When Trump won the presidential election the whining I heard from my BAS friends was loud and clear. Similar to the whining in the largely democratic media and almost totally democratic educational domain. When Obama won twice there was no whining. Conservatives don't whine. They except the results of a lawful process, and carry on with their lives.
The Crowdpac survey pretty much tells the story.
We all know how much entertainers, academics, online services (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,...) and journalists actually contribute to society. These groups are much more liberal than the people who actually do something (farmers, miners, construction workers, and energy producers) are conservative (6-7L versus 3-4C)
So it goes. I will not comment further on the tax issue. It just upsets me to even think about it. Instead let's consider gun control. The table below lists the mass shooting events that have taken place in California in the last three+ decades. A mass shooting being defined as four or more people killed or injured.
If the locations of these mass shootings are plotted on map the result is the following:
A map depicting the political (democrat/republican) leanings of Californians is shown below. This map has not changed much over the three decades in which the shootings are logged. Needless to say the ease of getting a carry permit is much greater in the red counties, and is virtually impossible in the blue counties. Draw your own conclusions, but I feel a lot safer North of the Golden Gate where the percentage of gun ownership is much higher.
There is a lot in common between the maps above and the map below. Again, draw your own conclusions. Mass shootings only seem to occur where it is next to impossible to get a permit to carry a firearm. Makes the gun control advocates look sort of stupid (which they are).
Rollingstone Magazine luckily scored an interview with Obama the day after the general election. Among one of the more interesting comments Obama made was:
"If you look at the data from the election, if it were just young people who were voting, Hillary would have gotten 500 electoral votes. So we have helped, I think, shape a generation to think about being inclusive, being fair, caring about the environment. And they will have growing influence year by year, which means that America will continue to get better."
What a slap in the face to older Americans. Like we don't know jack shit, are not fair, and don't care about the environment. Of course if you look at who actually votes you get a different picture. BTW, there are as many eligible millennial voters as boomers.
Data on advanced degrees in the US is even more disappointing. Without foreign students the number of PhD's earned in a scientific discipline would go down by more the 50%.
degree statistics
So, I am old, and really don't really care that much anymore. I will filter my friends, and they will certainly filter me. It is one thing to see shit is happening, it is another to listen to why the shit is good from a bunch of poorly informed and biased BAS dwellers.
Edit 2 May 2017
A related issue is the recent voting on California proposition 56 - a proposal to raise the tax on cigarettes by $2 / pack. Clearly a discriminatory tax. Of course, the proposition passed by a large margin. Once again dominated by votes South of the Golden Gate where most of the whackos live.
