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By the last count...we have 962,828 registered Democrats, 1,121,263 Republicans, 26,387 Libertarians and 1,123,998 Independents. Over 1.1 Million of us don't want to associate with ANY political party but...when you look at the election results from the past Presidential election...1,025,232 voted Democrat and 1,233,654 voted Republican with 32,109 voting Libertarian. Where are the other 917,094 of you? There's your 3rd Party. Quit letting extreme viewpoints ruin our state and become that example of what real Americans can do when they work together.
And that is the golden question. In the last presidential election, the primary election was 'cancelled' due to lack of funds. Instead we caucused. I went to the Republican one to caucus for the man I felt had the best plan. And I was not alone. Unfortunately there were just enough there who were stuck in the old rut of the "main man" and the 'most electable'. I am sure that happened all over the country.
And that is probably one of the main reasons the best man had to drop out and I ended up voting Libertarian anyways.
Well that is comforting...it's not just us...everyone is pissed off. So...I don't suppose there is just a way to get along? You understanding that my viewpoint may be different from your own...Me understanding that your viewpoint is different and we meet in the middle somewhere to give up a point or 2 on either sides of a disagreement so everyone is happy and can move on with our lives? Cause at the end of the day...everyone is just trying to make a living, do the best they can for their kids and die having lived a fulfilled life? Or is the ideological crap always going to get in the way and result in what we have now...cause I am sorry...everyone is miserable. We live in a great country...there is so much more out there than arguing over who is right, who is acting wrong (in one viewpoint or the other), you hurt my feelings so I am going to sue you...this is getting tiring and it seems to be dividing the American people and the citizens of Arizona into tribes of people that just...behave worse than my 7 and 10 year old fighting over who gets the last meatball.
you are really over reacting. the rest of the country loves to bash us and say we are a terrible state, and idc let them. arizona is a great state with great people. i've been here for a while now and i don't see what your talking about. the offroading, the spring break deal is still going on trust me. im young and have the times of my life in this state
As an Arizona/Phoenix area native, I can say that you should not make a general assessment of everyone in Arizona as being "grouchy" and drive fast, you're going to see grouchy people and discourteous drivers no matter where you go. I do see drivers who are not courteous to let you into a lane when you signal, and in most cases they're talking on the cell phone while driving, which is not something I would do, on the other hand, there are others who are very courteous and considerate.
I want Arizona to stay on the Conservative side, and with the increase of population we've seen in the last 4-5 years, I'm sure we are going to see transplants from both sides. I just don't want to see many of the areas in Phoenix that have always been safe areas, turn into ghettos. Phoenix and hopefully other cities in the Valley supposedly have programs to prevent that.
One of the reasons California has been ruined was because of the influx of illegal immigrants, which is a big problem for many states, not just those that are close to the Mexican border. Driving in west Phoenix nowadays, as well as many parts in the large metropolitan areas of California, makes you feel like you're in Mexico. That can only be stopped with enforcement of immigration laws and securing our borders.
I am sort of new to Arizona, I don't even know what you guys are talking about. I am from California and spend less than third of my time in Arizona. I feel Arizonians are very nice. Sometimes too nice. When I check in the hotel in Prescott, I was upset of the slow service. But the people was so nice, I have to swallow all my upset. I would rather people are colder, like in California, so I don't feel guilty to complain! LOL.
you are really over reacting. the rest of the country loves to bash us and say we are a terrible state, and idc let them. arizona is a great state with great people. i've been here for a while now and i don't see what your talking about. the offroading, the spring break deal is still going on trust me. im young and have the times of my life in this state
hehe...so you're saying I AM the grumpy old guy on the porch yelling at the kids to "Git off mah LAWN" (or rocks as the case may be). Maybe I just need to get the family out camping and unplug. Thank you for the perspective.
I want Arizona to stay on the Conservative side, and with the increase of population we've seen in the last 4-5 years, I'm sure we are going to see transplants from both sides. I just don't want to see many of the areas in Phoenix that have always been safe areas, turn into ghettos. Phoenix and hopefully other cities in the Valley supposedly have programs to prevent that.
One of the reasons California has been ruined was because of the influx of illegal immigrants, which is a big problem for many states, not just those that are close to the Mexican border. Driving in west Phoenix nowadays, as well as many parts in the large metropolitan areas of California, makes you feel like you're in Mexico. That can only be stopped with enforcement of immigration laws and securing our borders.
Blaming liberals for making safe areas "ghetto" is fairly assumptive on your part. You could blame conservatives for this. Conservatives have reduced education funding including early child hood education which creates a more uneducated society and provides many poor and impoverished with an educational disadvantage. Conservatives have also touted a pro-gun culture which have led to guns and weapons becoming more readily available to criminals. Conservatives have also attracted extremists like white supremacist groups and racist zealots. They move here assuming that others will support their ideology.
