there is another tax cut in the offing and it will be even deeper than the first. Trump says it will be for the middle class, but looking at the last two GOP tax cuts makes me question that statement. We heard the same thing about the present Tax cut which 83% went to the top 10%. And if the GOP plans to cut Social Security, and Medicare, which a majority goes to the older Americans, to offset the first tax cut, how much deeper will they have to cut or eliminate those programs to offset the cost of the second tax cut. Do all of these older white Americans have brain damage, or don't they believe that McConnell is telling the truth? I remember in the 2016 election where the talking heads talked to people in Kentucky who were on the ACA, Obamacare, and were asked why they were voting for the Republican candidate when he said he would do away with the ACA. They said it was only political talk and the GOP would never really try to do away with the ACA. They got a huge surprise, didn't they? DO these older white Americans really believe that the GOP won't cut or eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?

Voters are much more complex than can be explained with identity politics.