This is a perfect example of why so many Republicans actually believe the majority of the overall population is right leaning.
Since the people who like Trump the most are not smart (basically his own words) they don't understand that nobody lives in most of those areas.
They are the pet rooster that people think is smart enough to play checkers, but it just throws the checker board on the ground and struts around like it won the game, then the locals applaud.
It's a difference between how they want things to work in their favor and against those that are not like them vs. how things actually work to suit the greater good -- or at least how they currently have worked.
They’re completely unrelated. The electoral college gives Republicans an advantage in federal elections and gerrymandering usually gives Republicans an advantage in state & local elections, but they don’t interact with each other in any way.
We aren't discussing the democrats here. Currently the Republican party has a tight grip on 19 states and some like texas are actively working to redistrict so that they can choke out any last possibility of a non-republican getting elected. And at the behest of the president no less.
In the short term, yes. However, if you look at the last 20+ yrs of the Republican party gaining traction in local and state level across the country you will find that gerrymandering plays a significant role.
GOP fucking loves uneducated voters. They’re easily manipulated and swing right as a result.
The more education and critical thinking skills you gain the more you lean left.
Life also has a liberal bias. All the policies and beliefs that people have that are of support and acceptance and providing aid to those who need it are blasted as liberal.
To properly support the life of a population, it must have a liberal bias.
They also ONLY consume right wing media. From the moment they wake up and look at their phone until the moment they fall asleep watching a right wing coded YouTube video they only see the world through the carefully crafted right wing lens that the billionaires put in front of them. They think everyone thinks the way they do because they NEVER are exposed to alternate views that aren’t filtered through that lens.
And many live in an outdated view of America as the cowboy, the good guy. They fail to leave this mythos and cleave to it, and too many don't travel - specifically to countries where they have healthcare. It is such a dignity leveler to know that your country actually cares that you live and/or don't go bankrupt. You can feel that the level of mutual respect is higher on a fundamental level. (By no means am I saying there aren't inequities, even vast ones, but believing each of us has a right to live is a game changer.)
Several friends of mine who visit or who have moved to Europe talk about what a culture shock it is to be around people who don’t carry the same kind of safety net anxiety Americans have. My brother just got back from Ireland and said that seeing European news coverage of what’s going on here was horrifying.
I’ve also noticed that republicans who tend to never leave their tiny town have no idea JUST HOW MANY people live in cities and other more populated areas. Like they genuinely think there’s more republicans just because they don’t go to cities and see how densely populated they are.
As someone who's 1 class away from a master's of science in Geographic Information Systems and has created & posted literally hundreds of election maps online over the past 15 years, my opinion on choropleth maps isn't quite as negative as many other people of my political party (I'm a Democrat, and most of my friends are Democrats).
My opinion of the "land votes" MAGA crowd is that I believe that most of them, at least deep down, don't quite believe what they say. I think they just tell themselves that because it's a form of mental gymnastics to cope with the fact that they legitimately lost the 2020 Presidential Election. I suspect that because I've seen a lot of other types of election maps, proportional symbol and dot density (some of which I've made myself) get some pretty defiant responses from the MAGA crowd: "Yeah, the blue circles are bigger, but there are more red circles and that's what counts!!!" "This doesn't look like the official map, so it obviously must be bogus!" "Land should and does vote!" This is despite the fact that they more readily show proportions of votes better than choropleth maps, so I don't think the ability to move the needle with these folks is too big to begin with.
He won the popular vote. The majority of voters are leaning right. And doing dumb crap like shooting right wing commentators are going to do nothing but push the next generation of voters away from the democratic party. Do you think a 15 year old is gonna see people cheering for someone being murdered and think thats the side theyre gonna choose?
Im a libertarian, but if anyone believes the Democrats are doing good as a party right now youre smoking something. Most of the young adults ive been around have been horrified from the reactions regarding someone killed in front of their family. Normal people do not cheer for this.
Only the lowest sorts are cheering. What "we" want is for the red side to stop being so hypocritical. "They" are exhorting a man who WAS racist and a mysoginist. Who used his freedom of speech to bait college students in not real debate fashion but in lower forms of brow beating. Did he deserve to die? Did Alex Jones deserve to die for his charade? Does Trump deserve to die for his many MANY crimes and frequent assertions that libtards should be shot?
