Was anyone else surprised at the Bernie Sanders crowd?

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by new2colo

No. You're assuming that the people who attended were all from Phoenix. There were likely many people from Tucson and Flagstaff, which are by no means conservative communities. Also, there are quite a few liberal people in the Phoenix metro area. Phoenix has the reputation of being deep, deep red when in fact it's more of a purple.

I know some people from up here that went to see Bernie Sanders and they aren't the least bit 'political'. Pretty much apathetic I'd say, and that's a big problem with a lot of people. They went just "to see Bernie". They went just "to see Trump" too. They support, and really care about, neither of them. It's the "celebrity thing" with them, I guess. I wonder how many others who attend those things are the same way.

For the most part I think the Verde Valley is still pretty much "deep red", if my family, friends and acquaintances are any indicator. I'm always surprised when I hear someone say something good about the Dems or Obama. It's rare though.

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by belgirl

But what you have failed to include is the increase in the number of independents who generally vote Democrat.

Independents have indeed increased, but what evidence do you have that they vote Democratic?

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

Independents have indeed increased, but what evidence do you have that they vote Democratic?

I was registered Independent for a long time and I voted for both parties. Even now I don't vote for the party but for the person. I'm registered Democrat now because, back then, Indpendants weren't allowed to vote in the primaries so I changed it. I think they can now but I'm too lazy to change it. I don't know any other Independent voters so can't say how they vote.

[jdahunt]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

More loony talk from the fringe: Ronald Reagan raised taxes, sold arms to Iran and implemented an amnesty program for undocumented immigrants. See how far that would get somebody in today's GOP.

At least we now know where you get all your misinformation......interesting that you take parts of something and leave out the main parts to try and make your misleading point...allow me to show you where you are wrong.

1. Reagan did not raise taxes overall....his tax cuts are still on record as being some of the largest in our history....what he did do is close some deduction loop holes that affected mainly the rich but the overall take is that the cuts were much more than the loss of deductions....another way or honest way to say would be that Reagan cut more in taxes than was raised in fixing the tax code but liberals chose not to be honest and try and skew the facts to fit their agenda.

2. Reagan didn't sell arms to Iran.....another conspiracy theory that to this date has not been proven.

3. Reagan didn't implement an amnesty program, that is totally owned by the congress....by our constitution only the congress can decide who and who not can become a citizen....Reagan signed their bill after being promised that they would secure the borders.....which we all know today is a false promise no different than what is being promised today....Reagan declared that the illegal immigration fiasco was one of his biggest regrets.....so you uninformed liberals latch on that Reagan signed the bill but pay no attention to Reagan's actual comments on it later trying to get low information people today to believe that Reagan if given the chance would do it all over again....when all the know facts tells a different story...why not just tell the truth and let it fall where it goes....no need to skew facts to fit your agenda....but then again we all know why you do what you do.....

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by jdahunt

At least we now know where you get all your misinformation......interesting that you take parts of something and leave out the main parts to try and make your misleading point...allow me to show you where you are wrong.

1. Reagan did not raise taxes overall....his tax cuts are still on record as being some of the largest in our history....what he did do is close some deduction loop holes that affected mainly the rich but the overall take is that the cuts were much more than the loss of deductions....another way or honest way to say would be that Reagan cut more in taxes than was raised in fixing the tax code but liberals chose not to be honest and try and skew the facts to fit their agenda.

2. Reagan didn't sell arms to Iran.....another conspiracy theory that to this date has not been proven.

3. Reagan didn't implement an amnesty program, that is totally owned by the congress....by our constitution only the congress can decide who and who not can become a citizen....Reagan signed their bill after being promised that they would secure the borders.....which we all know today is a false promise no different than what is being promised today....Reagan declared that the illegal immigration fiasco was one of his biggest regrets.....so you uninformed liberals latch on that Reagan signed the bill but pay no attention to Reagan's actual comments on it later trying to get low information people today to believe that Reagan if given the chance would do it all over again....when all the know facts tells a different story...why not just tell the truth and let it fall where it goes....no need to skew facts to fit your agenda....but then again we all know why you do what you do.....

This is probably the wrong forum for this discussion so this is the last thing I will contribute to this.

Reagan lowered taxes overall, that is clear. What he did do, however, was to raise taxes when it made sense to do so, either to respond to a need for revenue or to reach a compromise with his political opponents. That is something that today's Republicans state flatly they will not do. The majority of the current crop of presidential candidates have signed Grover Norquist's anti-tax pledge when very clearly removes the possibility of raising taxes under any circumstance.

Iran-contra happened on Reagan's watch, whether he was personally involved or not is irrelevant.

Reagan signed the immigration bill into law, he could have vetoed it, it doesn't matter what he thought about it afterwards.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

Exactly! People are always saying "it is so conservative here" but it doesn't affect me in the least. I just do my thing and ignore the politics.

That will change when you have kids. Then things like quality of public schools due to funding, college tuition rates, daycare and health care make a difference.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by jdahunt

3. Reagan didn't implement an amnesty program, that is totally owned by the congress....by our constitution only the congress can decide who and who not can become a citizen....Reagan signed their bill after being promised that they would secure the borders.....which we all know today is a false promise no different than what is being promised today....Reagan declared that the illegal immigration fiasco was one of his biggest regrets.....so you uninformed liberals latch on that Reagan signed the bill but pay no attention to Reagan's actual comments on it later trying to get low information people today to believe that Reagan if given the chance would do it all over again....when all the know facts tells a different story...why not just tell the truth and let it fall where it goes....no need to skew facts to fit your agenda....but then again we all know why you do what you do.....

You have got to be kidding me. Actions speak louder than words. Anyone can say something was wrong AFTER THE fact but Reagan signed the immigration bill and essentially provided amnesty to illegals. Call a spade a spade. What has happened is Tea Baggers have raised Reagan to mythic proportions that they don't know what his actual policies were. And then to lawyer their way around that, they make arguments like "Yeah but he criticized it later"

Government spending was also high under Reagan. Annual spending averaged 22.4% of GDP on his watch, which is above today's 40-year average of 20.7%, and above the 20.8% average under Carter. So for all the "reduce the size of govt" yeah, it didn't happen under Reagan's watch either.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news...n_years_taxes/