Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Contrary to what many conservatives believe, the "urban" poor have VERY low voter participation rates. They are not "voting" for "handouts." They don't vote at all for the most part.
I agree with desertdetroiter in that a more interesting question is why do poor white conservatives who use various social services and welfare programs vote overwhelmingly for conservative/Republican candidates.
I don't think it has to do with them having morals or being better than an "urban" poor person. IMO it means they are ignorant in many political issues.
Also, poor people in general don't vote in large numbers anyway. Only about 20% of the poor population votes in presidential election years either urban or suburban or rural.
So it is always funny to me to view threads here where posters lament about poor "urban" (aka black) people voting for "welfare" and "handouts" since the "urban" people actually voting are middle income and above and don't use "welfare" and only share the same "handouts" as all middle income Americans.
ETA: I have an extremely bothersome FB friend who is white and lives usually in suburban or rural areas. She has 9 children, the youngest 5 are all 1 year apart. She is married but she and her husband are "disabled" and they get Medicaid for all their kids - 4 of the youngest have expensive health issues. They are on SNAP and they qualify for subsidized housing and this person is the most vocal on my FB page who is always complaining about Obama taking away her food stamps lol. Or that subsidized housing is not cheap enough and not big enough. Or that her kids cannot get the expensive autism spectrum services on Medicaid that they should be able to get. A few years ago when there was a threat of a government shut down, she went on and on for days about how Obama was trying to "take away her social security disability." I know of many of these types of people unfortunately. They do not vote at all. If they do, like this person, they only care about a social issue like abortion, which this person does not believe in. She also doesn't believe in birth control, which is why they have so many children. They are Republicans and conservative due to their religious beliefs and their anti-abortionist ideology an so they make "liberals" an enemy of theirs. They think they "deserve" their many benefits while "urban" poor people (aka black) do not "deserve" anything because they are "lazy" and "don't work" even though over 80% of urban (aka black) poor people do work and they are not overly represented on social security disability rolls.
IMO many people on these boards don't like to acknowledge that this friend (and she is not the only one I have like this but she is the on with the most kids milking out system) is very prevalent in poor white communities. That is why I always find it odd that focus is on "urban" poor when it is suburban and rural poor that is increasing the most.
Last edited by residinghere2007; 08-16-2015 at 08:46 PM..
Contrary to what many conservatives believe, the "urban" poor have VERY low voter participation rates. They are not "voting" for "handouts." They don't vote at all for the most part.
This may have been true in the past but this still persists even after it is no longer true. Blacks had a higher turnout than any other race in the last presidential election. This is the culmination of a trend of increasing black vote participation that has been going on since 1996. https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-568.pdf
Quote:
I agree with desertdetroiter in that a more interesting question is why do poor white conservatives who use various social services and welfare programs vote overwhelmingly for conservative/Republican candidates.
The answer: because Democrats play racial identity political games that more or less communicate to whites that they aren't welcome unless they get on board the progressivism train. If they don't, they get smeared by the anti-white, anti-Christian media as they do in the NY Times article that Enigma777 linked to. Liberals call them stupid and snark that they're voting against their own self-interests, when it's actually white liberals who are selling out their future to people who don't care at all about them. I will add one more comment on that NY Times article: the map looks like compelling data but be careful. The overall map weighs Social Security and Medicaid heavily, meaning it correlates more closely with age than anything. Look at the "Income Support" map for a more meaningful picture.
Quote:
Also, poor people in general don't vote in large numbers anyway. Only about 20% of the poor population votes in presidential election years either urban or suburban or rural.
A simple Google search shows the number is closer to 50%, but that's nitpicking. Of course the rich vote more than the poor, the rich have the most to lose from hare-brained wealth redistribution schemes.
I grew up poor, in the projects. None of the black people I know vote because of handouts. I mean, let's be honest. Public housing, welfare, etc is available whether the President is Dem or Rep, so that really makes no difference.
I would wager that many blacks vote Dem because of the racist stigma associated with the Republican party. Which is unfortunate, because many of the values of the Republican party matches the values of poor Blacks.
I've always voted Dem, but would vote for Trump in a heartbeat if I thought he had any real chance of swiftly and effectively addressing the illegal immigration issue.
Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Boston etc are some of our top cities for economic productivity and these cities are Democrats. They pay taxes so all these red states can recieve extra Fed dollars than what they send.
This is not really a Democratic vs Republican issue, however. The west coast and north east are extremely productive areas led by democrats. But there are other areas that are primarily democratic that are not as productive. The South, whether democratic or republican has traditionally been a huge loss for the nation... even after you remove military expenditure. They just aren't productive. This has to do with southern mentality and republican leadership. However, republican leadership in other areas don't suffer from these issues.
The real question is, why are some of our poorest areas of the country so Conservative ?
The poorest areas of the country, that is, those with the highest poverty rate, are inner-cities, not rural areas. Inner-city residents overwhelmingly vote D, even in red states (e.g., think Atlanta).
The poorest areas of the country, that is, those with the highest poverty rate, are inner-cities, not rural areas. Inner-city residents overwhelmingly vote D, even in red states (e.g., think Atlanta).
This holds for rural poor areas as well. The top 10 poorest counties in the state all voted for Obama in 2012, in most cases by an overwhelming majority.
Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Boston etc are some of our top cities for economic productivity and these cities are Democrats. They pay taxes so all these red states can recieve extra Fed dollars than what they send.
................. and I thought you were a self professed "independent"........................ yet every view you have is far left.
Perhaps you should look at the list of the states that lead in the US in non-farm manufacturing:
This may have been true in the past but this still persists even after it is no longer true. Blacks had a higher turnout than any other race in the last presidential election. This is the culmination of a trend of increasing black vote participation that has been going on since 1996. https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-568.pdf
The answer: because Democrats play racial identity political games that more or less communicate to whites that they aren't welcome unless they get on board the progressivism train. If they don't, they get smeared by the anti-white, anti-Christian media as they do in the NY Times article that Enigma777 linked to. Liberals call them stupid and snark that they're voting against their own self-interests, when it's actually white liberals who are selling out their future to people who don't care at all about them. I will add one more comment on that NY Times article: the map looks like compelling data but be careful. The overall map weighs Social Security and Medicaid heavily, meaning it correlates more closely with age than anything. Look at the "Income Support" map for a more meaningful picture.
A simple Google search shows the number is closer to 50%, but that's nitpicking. Of course the rich vote more than the poor, the rich have the most to lose from hare-brained wealth redistribution schemes.
Per the bold, most black people are not "urban poor."
BLACKS had higher turnout doesn't mean that poor blacks turned out more. It means that middle income and above blacks turned out more. Just because someone is black doesn't mean they are poor. You should quit relating poverty to only black people. Over 70% of black people are middle income or above and the majority of them do not live in the inner city or "urban" areas. More black people now live in suburban areas versus urban.
Only about 10-20% of black people who vote are considered poverty stricken. I'm not sure how many live in urban areas but the vast majority of black people who vote, people like me and desertdetroiter and ChocLot, we are not poor and we don't vote for "handouts" because we don't need them.
The fact that you and many others relegate us to poverty and ignorance is the primary reason that blacks in this country do not vote in large numbers for GOP and conservative candidates. Why should they when you consider all of us poor, urban, "ghetto dwellers" when we are not? IMO you all live is some sort of bizarro reality in regards to your views of black people.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