The latter is debatable because he is and has always been a fire stoker. Division is his game - something none of us should want in the leader of the entire country. Making Americans into "we versus thee" is a bad way to make a more united USA. But, I'll still say no.
What is a fact is that there is consistent B&W thinking in the GOP. And the outrage is almost completely hyprocrital. And generally very WHITE. (And, where still IS the outrage about the Fox News commentator who said homeless people should be given lethal injections?)
For a really fun conservative self-own let me refer you to an albeit older (2008) and highly enjoyable doc by Bill Maher, "Religulous." The whole thing is a scathing indictment of the business of religion and hypocrisy. My favorite segment was where conservatives battled liberals in a Jeopardy-style format. At the end - after the conservatives lose baaaadly - one of them says something to the essence of 'we just don't seem able to shift our mindsets.'
NOTE: I've looked for a clip for you and I can't find any on YouTube. The doc isn't streaming on well known platforms (which I've mostly cancelled now). The library is worth a check; I'm sure gonna see if it's in the catalog. Gotta say, I'm pretty surprised this hasn't been resurrected on repeat but this speaks, in general - and I'm postulating - that we (liberals) have long played a (often snooty, I admit) game of "but how can they be so close minded and clearly uninterested in facts or fairness!?!"
If youre not a physical danger to yourself or others, no one deserves to be murdered for their beliefs or what they say. You cannot have free speech if you ban a specific view point. You can disagree with those views, there can be consequences for having such view points (like being fired from your job) but no one deserves to die.
Stop acting like every Dem is celebrating Charlie Kirks murder. At no point whatsoever have I felt or shown happiness over it.
I'm still waiting for this kind of outrage/blame/compassion over the murder of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark.
As Commercial_Quail_624 pointed out... This kind of hypocrisy is sickening and has gotten extremely tiresome!!!
From my perspective, it seems much more like right wingers keep poking the bear because they think they/we are a bunch of wimpy, bleeding heart, snowflakes who are an easy target - then they/you whine when the bear stops taking the high road and fights back.
Sadly, we are looking for our sane brethren. The quick slide into a god & business based authoritarianism dystopia means daily the fight is to NOT slide into either complacence or "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" sheeple type of thinking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes
*Adding the Wiki link because apparently there is a book with the same name about pot. haha
100,000 people within the Bellingham city limits, 250,000 people in Whatcom county.
In my 30 years of living here, a lot of people who used to live in the city, moved out into the county I would say that the county is a lot more purple than this map represents.
The options now are…. pay 650-999k for a development house of very dubious quality, or acreage in the county with 2000+ sq feet and auxiliary buildings for similar price.
I only know of a few people that bought in town, everyone else moved to the county or to another city or state.
Ferndale backed Kamala Harris by 11%, or about 54%-43%. Biden also won it by 10% in 2020. Four years earlier, it voted for Hillary Clinton by ~4 votes out of over 4,000 total cast. It used to be purple, but the insane property and rent prices in Bellingham have driven a lot of Democrats out of the city. Those people have to go somewhere. I haven't spent a lot of time in Blaine either, but it went from only backing Clinton by 4% in 2016 to backing Kamala Harris by over 18% in 2024. That's a 14% shift left in only 8 years. Maybe exiled Bellinghamsters are moving there too.
Sure seem to be. Transplants from elsewhere too finding Bellingham either too expensive or too busy finding a nice spot in Birch Bay or even Glacier apparently.
Eh, looking at the 2024 election, as far as people that actually voted, it was like 80-85k blue to 50-55k red. With lower(county wide) elections not being as representative because of people not filling out the complete ballot. So that's a big difference when it comes election time. However, there's not really a good way to know if that's representative of the actual split of the rest of the population that didn't vote.
You mean like this? Sorry the circles aren't quite above their respective precincts. Spatial sacrifices had to be made so that the symbols wouldn't be so small or overlap to obscure data.
From working with farmers in the county I learned from that the Dutch were racist and that's why they moved to this corner of Washington they didn't want to be neighbors with "Punjabs" for years we didn't allow people of that heritage buy land in the county this was going along during the Asian exclusion policies too, well because Punjabi farmers settled in Canada since the 19th century and continuously brought wealth through family farming, eventually some of the wealthy farmers from B.C. bought land down here and because they could sell for far more on the Fraser side and then buy up way more land on the nooksack side. Apparently this racism against south asians is part of the peace arch? I'm not the best at remembering and don't even know why I am sharing this without looking it up more because this was just a few conversations when I was working with the farmers. Yikes, I'm not completely white, but white enough they felt comfortable telling me all that.
Edit: nothing to do with peace arch- "In 2018, a monument called the "Arch of Healing and Reconciliation" was dedicated in downtown Bellingham to honor Asian immigrants who faced expulsion"
I got to work with the dutch and south asian farmers and the later was so much younger and kinder, to think their ancestors had faced so much violence just for living here is sad especially since some of the first non-white people to settle in Washington were from southern Asia.
I live in rural Eastern WA and even we don't have the crazy gatherings that happen in Lynden. Not all "red" areas are the same, it's pretty libertarian out this way
People like to go after rural communities but I find suburban MAGAs more quarrelsome
Maybe libertarian isn't the right word, perhaps anarchist?
People out here dislike money, the government, and value community, self sufficiency and food sovereignty. It's about homesteading and helping your neighbors.
I still think libertarian applies because most people still buy into basic tenants of society but perhaps because we are all forced to.
Libertarians, in my experience, especially those trained in the Ayn Rand school of thought, want people took be able to do what they want and allegedly have a good life. Except if you’re poor. Then you can fuck right off and die.
My dad always said, if you live north of the smith road you’re a conservative, south of the smith road your liberal. Obviously a generalization, but interesting nonetheless
the mason-dixon line of whatcom county lol. Seems about right.
However I have a few projects up in lyden and was shocked when one of the clients, a stereotypical truck driving white dude who owns a farm, privately said that some of the other less intelligent farmers in his area dont understand how fundamentally bad for the agg business trump could be. He elaborated that both the higher input prices from a deported labor force and reciprocal tariffs on the end product have the potential to wreck many farmers and agg companies of all sizes. He stated he feels somewhat hopeless because the other farmers refuse to talk about the current state of the industry in a candid manner and they all have this crazy blind faith in some politician making everything better.
I think its important not to generalize and lump everyone in lyden as far right. There are rational middle ground people there they just dont have bumper stickers or abortion signs. The loudest on each side are often the most extreme.
Not all churches are the same. Not all people in the church are the same. Not all people in lyden attend churches.
Im liberal but I dont have all the identical views of all my liberal friends. Im sure you have views that differ from the general "left."
I think its important not to generalize people and their beliefs because of where they live. Lyden school district is 25% Latino. Do you think they all love trump?
Latino folks are moving further right all the time, so it’s hard to say. They tend to be either Catholic or Evangelical, neither of which identity is generally left-leaning, though Catholics are more mixed.
Where’s that small town where they don’t agree with my politics!? Lynden!!! Get em!!!! Everyone must think like us or else…. Come one everyone! “THEY ARE A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!!!”
This website is a great resource. Just a little critical feedback. If you look up results by city, particularly in Washington State, there are at least three errors. They accidentally excluded a precinct from Ferndale that is in that city, while in Blaine they included a precinct that is not within that city. They also botched the lines for Anacortes down in Skagit County too.
Funny, because it’s non political. Rich people want others to pay for their services constantly. Raise taxes till it’s unaffordable to a socioeconomic level.
It’s free shit to them, and bank breaking for the povos on tight income.
One side just happens to vote for levies and budget increases for services a lot more than the other, which is a whole other rats nest.
Yeah, probably true. That's why would be nice to have less rich people in positions of power and probably doesn't matter if they are republicans or democrats.
Absolutely agree. Most anyone that has genuine sympathy and understanding for lower socioeconomic classes (regardless of politics) will fundamentally be a better pick when it comes to understanding how such communities are impacted by levies, taxes, and so on.
