Obama as president (Columbia, Charleston, Clinton: real estate, credit, taxes)

[Geechie North]

Originally Posted by joanie55

I'm just wondering since I know this is a red state how people are feeling about Obama being president. I am politically liberal, but that isn't why I voted for Obama. What I really see in this is that people voted their pocketbooks - they voted for the person they thought would help them in their fight to put food on the table and a roof over their head, race not important. Am I wrong? I am thinking of moving to Charleston and although I realize it's a conservative state I guess I'm just wondering HOW conservative? The other city I'm considering moving to is Atlanta and I'm just stunned at the reactions I've seen on this election. Can someone let me know what you think is the mood of those in SC following this election? I'm just going to be honest (I'm from Missouri, the show me state, and we tend to be pretty blunt.), are people in SC so conservative that they really want to elect someone who will be basically a rerun of Bush for the past 8 years? I'm certainly not a political party nazi, but in light of the bleak global economy and the money we've spent in Iraq, which we should have never been involved in the first place, why would anyone not want a change? I guess what I'm really asking is are the people of SC capable of being open minded? Curse me if you want, just please respond. Thanks.

.

Talked to a buddy of mine election night. In college (both grads of an SC school), he was a new wave Republican (Jim Edwards' man, and I was the crazy liberal , by SC standards.) By 2004, he'd left the GOP, but could not yet embrace the Dems.
This time around, he voted Obama, as did Charleston County:
Charleston, SC Latest Local News: A look at how your Lowcountry neighbors voted

He spoke of what he called a "reverse-Bradley" effect. Many people would NOT fess-up to supporting Obama pre-election, but did vote for him with gusto.

The Christian Coalition which dominates the GOP in SC is a main reason, along with that idiot Sanford.

[moneill]

Well as I see it -- given the present state of the economy -- there may not be any small businesses left anyways.

[Browsing Duo]

So what “ism” should we use for the 700 billion-and-growing transfer of tax money the current administration introduced with their Treasury Secretary, whereby huge failing companies—AIG, Bear Stearns, and a growing list of others-- that made horrendous investment decisions--are rewarded by taxpayers? And their millionaire/billionaire CEOs—who, just yesterday, it seems were seen as “overachievers,” who made these bad decisions and drove their companies into the ground, get to walk away with millions? Many of these erstwhile “overachievers” at the very top are now taking these taxpayer billions with both hands but resisting having to trim back on their golden parachutes or salaries.

Is this not a gargantuan “redistribution of wealth”—socialism? And the rest of us are stuck with the bill lest we see further erosion of our IRAs, homes, college accounts. If socialism is the redistribution of wealth, it’s not only going from the top 1% down, but from taxpayers up to the top 1%. And it happened in the last month with both parties saying we had no choice. Welcome to Socialism 2.0—we the people own a lot of bad banks and insurance companies.

[joanie55]

Well naturally I agree with that. I really had no idea my thread would evoke such passion and I really wasn't trying to get people up in arms. Also, I think whoever said I need to relax is right! I think many of us have been tense lately. I've said I think I'm lucky I didn't HAVE investments at this time since I know so many people who suffered devastating losses. Anyway, I don't think these kinds of disagreements are necessarily bad - they can be eye-opening. And no one will actually CHANGE their political view based on posts like this, but that's okay. I think the important thing is to be tolerant of conflicting opinions (a lesson I am learning as well) and realize that we all really just want what we feel is just and fair in a world that, of course, is not just and fair. And for those who were offended by my questioning the open-mindedness, or not, of South Carolina, I knew that would happen. Ohhhh welllll. I wanted feedback and I got it.

[eversonsc]

I know my taxes just jumped 20% with the results of the election and I'm not happy about it at all.

[Browsing Duo]

Originally Posted by eversonsc

I know my taxes just jumped 20% with the results of the election and I'm not happy about it at all.

How'd that happen? Did they just pull it out of your paycheck? Bank? IRA's? I'm going to check my account and see if Bush just raised my taxes 20% too? I do know I lost 30% of my conservative IRAs this past year, but I didn't think Bush was going to tax me 20% too. Please tell us how this happened.

[joanie55]

Originally Posted by Browsing Duo

How'd that happen? Did they just pull it out of your paycheck? Bank? IRA's? I'm going to check my account and see if Bush just raised my taxes 20% too? I do know I lost 30% of my conservative IRAs this past year, but I didn't think Bush was going to tax me 20% too. Please tell us how this happened.

Too funny!

[pokrplr]

Yea...Curiosity is about to kill the cat

[beth1104]

I belive that since eversonsc said, "with the results of the election", he's referring to the additional taxes effective with Obama's presidency. I still can't believe so many people blame only Bush for the present economy when it all started with the democrats; true, he and his democratic congress didn't get it stopped, but the spiral never should have started. (Thank you Barney Franks)...

[decafdave]

Originally Posted by Charleston Class

I'll tell you if you consider moving to Charleston, the first thing you've got to do is RELAX! Please don't play into stereotypes. According to wltx.com, Charleston County actually voted in the blue and by a good margin. The more "conservative" area of the state is around Greenville,SC-or what's called Upstate-, the map I accessed indicates this as well. I know specifically for Charleston, throngs of people from all over the US and the world visit the city and many decide to settle here for one reason or another. With that, most Charlestonians tend to be more open-minded and liberal because of the beach culture, the large college scene here-as the previous poster mentioned-, and the Art enthusiast crowd here. In addition, Charlestionians are always dealing with people from different areas-Air Force Base, military families, who often hold varying ideas about politics, so in IMO, its hard to be narrow-minded here because it's so diverse. The same could be said about other areas of the state as they are experiencing rapid population growth and some demographic changes too.

Do you really think that the high numbers of blacks living in Charleston County didn't make the county blue? I'd say that the majority of middle class whites are still "red". I do agree that Charleston is more liberal than the upstate though.