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Many in Milwaukee Neighborhood Didn’t Vote — and Don’t Regret It (NYT)

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"Don't regret it" articles seem a bit early. There will be plenty of time for arguing after he's actually in office. People like these in particular will be the first the media will try to track down once things get going.

That early voting map of Milwaukee is depressing as hell. Compare to Madison where you could go to your local library for 5 weeks before the election. Almost 80% turnout, and that's despite the voter ID law that disproportionately affects students and the few diverse minority clusters in the city.
:(

I need out of here

I am so dippasoint of us
It's not that that bad! ...Yet! No need to give up all hope until Democrats blow things in 2018 and Baldwin gets booted after the DNC gives her no support.

Edit:
She lost to Trump.. and that not only makes her terrible... it makes her the worst
Trump won the election, but she personally beat Trump. Never forget that. Completely true that Democrats entirely wrote off Wisconsin, though! Also an exercise in having a decent ground game alone not being enough. It speaks more immediately to the party being incompetent in some areas than the candidate proper.
 

noshten

Member
She's so far from terrible it's ridiculous. Her policy platform was on point and you just know her cabinet would've been stellar, and there's far more to voting than for purely selfish reasons. I'm not gonna personally benefit much from any presidential candidate, Hillary is personally never gonna go my part of the town but that doesn't mean I ever stay the fuck home or waste it on some write-in. I dunno, people should probably stop parading around their selfishness(or ignorance) as some kind of virtue, because it's the exact opposite. An ultra conservative Supreme Court awaits.

She lost to Trump.. and that not only makes her terrible... it makes her the worst

You guys need to stop attacking people for not voting for Hillary, she/her campaign fucked up and now we have President Orange

This is an Article about a State where she didn't even bother to campaign
 

gogosox82

Member
%
She's so far from terrible it's ridiculous. Her policy platform was on point and you just know her cabinet would've been stellar, and there's far more to voting than for purely selfish reasons. I'm not gonna personally benefit much from any presidential candidate, Hillary is personally never gonna go my part of the town but that doesn't mean I ever stay the fuck home or waste it on some write-in. I dunno, people should probably stop parading around their selfishness(or ignorance) as some kind of virtue, because it's the exact opposite. An ultra conservative Supreme Court awaits.

If she was so great then why did she lose to a guy with 63% unfavorables? Maybe, just maybe she wasn't that great either. Its not the voter's fault that she couldn't get them to vote. You need to realize that this is on Hilary, not any voter. I don't care if they didn't vote, or are racist, or doing a "protest" vote, or voting 3rd party. She still had plenty of voters that could've voted for her but didn't. 90,000 voters in Michigan the presidential vote blank. 9% of all registered democrats voted for Trump. There issues are on her, not the voters. She just didn't appeal to them end of story.
 
She lost to Trump.. and that not only makes her terrible... it makes her the worst

You guys need to stop attacking people for not voting for Hillary, she/her campaign fucked up and now we have President Orange

This is an Article about a State where she didn't even bother to campaign

Please. More people voted for her than anyone not named Obama and her being the infinitely better choice doesn't go out the window just because of a because of a bunch of idiot rural rust belt voters turned heel, or a because a stupid amount of uneducated(and racist, and sexist) white men found their messiah.
 
%

If she was so great then why did she lose to a guy with 63% unfavorables? Maybe, just maybe she wasn't that great either. Its not the voter's fault that she couldn't get them to vote. You need to realize that this is on Hilary, not any voter. I don't care if they didn't vote, or are racist, or doing a "protest" vote, or voting 3rd party. She still had plenty of voters that could've voted for her but didn't. 90,000 voters in Michigan the presidential vote blank. 9% of all registered democrats voted for Trump. There issues are on her, not the voters. She just didn't appeal to them end of story.

Do you believe Trump will be a better president?

If you don't then all that is duck tales
 

Joni

Member
Take away the race and you are left with a section of Americans who are ignored. The only time they are not ignored is if there are riots or occasions like this. If it isn't either coast then might as well not exist.

Maybe they wouldn't be ignored if they went out and voted in every election for the party that promises and tries to help them.
 
I'm also amused by this "she didn't go to a state(winning handily in most polls, mind you), therefore people said fuck you", as if every person in America didn't already know everything they needed to know about these two candidates already, I mean, are you fucking kidding me? It's nice for Trump though that's he's a man who wasn't specifically targeted by Russia, Wikileaks, and FBI fuckery during the last two weeks of the election, all during early voting, on top of the voter suppression tactics already in place!


She never came to my state either, and guess what, I'm not some irrational needy idiot that needs to feel coddled to do what needs to be done. I get out and vote, and sometimes I vote strategically if need be. (all of this operates under the assumption anyone would've actually been swayed by her personally visiting a state. It certainly saved Ohio and Florida... Oh wait. it wasn't even close)
 
If ever you wanted to see the entitlement of the Hillary camp there is no better example then the people crying out why the people the Hillary campaign completely ignored at every opportunity didn't vote for her.
 
The level of disconnect here is probably one reason why Trump won.

A lot of potential voters just don't have the education or the attention span to understand big issues, or track which policies or programs actually benefit or hurt them. It's much easier to vote based on shitty soundbites and mindless meme spam, even if they made no sense, and Trump had plenty of those to appeal to his base.

Then again, under successive administrations wages have gone down, jobs lost, health care more expensive.

They are right when they say they havent done anything for them ...... why woukd the believe another career politician would have their best interests at heart?
 
If ever you wanted to see the entitlement of the Hillary camp there is no better example then the people crying out why the people the Hillary campaign completely ignored at every opportunity didn't vote for her.

What about her policies/surrogates/campaign diversity/KNOWLEDGE ignored them, exactly? Ignored ANYONE? So, because she doesn't personally campaign in a state, the people are somehow ignored, and common sense goes flying right out the damn window, eh? And you wanna talk to people about entitlement? Interesting.
 
What about her policies/surrogates/campaign diversity/KNOWLEDGE ignored them, exactly? Ignored ANYONE? So, because she doesn't step foot in a state, the people are ignored, and common sense goes flying right out the damn window, eh? And you wanna talk to people about entitlement? Interesting.

If anything this election shows banking on comon sense and basic human decency is a bad strategy.

Best case is those people just don't vote for the other guy but also don't vote for you.


This election shows when it comes to middle America is votes got to be earned the hard way.
 
88% of Black voters that turned out voted against Trump. Even with the depressed turnout and widespread dislike for the Clintons, Black folks did more than any other group to say no to Trump. (As usual, its Black people doing the most to fight against American White supremacy) Meanwhile,30% of Hispanics & Asians cast votes for Trump. NYT should go to those communities & figure out why that happened.
 

jorma

is now taking requests
She never came to my state either, and guess what, I'm not some irrational needy idiot that needs to feel coddled to do what needs to be done. I get out and vote, and sometimes I vote strategically if need be. (all of this operates under the assumption anyone would've actually been swayed by her personally visiting a state. It certainly saved Ohio and Florida... Oh wait. it wasn't even close)

But it's much worse than just being absent. The dem leadership outright said they weren't interested in rust belt blue collar votes, they'd get "moderate republicans" to vote for them instead.

It all falls on their own heads. That's some game losing shit they spewed long before the election. I wouldn't ever vote for those assholes either.
 
If anything this election shows banking on comon sense and basic human decency is a bad strategy.

Best case is those people just don't vote for the other guy but also don't vote for you.


This election shows when it comes to middle America is votes got to be earned the hard way.
It showed that you could just lie to them and they'll vote for you.
 
We shouldn't be calling them idiots, we should be working to earn back their votes. Forget about chasing after Trump voters, all Democrats need to do is win back the portions of their base that feel disillusioned.
 

kmfdmpig

Member
As I pointed out elsewhere, the article shows a whole bunch of reasons for the lack of a vote.

Sexual Politics
“If I would have voted, I would have voted for [Trump],” said Andre Frierson, 40, a security guard working the evening shift at Jake’s. “From a business perspective, I loved him.”

As for Mrs. Clinton, “other countries probably wouldn’t have respected us because we had a woman running the country,” he said.


I remain utterly perplexed because as always someone actively working against you is always worse than someone who is neutral. Weird, but the forest gets lost among the trees sometimes.

It seems like so many Americans have no idea that many other countries have been run by women. When we eventually have a female president it will not be blazing a trail in the world, but catching up to much of the rest of the world.
 
The lot of y'all saying enjoy trump or that you've got no sympathy don't understand what the black community has/is going through. Yes, Trump will be worse for then but saying fuck you for not voting Hillary is horrible. How about if people actually took their issues serious you wouldn't have to worry about them being apathetic. But nah that's too difficult so fuck em.

Also instead of trying to coddle racists these the people you need to be helping cause everyone is saying fuck them.
 
Yeah because when Trump gets in Office life in the hood will become bad. Its all bubble gum drops and fairies right now eh?

The most segregated city in the midwest with the highest Black unemployment rate , sharp economic deprivation & police brutality to boot.
 

Snaku

Banned
Yeah because when Trump gets in Office life in the hood will become bad. Its all bubble gum drops and fairies right now eh?

You think things can't get worse? Things can always get worse. Life wasn't great for southern blacks during reconstruction after the Civil War, but shit got a whole lot worse after the Compromise of 1877.
 

Mesousa

Banned
The most segregated city in the midwest with the highest Black unemployment rate , sharp economic deprivation & police brutality to boot.

Exactly, yet people in this thread can pull the "Dont come crying to us/Cant compare about people who don't vote", when they haven't gave a damn about any of the impoverished people in that city before they needed their sweet sweet votes.
 

slit

Member
Yeah it's been two weeks and Trump hasn't even taken office yet. The regret tidal wave has yet to form. What makes it all the more ridiculous is they'll be the ones in the front of the line to moan.

Exactly, yet people in this thread can pull the "Dont come crying to us/Cant compare about people who don't vote", when they haven't gave a damn about any of the impoverished people in that city before they needed their sweet sweet votes.

Who is they?
 

Mesousa

Banned
You think things can't get worse? Things can always get worse. Life wasn't great for southern blacks during reconstruction after the Civil War, but shit got a whole lot worse after the Compromise of 1877.

You aren't going to mobilize people with that message.

If somebody is struggling telling them it can get worse doesnt light a fire under them. You have to inspire them towards a better future. Obama was able to do that. Hillary couldnt.
 
You think things can't get worse? Things can always get worse. Life wasn't great for southern blacks during reconstruction after the Civil War, but shit got a whole lot worse after the Compromise of 1877.

Milwaukee is the home of Sheriff David Clarke, the most proudly anti-Black cop in America. He runs as a Democrat. A Black prisoner just died in Sheriff Clarke's custody because the jail he runs cut him off water for 6 days. Im not sure how much worse it can get for Black folks in Milwaukee.
 

jehuty

Member
Well, I mean. