Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by JumpCrisscross on Saturday February 22, 2025 @06:50PM
(#43144570)
> the whole “it would be political suicide” thing
It was political suicide because the 18% of Americans who are veterans turn out to vote, are seen sympathetically by other voters [1] and were often swing voters.
The last part was critical: veterans are already turning out, so offending them was less about turning out votes for your opponent than losing your own votes. But if they aren't voting for you [2], you aren't losing anything by them. Meanwhile, the resources they're getting could help you gain votes (or turnouts) with others.
[1] https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1363-7.html
[2] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/30/military-...
Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by hobs on Saturday February 22, 2025 @10:46PM
(#43146297)
Or you could just not assume some random unsignaled shift in own goaling might not happen? What's your goal to argue this hypothetical with no evidence or reason so hard?
Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by kelnos on Sunday February 23, 2025 @04:10AM
(#43147953)
I feel like you might be contradicting yourself a bit there, though. If veterans mainly don't vote Democrat, then sure, pissing them off isn't a problem. But if veterans "are seen sympathetically by other voters", then you maybe won't want to piss off those other voters, unless we know that they also primarily vote Republican.
I highly doubt it. The Senate “Democrat” in charge of the VA is Bernie Sanders himself, and he’s been a stalwart supporter of improving veteran benefits his entire career. There’s also the whole “it would be political suicide” thing.
Partisan polarization is a good way to predict a lot of things, but if you lean into it too much you will in fact be wrong.