Re:Shelter in place for Bay Area counties
by dcftoapv on Monday March 16, 2020 @10:25PM
(#22600882)
It's been awhile since I looked at these stats but as of like 2008 more people identified as Republican than Democrat.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
What does identifying as a Republican have to do with small government anymore?
Re:Shelter in place for Bay Area counties
by arcticbull on Monday March 16, 2020 @10:46PM
(#22601068)
Well, it has to do with running on an agenda of small government then making it bigger and less functional.
Fair
It’s been a while since that was true. Democrats have had a several percentage point lead for years.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/07/24/o...
PS: It’s also irrelevant as many people identify as independents while actually voting overwhelmingly for a single party. Further, political power has nothing to do with the national popular vote let alone what the non voting public believes. For example Trump won with 46.1% of the popular vote and votes from about 19.5% of the total population. That’s simply how the system works and what shapes politics.
Okay sure, but to sit here and definitively say that a minority of US voters prefer limited government is patently untrue.
The willingness of both parties to constantly expand government despite it’s huge size suggests otherwise. A few state governments are actually significantly smaller, so there is significant wiggle room. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_budgets
My guess is it’s a difference between stated preferences and actual preferences.