The Porch Light Is On And Nobody Is Home

[TheMastersNemesis]

There are too many voters where the above title fits. 38% of women still would vote GOP even though they are told that they will be denied family planning . Up 50% of union members vote GOP because of cultural issues, 53% of the seniors did not vote for Obama because they hate blacks. Seniors gave the GOP most of their victories in 2010, many working class people are anti labor rights and anti labors laws because that is big government, many voters reject Medicare, Social Security and Medicaide even when they are one it, atc.

It is hard to feel confident about the future when so many voters are so clueless and jaded. When facts are irrelevant and voters cast their votes based on their gut feelings that have nothing to do with a politician's position you wonder how are we ever going to move forward.

The GOP should not even be able to win dog catcher they are so viciously hateful. The fact that so many Americans are fully behind them makes me wonder if we have lost our soul as a nation.

[Scootaloo]

1. For a lot of Americans, it's just another superbowl

it's a game they watch on TV, and they cheer when their "team" scores, and then after it's over they go back to doing whatever they do because football doesn't really matter - and to these people, neither do politics.

It's stuff like this birth control bullshit that knocks it home to these people that yes, yes it fucking DOES matter. Usually it's pretty easy to keep the wool over their eyes by presenting the situations as being very distant from "mainstream" so the people who see politics as some game never have to confront the impact. Who cares what happens to those people, my life is about me, basically. But then the GOP goes and attacks medicine that is integral to millions and millions of Americans, and, well, suddenly hte ramifications of politics are right there in your medicine cabinet, where football never is.

[xxqqqzme]

2. To get an

education in the voting public, run for office.

I ran for state assembly n '10. Forums at community colleges became my favorite venue. College kids asked the best questions. My opponent stopped attending after a while. I don't think he liked the questions. They didn't fit his pat talking points.

Being exposed to the independent was a joke. I now equate independent with uninformed.

[TheMastersNemesis]

4. Certainly True

Having forums at colleges is certainly true. Today's political decisions will have the most effect on their generation. Most people are totally ignorant of labor and employment laws. They are also ignorant of how much deep structural damage has been done to the labor and employment sectors in the last 30 years of assault.

Unless we restore the social contract with the employer sector. Unless we get back to the idea that continuity of income and continuity of employment is valuable. Unless we understand how important job security is and seniority on the job is, it will be very difficult for a person to economically thrive over a 40 or 50 year period. The working public has been sold a false bill of goods about the "ownership society". Going from job to job over the decades of a career will end up with many workers being out of the work force at a decent job by the time they are 45.

The real agenda in this "new economy" is to move to a labor environment where almost all jobs are contract jobs or subcontract jobs. One can see this trend growing rapidly in the employment sector. Employers love contracts because they can escape virtually all taxes and expenses. And they can fix pay at a low rate.

The younger generation needs to understand their fate unless they get active and push for a change in policy that will help them live fruitful lives. Capitalism as it is being practiced now is a failure in that it cannot and will not deliver livable wage jobs for most of the workers in the US and worldwide.

[monmouth]

3. Just wondering what your source is for your stats...n/t

[TheMastersNemesis]

6. Various Sources

See various sources like polls and election voter stats. When Obama won he lost the majority of seniors. In my contacts with union officials it is remarkable how many union voter vote GOP because of gays and guns. I was talking to union steward just the other day and he was telling me that a number of the members in his union were GOP supporters.

Plus I worked at the Labor Department for 24 years and there are a lot of statistics that we had that are never discussed in the media or by politicians. There are also a lot of gaps in what the labor stats tell you about the economy.

Here is what labor stats hide, ignore or just don't assess.

No mass lay off report. No numbers on how many jobs are contract. No numbers on number of outsourced jobs. No reporting requirement of number of layoffs by employers. No information of the number of applicants for jobs. No information about he ratio of living wage jobs to low pay jobs. Jobs not evaluated for their value. 100,000 jobs that are not full time and not equal to 100,000 full time jobs. Average pay for jobs available.

There are many ways to look at the job market. What we are doing now with stats is actually pretty vague.

[monmouth]

10. I can see that. My first ex-husband was a union ironworker. Still votes repub. Thanks. n/t

[DCKit]

7. Series!11! They seem to by highly overstated.

I was waiting for "minorities vote (R) at X% because...."

[Agony]

5. How else to put it? fear of abortion/socialism/multiculturalism/unions/big gov are the drivers?

I don't get it... "The March of A Stupid People" is all I keep coming up with.

the people in my "bubble" talk about this with each other more and more... trying to understand...

everybody has their own bubble to one extent or another I suppose? I still can not comprehend the "self loathing"???

•Type Zero Civilization•

[TheMastersNemesis]

8. My Fear

My fear is the people are ill equipped to understand their situation. I find it impossible to fathom or understand most people's method of logic. Politically they cannot understand some of the most basic common sense ideas. If a politician tells a senior citizen that he intends to end Social Security or Medicare and the senior decides to vote for him because he does not like a multiracial president, it is an act of fatal stupidity. That feeling supersedes everything else for that senior.

And there is case after case where "common sense" and "reality" totally out of the picture.

[Agony]

12. So I keep grabbing onto "education" as "the" important factor and

force myself to talk to every "right" leaning person in my life... the people I might not find any other commonality with ... the plow operator/the welder/the auto parts dude/mechanic/all of the overly religious people in my life/gun clubbers/american legionnaires... it requires a careful dancing around certain topics until it seems like we are both "real" people to each other. Then bringing up, how we do health care, or Right to Work doesn't really seem to mean much for working people, isn't _such_ a big deal. Sometimes...

Is this how we have to do it? One person at a time? Really?

I don't have the answer.

but i do like talking to people even if they turn out to be assholes

[TheMastersNemesis]

14. Common Sense

It does not matter how they phrase an issue. A person with at least some common sense should be able to analyze and see through the garbage that they are casting about. I simply do not know how you can explain 2 + 2 = 4 when there is not enough common sense or analysis to even understand things that basic.

Look up on Youtube Abbot And Costello - Suquehanna Hat Company. There is a 6 minute skit they did in the 1940's that is so graphic. sub the idea Obama or Liberal for the hats and imagine the reactors being Republicans. It is really funny in a sick way.

Let me know what you think of that skit.

[DCKit]

9. So, what does (R) REALLY stand for? Reactionary? Regressive? nt

[hifiguy]

11. Royalist. nt

[Agony]

13. Reprobate

that'll keep 'em guessing