5 ms·

why should conservatives care about California, at state that consistently votes lib?

gecko 10y ago
Because it is one of the single biggest food producers in the US, and has an effective monopoly on many of our foodstuffs (notably many nuts and citrus fruits). Losing California's food production for any reason, including destruction by fire or drought, would cause massive problems in the US, possibly up to and including a depression or economic collapse. This also gets to something I've never understood: why global warming is political. The science is objectively solid and the economic costs of not doing something are clear. I'll argue about the benefit and drawbacks of policies to address it all day long, but how is outright denial a thing?
tomohawk 10y ago
Does everything have to get back to partisan finger pointing?
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  America loves sport, and the national sport is politics. Red team vs blue team, only one can win, us vs them, rah rah go team.
  - civilian 10y ago
    Yeah. I'm not a fan of football, baseball and soccer, but I'm starting to think that it's valuable if it keeps American emotion out of politics.
cool_look 10y ago
Look, I'm not American, but why would they foresake a state because of the state's predominant Voting habits? 1 in 3 voted Republican, are they going to be thrown to the wolves because of the other 2 ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_California,_2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele... I know Chris Christie is implicated in blocking traffic in New Jersey, but punishing a state is a whole different league.
- reddytowns 10y ago
  The way US voting works, each state gets a bunch of electoral college votes, and these determine the presidency. If over 50% of the population of a state votes for a candidate, all their electoral college votes are designated for that candidate. If one party has no realistic way of reaching that 50% margin, then any concessions they offer would be useless as far as getting their candidate into the presidency.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    We also have this in the US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering (Drawing voting districts to make them advantageous to one party or the other depending on who gets to draw the lines) We really need to move to popular vote instead of all these games.
ocschwar 10y ago
because it is part of the United States of America, and inhabited by their fellow Americans. If conservatives are this blithe about inflicting hardship against their fellow Americans, then they are traitors. (I'm a conservative, BTW. Fuck this whole year, with a chainsaw. I'm supporting liberals because my views are being represented by utter scumbags.)
seanp2k2 10y ago
Because it's by far bringing in the most cash for the government: http://www.lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/90 http://www.lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/90 California should get by far the biggest say in everything because of this. Divide the electoral collage up by GDP instead of population and see what the colors look like.

gecko 10y ago

Because it is one of the single biggest food producers in the US, and has an effective monopoly on many of our foodstuffs (notably many nuts and citrus fruits). Losing California's food production for any reason, including destruction by fire or drought, would cause massive problems in the US, possibly up to and including a depression or economic collapse. This also gets to something I've never understood: why global warming is political. The science is objectively solid and the economic costs of not doing something are clear. I'll argue about the benefit and drawbacks of policies to address it all day long, but how is outright denial a thing?

tomohawk 10y ago

Does everything have to get back to partisan finger pointing?

seanp2k2 10y ago
America loves sport, and the national sport is politics. Red team vs blue team, only one can win, us vs them, rah rah go team.
- civilian 10y ago
  Yeah. I'm not a fan of football, baseball and soccer, but I'm starting to think that it's valuable if it keeps American emotion out of politics.

cool_look 10y ago

Look, I'm not American, but why would they foresake a state because of the state's predominant Voting habits? 1 in 3 voted Republican, are they going to be thrown to the wolves because of the other 2 ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_California,_2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele... I know Chris Christie is implicated in blocking traffic in New Jersey, but punishing a state is a whole different league.

reddytowns 10y ago
The way US voting works, each state gets a bunch of electoral college votes, and these determine the presidency. If over 50% of the population of a state votes for a candidate, all their electoral college votes are designated for that candidate. If one party has no realistic way of reaching that 50% margin, then any concessions they offer would be useless as far as getting their candidate into the presidency.
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  We also have this in the US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering (Drawing voting districts to make them advantageous to one party or the other depending on who gets to draw the lines) We really need to move to popular vote instead of all these games.

ocschwar 10y ago

because it is part of the United States of America, and inhabited by their fellow Americans. If conservatives are this blithe about inflicting hardship against their fellow Americans, then they are traitors. (I'm a conservative, BTW. Fuck this whole year, with a chainsaw. I'm supporting liberals because my views are being represented by utter scumbags.)

seanp2k2 10y ago

Because it's by far bringing in the most cash for the government: http://www.lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/90 http://www.lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/90 California should get by far the biggest say in everything because of this. Divide the electoral collage up by GDP instead of population and see what the colors look like.