Posted on 01/05/2010 5:48:56 AM PST by fwdude
Just a question for any out there who think they have the answer. This has always baffled me: how a congressional district can vote for a Republican president but a Dem congressman/senator (or visa versa.) Parker Griffith's district comes to mind. Also, many states consistently choose a governor from one party, but a president from another. Where does the disconnect come in? Any political analysts in the house?
Presidents don't.
Not to quote a Democrat, but all politics is local. Voting for a Republican for President is abstract, but when you’re in a rural southern district, where everybody is a Democrat because that’s what their great-great-great-granddaddy was after the War Between the States, that’s a powerful thing to try to overcome.
The Dems ran military veterans and supposed fiscal conservatives.However,they still went along with the entrenched libs,who are in charge in D.C.
No secret, really. Democrats running for the House in conservative districts or running for Governor in conservative states tend to be more conservative than those democrats running for President.
If you are a moderate independent, voting for Ben Nelson as a senator is a lot different than voting for John Kerry for President. Likewise, Barbara Boxer wouldn’t get elected Senator in Indiana because she’s too liberal. Evan Bayh, on the other hand, who is sort of moderate, can get elected as a Democrat, even though Indiana is considered a “Republican” state.
Not everyone is a pure partisan.
Bingo ! Plus the fact many voters may have the abstract idea that split power leads to stalemate which keeps the status quo.
Maybe there is hope for some voters. One party in the house with another party in the oval office reduces the number of bills that get passed. This is a purposeful gridlock.
Well, I am....I dont even vote for Gene Taylor because of the power that it gives Nancy Pelosi. BUT, I think that the answer is already here. I’m on the coast of MS. Probably among some of the most conservative people that you’ll meet. Still, they elect Dem mayors and Gene Taylor. They long for the good old days of their daddys Dem party.
My boss owns a small business and has sold another to become personally wealthy yet he votes Dem. I experience some personal glee when I cut a check for a third of a million dollars to the uncle because stupid should be painful.
That's exactly what happened. I live in one of those districts. My congresscreep is an Iraq veteran (a JAG corps lawyer, not a combat soldier), a "blue dog", but his voting record according to the ACU is far left. He is Murtha-lite, testing the waters of corruption as he learns the paths to power and wealth.
He will lose in November, God willing, even with buckets of Moveon.org and trial lawyer money.
That's exactly what happened.
This is indeed what is happening. Nationwide. It is "party politics" in spades.
Pundits say the majority of Americans are "conservative." OK, so that may be.
The local politician, funded by the Democratic Party, delivers a more or less conservative line to get elected. Once elected, and in the political realm, is then basically extorted by the party to vote legislatively the way they demand. The party all the while passes down psychologically designed soundbites to the Rep to still appear in concert with his constituency. And the incumbency has vast political advantage in delivering like soundbites to the constituency, like in, "we are working together with hands across the aisle, in a bipartisan manor, while I just talked with my counterpart the other day, blah, blah, blah."
This is for instance exactly the case with Jim Webb of Virginia, passing off against Allen as a similar conservative.
Throw on top of this the Media and the short memories, and apathy, of the American voter, and it is indeed fairly easy to manipulate a complicit candidate and Leftism into power. The original candidate himself, if appropriately egotistical, can still rationalize to himself he is conservative. It is happening as we speak.
Unfortunately the ONLY counter is brutal revelation of the responsibilities of citizenship and freedom. Now what politician on the local or national scene will do that?
Incidentally this is exactly the model for the Communist Party (which participated in elections), the Nazi Party (which participated in elections), and now the Democratic Party (which participates in elections).
Now let us all go read and listen to the punditry of the NYT, CNN, NBC, Brookings Institution, Harvard Univ.
Johnny Suntrade
It frustrates me to no end. In my state it’s Democrat from the school board up! Voters check straight ticket, and never research the candidates, they choose by the ad they like best on t.v.! But when it comes to voting for the President, it’s usually who they believe is a Christian.
Afterwords, they never look at the voting record on abortion, or any other matter. Just choose which t.v. ad they like best. Makes me sick. Try to talk to them about facts and voting records, and they will quote you a commercial!
I’m in Childers district here in the north in wicker’s old district. It went strong McCain, with Benton county I think going pubbie first in a long time. What can I say, but I do think the Bamster’s race might have been a factor. Hopefully Childer’s is out in November!
Benton last went GOP for President (before 2008) in 1984 (and 1972 & 1964 before that). Childers only won in the first place because the GOP put up a candidate from the Memphis suburbs rather than the primary candidate from the rural area, it was a regional rather than ideological vote. I agree, hopefully he will be bounced this year. State Sen. Alan Nunnelee should get that rural vote to take him out, along with the usual GOP suburban Memphis vote.
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