People are like "why would these supposedly pro business Republicans be cutting funding for public universities that are huge economic growth engines" and like look at how the richest states vote and how the poorest states vote. If you were a Republican would you want your state to become wealthier?
Both Arizona and Georgia have gone from being safe Republican states to purple-blue because they really have experienced quick growth in good jobs. Meanwhile West Virginia has suffered something like an economic collapse and is more conservative than any time in its history. Easy call!
People are overall more likely to vote Republican the richer they are, and to vote Democratic the poorer they are. The difference between a blue state and a red state is the income level at which that tips.
Since there's pushback I'll add: of course the reasons for this are subtle & complex! Ofc! But if you plot party votes against 1 variable--income--the link is consistent but red/blue states have different slopes
Yep. And mostly from the poorest or richest residents of SF? The association with income holds; it doesn't tell you where the break point from mostly Dem to mostly GOP is
Conservatives love money. There aren’t as many conservative profs because education doesn’t pay. They don’t want to cut funding. Conservative admins get more money while courting students who’ll pay bag to make bag. Real educators are pushed aside for influencers sponsored by right-wing think tanks.
They do want to cut funding and have cut funding to catastrophic levels, though. Whole humanities departments completely gutted, especially, but entire colleges within flagship universities have been shut down. Very intentionally. Conservative profs also get endowed chairs on top of salaries.
They want to create diploma mills that churn out yuppie scum. (I’m a GenXer. That’s what we called them in my day.) It’s all about turning it into a business. So, fewer workers, ass kissing middle management, and over-paid CEOs. Donors get free interns and conservative clones.
and they feed on poor people's contempt for the federal government. Like, they'll say things to the effect of "we'll take power from the federal government and give it to the people!" without saying that they only want an authoritarian oligarchy
the right wing and the rich aren't looking for some sort of long range growth planning, they think that’s Commie lib bullshit—economic planning for them is 100% smash & grab right now and if everyone else rots in mud, good
That motherfucker was never an ally to workers and would have changed his tune as fast as any of our current motherfuckers if he'd seen a REAL regulatory state.
Dude helped kill over 2,000 people in a flood caused by his personal country club that caused millions in damages and donated $1,000 in blankets and one of his self-named tax write-off libraries in recompense
Absolutely one of earth's all-time scumbags
I read a whole novel about that when I was a kid but I don’t remember the cause of it in there, but maybe I wasn’t as attuned to class struggle when I was 12
I always found this 2016 exit poll in NC fascinating. There was a lot of migration to NC in the 90s from the NE Corridor for Charlotte banking reasons and the Triangle knowledge economy and whatnot but in the past couple decades there have also been a lot of Midwest transplants and retirees
The worst Ohioans and I imagine Michiganders dream of one thing: becoming a southerner by moving to the Carolinas. It’s one of the lamest things our expats strive for
Of course, Democrats in rich states have also by and large been cutting funding for public universities, though this is more a byproduct of the unwillingness to raise overall tax rates and seeing education $ in budgets as a prime source to divert to other priorities.
Reagan made raising taxes in any fashion a nonstarter, and the media was happy to play along. Even now, every story on the budget here in Illinois headlines how this is the biggest budget in our history and spinning closing some business tax loopholes as “tax increases on business.”
This is also why almost no blood red states have legalized weed in any meaningful way. I think Idaho, shockingly, did recreational?
I mean, it's obviously a huge revenue influx - people will throw tax money at you for weed!
It’s basically legal in Louisiana but it was by accident. They made hemp derived products legal to help farmers so we have drinks like Crescent 9 THC seltzer and gummies.
They recently tried to ban those but the bill failed. So, they limited it to 5mg per drink and only in bars/restaurants.
It’s also effectively legal in New Orleans. The city police won’t arrest you unless you have more than 2.5 lbs. or are doing a worse crime. Outside New Orleans, up to 14 grams is just a $100 ticket but no arrest. It’s a summons like a traffic ticket.
I thought the hemp-derived thing was federal, and it's basically a loophole that allows you to sell THC, as long as it's derived from hemp?
There's actually a website you can buy that from, and they'll ship nationwide ... which implies ...