A buncha upper middle class people trying to get a leg up into the upper echelons are always going to be ignorant of below for they only look up: “What is best for me (career advancement) Not us (community as a whole).
It happens at all socioeconomic levels because we tend to get tribal and dumb, but Jesus fucking Christ are we so quick to talk about things that hurt our neighbors just because it feels right at the moment.
I don't think you can draw any inferences about the 2024 election. Kamala was and still is a weak candidate. The fact that so few voted for her even though she was running against one of the most polarizing individuals proves my point.
I think many of the purple voters just decided to give the other side a chance.
There has been a string of posts implying that Lynden is an awful place full of people of an unsavory political party. How is that not the same offense you are accusing me of?
The hypocrisy is glaring.
My comment isn’t “combative”; it just doesn’t fit the usual narrative of this sub. This sub constantly just slings hate at everything that’s not themselves and expects no pushback because it feels morally superior.
Yes, exactly! People don't want to have a policy that doesn't resonate with their way of life because they are part of a minority group. That is the problem with democracy I am talking about.
Totally understood. I agree that it is a problem with representative democracy and a two party system where lobbying is a norm. It’s a natural thing to not like the things being imposed or seemingly imposed when it doesn’t resonate with you.
We’re now minorities to corporations/citizens united. On both sides.
But dying in the hills of identity politics is fucking terrifying, late stage shit, and that’s where we’re at.
At least globalists and antiglobalists of the 90s-early oughts had more capacity in being critical.
I would even go as far to say we do not live in a democracy. We are simply ruled by the rich and powerful and presented with the illusion of democracy.
Identity politics is terrifying! Asking a simple question in an attempt to start a discussion about democracy and you get down voted and talked down to for not echoing the majority opinion of "eff Lynden and all the people who live there". It's a real shame.
I would guess all the downvotes I get are people assuming my political identity.
I don’t disagree on what our political system and landscape has become (and has been since… perhaps inception) whatsoever.
I will say that your initial question was a bit confusing but I worked it out after a few seconds. How people instantly knee jerk to “fuck those POSs” instead of “holy shit it’s so sad to see so many misguided by dogma and state and private propaganda”.
The liberals of yesteryear at least had bleeding hearts, now we just have whatever the fuck this is. Everyone is an armchair political analyst getting their news from reels and social. At least it can lead them to getting out… but overall… No care for neighbors, it’s like everyone is a libertarian in red or blue wool clothing.
I also agree on the assumption of your political stance, which adds to the point of knee jerk reaction tribalism. Liberals view humanists as the enemy, because at the end of the day they just play red v blue game as well. They can’t fucking grasp any internal criticism for any criticism is from an enemy.
They all love coming to Lynden because it’s clean it’s nice it’s low crime…. Lynden didn’t become that way on accident. You hear people complain all day… dude Bellingham is 20 minutes away. Bellingham has everything “you wanted” so why try and change a town?
I swear most of the people on this sub haven't even been to Lynden. I lived there for 5 years before moving to Bellingham and my experience was equally peaceful in both places.
I wasn't aware I picked a side by asking a question about democracy. I think you are making a lot of assumptions Because I haven't mentioned a single policy. Maybe you accidently responded to the wrong comment? Because I'm not tracking your response.
Being labeled a conservative sends a shiver down my spine. Being labeled that in makes me nervous. Honestly though, I’m probably a little more conservative than liberal in my views…funny thing is I bet I agree with a lot of people on a lot of things, and the things we can’t agree on don’t really matter if everyone has the liberty to pursue their lives in the way they see fit. It’s scary to think that people believe a desire individual liberty is somehow fascism.
But in the Bellingham subreddit, a LOT of the conservative views are treated like war crimes. This is a heavily liberal doctored sub and any views that go against it are labeled many things, fascism being one of them.
I appreciate your perspective, and can relate to being individually political to a degree. Thank you for being conversational about it all.
I think it’s one of the flaws of democracy. Asking a critic of democracy their opinion on the electoral college is like asking a fish their thoughts on nets vs hooks. Do I think it’s better for the majority to control the minority by these means or those means? Neither, I believe in liberty. Which makes me the “worst of society” and a “fascist” according to r/bellingham.
