Repugs registered lots of AMISH and MENNONITES in Lancaster, PA

[gauguin57]

http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/4/9086

(easy registration)

The push for Old Order votes

County Republicans have aggressively courted Old Order Amish and Mennonites, urging them to register to vote in the upcoming presidential election. Their work is paying off, with more than 2,000 "new'' Old Order voters signed up for Nov. 2.

<snip> ...

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - "... Old Order Amish and Mennonite women voting in a presidential election? Not ordinarily. But this is not an ordinary election. Observers agree that more Amish and Mennonite men and women have registered to vote than in recent nationwide elections.

Chet Beiler, the former county GOP chairman who led a voter registration drive among the Amish, says at least 2,000 additional Old Order Amish registered to vote. “Most of the success came as a result of work by enthusiastic supporters within the Amish community itself,’’ he says. Beiler’s family was formerly Amish.

Church members in general, especially conservative Christian church members, have signed up to vote in unusual numbers in a closely contested race between President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry.

That has happened for a reason. The Republican Party actively has promoted registration of church members as a key part of its overall registration drive ..."

[The Chronicler]

1. Pro-war Amish?

[Lorien]

11. I've never met any, and my family is Mennonite

they're all dems, except my mom, who became a born again a few years ago.

[popstalin]

2. Lancaster, PA always goes Repug

I lived there for many many years. It is a very conservative, republican leaning city.

[Cha]

10. Conservative is one thing...we're

talking ..they are going Neo-Fascist!

[gauguin57]

20. Well, actually, the city itself is heavily Democratic. It's the suburbs

that vote overwhelmingly Repug. But lemme tell you ... I've been here a long time, and I've NEVER seen the Democrats here this organized and fired up! There is a LOT of activity -- so many Democratic volunteers wanting to help get George's ass thrown out on the street that the local committee barely knows what to do with them all -- they've never had this situtation before!!!!!

[ret5hd]

3. how can the pacifist amish and mennonite communities...

support this cretin?

[7th_Sephiroth]

4. i bet they arent informed

i doubt they would ever vote for a man who started 2 wars

[HFishbine]

5. I know Quakers are pacifists

Are the Amish?

[aquart]

6. They never serve in the army, right?

No skin off their nose what George does.

Unless they care about their air and water.

[BootinUp]

7. I'm starting to get sick to my stomach

This whole pandering/exploiting of religious beliefs thing, its just too much.

[ET Awful]

8. So if PA were to be using electronic voting, does that mean the Amish

couldn't vote?

[Lorien]

15. Amish will use electrical systems

and even ride in cars, as long as they don't own such things themselves. It's about self reliance, conservation of resources, and staying off the government grid (many Amish use solar, wind, etc.).

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. Good point!

[gauguin57]

21. We use old-fashioned voting machines here ... with the little

metal levers you click down. Very low-tech.

[Cha]

9. S-T-U-P-I-D!

If they only knew..what the hell they were doing!

[JohnnyCougar]

12. 2,000 new voters....Lord have mercy!

That will be neutralized by 200,000 new voters signed up for the Dems. :eyes:

I resent this, because my grandmother lives in Lancaster county. My dad was brought up as a mennonite. My aunts all think Bush is a jerk. One is a driver for the Amish, and the other is a Mennonite preacher. The Mennonites are alot more liberal in their faith based beliefs. If they knew the truth about *, they would probably vomit.

[gauguin57]

23. Depends on which mennonites you're talking about. The Old Order

Mennonites might as well be Amish.

[JohnnyCougar]

25. I didn't mean I resented your post

I meant I resented the fact that * is exploiting these poor people.

[Teaser]

13. We have registered *tons* more.

Many of those Amish won't vote anyway. Having lived among the Amish for a while, some I know would have just registered out of courtesy to the "English" on their doorstep.

Many have severe qualms about participating in "English" society, even at the level of voting.

[LiberalFighter]

17. Do their leaders even permit their members to vote?

[politicat]

14. The Amish aren't supposed to vote...

Yoke ye not with the affairs of the unbeliever.

Guess they'll figure out their mistake right about the time they get jailed again for Draft violations.

All the Amish and Mennonite my family knows are deeply, firmly egalitarian and concerned with the good of people. Somebody slipped Lancaster County some Koolaid.

Pcat (whose family farm in Indiana is surrounded by Amish farms and we have an organic co-op agreement; whose great-grandfather is Dunkard (Amish + full immersion baptism + some technology) and whose biological father's family is Mennonite....)

[byronm]

18. Disgusting...

Living in lancaster I can only imagine the types of people that registered these voters.. i'm pretty sure they came from the Old Philadelphia Pike area (that Bush drove his Buss down) or from the Lampeter areas.

I've got 100+ signs going out to families sporting Kerry stuff to help them "show force" and even have one family with a large farm offering to put up a big sign.

Lancaster needs some help folks - from canvasing to people standing up for what they believe in.. this is definately one of those "follow your neighboor" towns and ban or disapprove of anything unique..

also liberal is a curse word here..

Has liberal always been "bad" such as Bush calling Kerry a "liberal senator from massachussettes"?

[gauguin57]

24. Yeah ... if you notice in the story, some of them were signed up at the

Lampeter Fair. Mooooooo! Anyway ... the Dems. couldn't afford to buy booths at all these fairs. It was expensive to get a booth at that fair, I know. And you know how totally Repug West Lampeter Township is ... Fascist HELL! How many Dems. could have been registered there, anyway, compared with the cost of the booth?

[newyawker99]

26. Hi byronm!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[olddem43]

19. Bill Maher also said the Bush/Cheney campaign was courting the Amish

He said Cheney was heard telling someone to "Go fuck thyself"

[BootinUp]

22. that was funny.

LOL.

[69KV]

27. I read a book not long ago

..that explained the Mennonite and Amish culture, and included some surveys on their attitudes toward war and politics.

Surprisingly, a majority of those who do vote, vote Republican. The Mennonites and Amish are known for being strongly anti-war. This doesn't translate into Democratic votes though. Some reasons:

The stricter or more fervent adherents, the ones who are most likely to hold the strongest anti-war views, are also the least likely to vote (with one exception).

That exception is the peace activists who can be found among the more liberal Mennonite denominations and the social service groups like the Mennonite Central Committee, and tend to be liberal on most issues. They do vote, and vote left-wing, but are in the minority among Mennonites. (And as we all know with the urban "Green" activist set, voting left-wing doesn't always mean reliable Democratic Party voters. But at least they never vote Repug.)

Many other Mennonites believe peace activism is just as bad as participation in war. This is on the grounds that both things are participating in the affairs of the world, which they believe Christians are supposed to avoid altogether. Some believe joining a peace protest is just as much a violation of the principle to "resist not evil" as joining the military is.

Old order Mennonites, the ones known for wearing archaic clothing, beards, head coverings, and shunning technology, are the strictest of all Mennonites in their prohibition on voting as well as warfare. But those from that background who would be willing to vote are probably not strict adherents, and probably not anti-war either. Given their rural farming background and *very* conservative views on other things (gays, abortion, porn), that means Republican voters.

Most Mennonites are not old order, and attitudes toward voting are going to vary widely. But again, there is one issue, peace, up against a mostly rural culture and very conservative views on other issues. In particular, there is a strong belief in self-reliant communities and welfare being dispensed through the church rather than the government. Some Mennonites oppose Social Security and refuse to participate in it on religious grounds, for example. Unfortunately, this means a majority of Mennonites who vote, vote for Republicans.