Most importantly, social conservatives have drawn away many educated people from moving here due to their concern for living in a community that lacks tolerance and is viewed as bohemian. When many states provide financial incentives to lure companies, many other attributes factor into their decisions to move such as the quality of the schools, culture and community. The type of people we are trying to lure to this state are well educated with advanced degrees and most of those people are socially liberal. Sorry but executives from tech companies and Fortunate 500 companies are not homophobic, gun touting xenophobes. Yes, they want financial handouts as does all corporate executives, but they also want good schools for their children to attend. And they also want educated neighbors to live next door to.
You cite California as an example of liberalism gone wrong. I can just as easily cite Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Tennessee and other conservative states which have the country's highest rates of poverty, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, lowest average lifespan, lowest standardized test score, lowest rates of people with a bachelors degree etc. I don't want Arizona to become like them. And for every state like Texas that a conservative cites, I can cite a state like Connecticut, New York, Vermont, and Mass.
Last edited by azriverfan.; 02-28-2014 at 10:03 PM..
Okay...so the comment was that "Modern Life", "Resistance to Change" and "People bringing their politics" as the main contributing factor to the reason that Arizona has moved from a place that people came to relax and enjoy to the angry, divided, polarized community we have now. To my original point...we never really cared about differences in people here in the past and...with the exception of a few old Arizona families...we all came here from somewhere else for whatever reason but I think that the most compelling reason was that (for the most part) we didn't care what race/sex/religion you are...it was a melting pot. Now we have all this "diverse" and "alternate" talk and how people need to be made concessions for. I understand that these are very real concerns and I don't mean to belittle anyone...and I guess I am trying to address just more of a "can't we all get along" type of culture...but it all seems a bit ridiculous to me. Yes, sometimes we have differences of opinion about the best way to address an issue...and I didn't want to get political here...but if our present lawmakers are the polarizing element...let's fix this.
By the last count...we have 962,828 registered Democrats, 1,121,263 Republicans, 26,387 Libertarians and 1,123,998 Independents. Over 1.1 Million of us don't want to associate with ANY political party but...when you look at the election results from the past Presidential election...1,025,232 voted Democrat and 1,233,654 voted Republican with 32,109 voting Libertarian. Where are the other 917,094 of you? There's your 3rd Party. Quit letting extreme viewpoints ruin our state and become that example of what real Americans can do when they work together.
The chart states we are #7 for lowest voter turn-out rate at 53.3% of us voting. So 46.7% of our fellow Arizonans didn't vote for the 2012 Presidential election? That's a scary percentage, and hard to believe. Why are so many Arizonans apolitical? You'd think more of us would care about the policies that affect our lives everyday. I couldn't imagine how much lower the percentage would be for state and local governments...
At least the same website says most states are not voting as much as they used to, but ~6% less of us voted in 2012 than in 2008, a little less change than most. Still 6% less, and we are already fairly bad with getting people to vote.
I agree. The extreme viewpoints don't express the interests of most Arizonans. You'd think with a lot of the things our legislators have tried to pass in the recent years, those who disagreed would go vote to prevent these from happening again. Why is it not happening?
From <gasp> political discussions with friends the general feel is that they don't feel like they have a good choice...so a "no vote" is viewed as a "None of the Above". Obama is viewed as being too divisive and Romney was milquetoast and pandering to his base. Since Gary Johnson was seen as unelectable, they just didn't vote. Not everyone likes to vote for the lesser of 2 evils.
I agree. But if more of us voiced our opinions on what we wanted, I'm sure politicians would listen. They do, after all, want our votes. I think Gov. Brewer listened to the opinions of the Freedom Bill before she vetoed it.
IMHO, we could just start voting for other parties... I noticed a lot of people haven't even heard of some of the other parties (especially the Millennial generation, which I'm in) that might be a cause of this. I won't go into this though, since I think it goes off topic.
I do agree Arizona doesn't feel the same. I think it's the massive amounts of transplants we have gotten recently, as others have stated.
From <gasp> political discussions with friends the general feel is that they don't feel like they have a good choice...so a "no vote" is viewed as a "None of the Above". Obama is viewed as being too divisive and Romney was milquetoast and pandering to his base. Since Gary Johnson was seen as unelectable, they just didn't vote. Not everyone likes to vote for the lesser of 2 evils.
And that is where we make the biggest mistake. I wish more would go ahead and vote for the "unelectable" instead of not voting at all. Maybe, just maybe the reason for apathy and 'note voting' would stop and we would break the cycle of "the lesser of two evils".
I, for one, will always vote my conscious even if all around me say that I'm either; throwing away my vote, or he/she is unelectable. It is time. We need to take our country back with our arms. hopefully, just our voting arms.
And I realize that my post had nothing to do with Arizona, but I still find Arizona to be full of friendly folks, much more so than here in WA. And the drivers, though sometimes fast will pay attention to others and let you merge when needed. Here in WA, they drive like they're oblivious and/or try to pith you off.
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