A place to discuss politics and offer political commentary. Self posts are preferred, but links to current events and news are allowed. Opinion pieces are welcome on a case by case basis, and discussion of and disagreement about issues is encouraged!
The intent is for this community to be an area for open & respectful discussion on current political issues, news & events, and that means we all have a responsibility to be open, honest, and sincere. We place as much emphasis on good content as good behavior, but the latter is more important if we want to ensure this community remains healthy and vibrant.
Content Rules:
Commentary Rules
Please try to up/downvote based on contribution to discussion, not on whether you agree or disagree with the commenter.
Partnered Communities:
• Politics
• Science
Voter apathy and vote suppression. Republicans are enhancing that lately, too.
Gerrymandering too. I’d consider that separate from other forms of vote suppression.
Ah yes, packing and cracking the obviously unethical way of manipulating votes so they don't count as much. A southern tradition.
Southern?! It’s an ALL AMERICAN tradition!
Gerrymandering doesn’t really apply to presidential elections, at least not directly.
This. Also things like this: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/08/05/trump-praises-georgia-election-board/74674946007/
I’m guessing OP hasn’t paid attention to the tons of weird, arbitrary rules Republicans in the South added to make it as difficult as possible to vote in blue districts in the South. Hell, a quick Google search answers the question immediately without having to scroll past a few links.
Unfortunately, that's only 14.4% of the US population. Quite a few people think it's far higher than that. It's not.
https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/fact-sheet/facts-about-the-us-black-population/
Yes, but generally concentrated in the southern states
One might even say, the states where they were exploited as slave labor for hundreds of years, and lacked any generational wealth to move to better lands...
Edit: Lol, which confederate soldier's great grandson downvoted this?
What ? Watching US movies, shows etc... I thought it'd be at least 30%
When surveyed, some people peg it as high as 50%, it's not.
https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/41556-americans-misestimate-small-subgroups-population
Hello there. Nice to meet you. My name is Jerry...Jerry Mander.
Thank the electoral college. There's a lot of additional reasons, but they all ultimately come back to the fact that Americans are not equally or fairly represented by their "representative democracy".
First Past the Post, the structure of the Senate, the capped House, and the electoral college... they all lead to some voters having more say than others.
Because the south is also full of dumbass white rednecks. Duh...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_African-American_population
Alabama has the highest support but only 1/4 identify as black. Republicans need 68% of the remaining votes.
Overall, 12.4% identify as black. That's not much.
Voter suppression, and part of that voter suppression strategy is apathy. If Black people understood they were such a powerhouse, they could change America, and then the world. But old rich white bigots have convinced many of them that their vote doesn't matter, nothing will change, etc.
I was talking to one of my black co-workers before last election and his POV was that his vote didn't matter. I told him if his vote didn't matter then why are groups spending so much money to get you to NOT vote. Either by suppression tactics or tricks about where to vote, and also promoting voter apathy.
He just responded something like 'both sides' neither would work for me...I'm pretty sure he didn't vote.
Imo because of repression and not having access to quick and easy voting.
The GOP fuckers gerrymander the shit out of any place they can get their sweaty hands on. So that doesn't help. Makes the people feel like no matter what, they won't be heard, won't make a difference. Then the Cons limit the ballot boxes, limit the hours for voting, limit mail in voting.... Anything they can do to keep people from voting. They know they win as long as no one shows up.
It's disgusting and very undemocratic. Everyone needs access to voting--- easy and convenient voting. I also think voting should be compulsory (by mail).
Because they’re still majority white and white people in those states overwhelmingly voted for Trump.
Voter suppression.
This is why Black republicans scare me. Like, dude, do you not see with your eyes what is happening??
They think they have made it into the in-group and will be spared. As history has proven time and time again, they will not.
Part of it is institutional hurdles to voting.
The other part of it is the Democratic Party making big promises and then doing jack shit to fulfill them once they're elected.
There are way more rascist crackers in Texas than you can possibly imagine. Makes sense when your state was founded by assholes and slave traffickers helping the US states acquire more slaves after direct import was banned. Remember, the Alamo was full of colonist insurgents taking land to continue slavery.
Democrats have spent decades disenfranchising their own voters.
The Republicans want non whites to be enslaved or exterminated
The Democrats want non whites to be slaves but not understand they are slaves.
People are stupid, but they aren't that stupid.
I don't think I've met a single POC that has faith in either party after 2016.
I don’t think I’ve met a single POC that has faith in either party after 2016.
Nailed it. Also why 10,000,000 former voters opted not to miss a day's work in 2024.
2 main reasons are the church and the population numbers. A lot of people in the South go to church and get group-indoctrinated to right-wing political team ideology. The population numbers are an issue because black people are still a minority, although generally less of a minority in the South than most of the USA.
Computers and marketing own humanity. There is no honest democracy.
Do remember that the 2024 election was decided by a narrow margin
It would be interesting to see a comparison of percentage of black people per state alongside this to see if there is any correlation
Well YEAH but at least we (not me I voted for Harris) did the noble thing and forfeited our future and living standards in order to save the poor people in Gaza. Other people in the world have it bad therefore I deserve to have an even shittier life. Real nice. Fucking dipshits.