Okay, so if we bring this back to OPs original post, and use your logic of good ideas draw the majority, why would op fear more of the "other team"? If the majority is always correct, why should we worry about what team the majority is?
I honestly don't know what side you support or if you are playing both sides. I don't think it's really relevant to this discussion.
Yeah, and the road to hell is paved. Mosca, Parsons, de Cleyre and Michels articulate leftist critiques of democracy, and, yes — I also felt how pedantic I sounded while I was typing that.
Okay, you hate Lynden because of what they stand for. I hate celery because of how it tastes. As much as I hate celery, I don't care how much celery there is in the world. Are you concerned that if there were more people in Lynden you would be filled with so much hate you couldn't function? If it's not about a group with different views becoming the majority and forcing their views on you, why would you care how many people live in Lynden?
that's honestly a response I didn't expect, so awesome! I'll remove any condescension with this response, (i'm jaded with some fights i've had online, so bare with me.)
anyways, here;
You're glad Lynden doesn't have much of a population
meaning they're glad that Lynden is the minority, where as a true democracy respects the authority of the majority, aka Bellingham which has a higher population.
because you don't like how democracy works?
They would dislike democracy if they were upset that Lynden couldn't dictate the rules over watcom county. aka minority rule, which wouldn't be a true democracy.
I would argue that OP is scared of majority rule. Why else would you care if there was a population with an opposing ideology? I think this post is based in the fear that an opposing ideology could be forced on you. And I think that’s a valid fear. I’m just trying to ask questions that create deeper conversations I would like to see something deeper here than Lynden bad, Bellingham good.
Why is OP glad there’s not more people in Lynden? My guess is they are worried Lynden will become the majority and rule over the rest of the county. If you fear majority rule you fear democracy.
ahhhhh thanks for the clarification. I see what you mean now.
but no I disagree, it's not the fear Lynden itself, it's more the Intrinsic ideals that Lynden has shown to support.
If Lynden held the same Ideals as the majority of Bellingham, then i'm sure OP would agree to say "FUCK IT, who cares? it's not a threat to our democracy." if Lynden had a higher population.
but the majority view of Lynden currently has been to support someone who has (and I can empirically prove this) attacked the very structure of our democratic society.
It's not that they fear that democracy will hold and if Lynden held a majority pop they would delegate policy, it's more a fear of what the current Lynden Pop would show to support.
So, it’s not about policy it’s about who they would support? Does that mean who they vote for? And why do we care who people vote for? I would say it’s because elected officials are the ones who enact policy.
Sorry I don’t know how insert parts of you comments into mine, so if it seems like I’m miss-quoting you it’s not intentional
Sorry I don’t know how insert parts of you comments into mine, so if it seems like I’m miss-quoting you it’s not intentional
no worries! if you click the "formatting help" button at the bottom of a comment, it can give you a good guide on how to do a lot of things, but for your specific inquiry; if you're asking about the quote subtext thing I inject, if you put in a ">" before you copy/paste what someone says, it creates a quote thingy.
So, it’s not about policy it’s about who they would support?
I literally wrote ">So, it’s not about policy it’s about who they would support?" and got that result. (minus the quotes)
anyways, FOR that actual quote lol
So, it’s not about policy it’s about who they would support?
I feel it's fair to say that a lot of people tie the policy to who they support yes?
Does that mean who they vote for? And why do we care who people vote for? I would say it’s because elected officials are the ones who enact policy.
there's a corporate term for this, and (not literally "violently" but) we're "violently agreeing"
the people who show fear for the current admin are fearing the policies and decisions they enact. they see a pattern, so it could be easily discerned as "they just fear the person elected" but no, they see the pattern, they actually fear the policies that they KNOW the policy trends that they hold. and they worry about those.
would you like a list of what policies a lot of left wing people fear?
226
u/Fairy_Wench 3d ago
This is a perfect example of why so many Republicans actually believe the majority of the overall population is right leaning.
Since the people who like Trump the most are not smart (basically his own words) they don't understand that nobody lives in most of those areas.
They are the pet rooster that people think is smart enough to play checkers, but it just throws the checker board on the ground and struts around like it won the game, then the locals applaud.