A dear friend has gone off the political deep end

[gimmethesimplelife]

Where I live in the 85006 I am very fortunate for one thing that this topic nails down - I enjoy living amongst like minded people. It is pretty much an automatic assumption here that you are going to be anti Trump and vote Democrat. I am aware with the newcomers streaming into the West Side of the 85006 - the Coronado Neighborhood - there are now some Conservatives in the zip code but not over on my side and these people tend to cluster together and keep to themselves. Point being, where I live this is pretty much a non-issue as it's a given you are going to be a Democrat.

Now in the world beyond my neighborhood, I keep my lips zipped on politics, even with people I know to be Liberal. Outside of the 85006 I don't have the home court advantage and something I've noticed, especially amongst younger folks - those who have not been in life positions where they have learned to fear America can get upset over the most mind boggling things - there is no way to know when such people will be triggered or what will indeed trigger them so I avoid discussions regarding sex, religion, and politics and have cut way back down on discussing anything at all regarding my personal life in the workplace since the MeTooMovment.

I see it this way. To talk about such topics outside of the 85006 is to risk working for free in America - meaning loss of any investments or savings or assets via litigation. I'm not willing to take this risk - America overall is not worth it, I learned years ago that this is not truly a free country (so I'm not as put off as many by having to keep the reality to the neighborhood), and working these days for many people is similar to enter a war zone of sorts - why put at risk what you are able to wheel away (savings) from a situation of hostile open warfare? Granted this characterization of the workplace does seem a little over the top even to me until I realize I mean war in psychological terms.

At any rate, I recommend being very careful overall IRL who you choose to discuss politics with. Such discussions can have consequences - consequences that will make you view America never again the same should you suffer them. Rob

[LDAHL]

Where I live in the 85006 I am very fortunate for one thing that this topic nails down - I enjoy living amongst like minded people. It is pretty much an automatic assumption here that you are going to be anti Trump and vote Democrat. I am aware with the newcomers streaming into the West Side of the 85006 - the Coronado Neighborhood - there are now some Conservatives in the zip code but not over on my side and these people tend to cluster together and keep to themselves. Point being, where I live this is pretty much a non-issue as it's a given you are going to be a Democrat.

Now in the world beyond my neighborhood, I keep my lips zipped on politics, even with people I know to be Liberal. Outside of the 85006 I don't have the home court advantage and something I've noticed, especially amongst younger folks - those who have not been in life positions where they have learned to fear America can get upset over the most mind boggling things - there is no way to know when such people will be triggered or what will indeed trigger them so I avoid discussions regarding sex, religion, and politics and have cut way back down on discussing anything at all regarding my personal life in the workplace since the MeTooMovment.

I see it this way. To talk about such topics outside of the 85006 is to risk working for free in America - meaning loss of any investments or savings or assets via litigation. I'm not willing to take this risk - America overall is not worth it, I learned years ago that this is not truly a free country (so I'm not as put off as many by having to keep the reality to the neighborhood), and working these days for many people is similar to enter a war zone of sorts - why put at risk what you are able to wheel away (savings) from a situation of hostile open warfare? Granted this characterization of the workplace does seem a little over the top even to me until I realize I mean war in psychological terms.

At any rate, I recommend being very careful overall IRL who you choose to discuss politics with. Such discussions can have consequences - consequences that will make you view America never again the same should you suffer them. Rob

I’m not sure I follow you. I’ll admit I find some of your opinions to be unorthodox, but I don’t see why you’d be afraid of litigation for expressing them in the wrong company.

[jp1]

I question the long term strategic value of simply assuming your opponents are racist idiots and you therefore will always own certain voting blocks if you make the accusation frequently and loudly.

As long as the republicans main efforts with regard to minority voters is to try and thwart them rather than court them I don't think the democrats have much to worry about.

[Teacher Terry]

I don’t discuss politics with random people. I also don’t let people discuss it if I am having a party. Most of my friends are Democrats and DH a Republican and it would not be respectful towards him.

[LDAHL]

As long as the republicans main efforts with regard to minority voters is to try and thwart them rather than court them I don't think the democrats have much to worry about.

As Flowers pointed out, that would not appear to have happened to your satisfaction in Florida.

One fairly reliable warning sign of fatal hubris is the assumption of inevitability. I’m thinking of all those times President Obama placed himself on the favorable side of “the arc of history”. Or the absolute faith Mrs. Clinton had that her presidency was as inescapable as death.

It could be that the great demographic wave will wash away the iniquitous and lead to a new age of rule by an aristocracy of the compassionate. Or it could be that alliances could shift and interests redefined. Or even that large numbers simply decline to participate in the culture wars. A lot could happen in the next generation or so.

I wonder if it’s ever the case that a party that feels there’s little to worry about has completely thought things through; and whether their allies and opponents will always follow the script.

[jp1]

Rick Scott does seem to have taken a different tactic regarding the Hispanic/Latino population. Probably because Florida is 25% Hispanic/Latino (compared to just over 8% nationwide) and calling 25% of the voting population rapists and murderers is probably not a winning strategy. If most republicans followed his lead I'd be concerned because you're right, Hispanic/Latino people are not innately more liberal than white folks. But the majority of republican politicians seem to be following the trump mode on this issue. If I remember correctly after their failures of 2012 the republicans did a postmortem that concluded that their long term success was likely to be hampered if they didn't adopt a platform that minorities found more appealing than their current 'minorities are a problem for this this and this reason' platform. Aside from Rick Scott I haven't seen much change on this issue. Even Marco Rubio has since abandoned his efforts at making immigration reform happen.

Florida is also a bit of an outlier because the majority of their Hispanic/Latino population are Puerto Rican or Cuban and thus not affected by the immigration issues that affect the majority of the country.

It will also be interesting to see how the implementation of Prop 4 in Florida, which restores voting rights of felons who have finished paying their debt to society, affects things. Will the formerly disenfranchised felons vote? Will they lean democrat? Who knows. But we're talking about more than a million potential new voters. The state has in recent history been very closely divided in presidential elections. Even a relatively small shift blue because of prop 4 could make all the difference.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Rick Scott does seem to have taken a different tactic regarding the Hispanic/Latino population. Probably because Florida is 25% Hispanic/Latino (compared to just over 8% nationwide) and calling 25% of the voting population rapists and murderers is probably not a winning strategy. If most republicans followed his lead I'd be concerned because you're right, Hispanic/Latino people are not innately more liberal than white folks. But the majority of republican politicians seem to be following the trump mode on this issue. If I remember correctly after their failures of 2012 the republicans did a postmortem that concluded that their long term success was likely to be hampered if they didn't adopt a platform that minorities found more appealing than their current 'minorities are a problem for this this and this reason' platform. Aside from Rick Scott I haven't seen much change on this issue. Even Marco Rubio has since abandoned his efforts at making immigration reform happen.

Florida is also a bit of an outlier because the majority of their Hispanic/Latino population are Puerto Rican or Cuban and thus not affected by the immigration issues that affect the majority of the country.

It will also be interesting to see how the implementation of Prop 4 in Florida, which restores voting rights of felons who have finished paying their debt to society, affects things. Will the formerly disenfranchised felons vote? Will they lean democrat? Who knows. But we're talking about more than a million potential new voters. The state has in recent history been very closely divided in presidential elections. Even a relatively small shift blue because of prop 4 could make all the difference.

Wow, I had no idea that there were over one million convicted felons in Florida.....that's amazing. That's a little more than the population of the city of Austin, Texas (not including suburbs and outlying areas). I find this statistic amazing and more than a little chilling. Rob

[jp1]

Wow, I had no idea that there were over one million convicted felons in Florida.....that's amazing. That's a little more than the population of the city of Austin, Texas (not including suburbs and outlying areas). I find this statistic amazing and more than a little chilling. Rob

It’s actually almost 1.7 million prople. Over 10% of the state’s population.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felo...da?wprov=sfti1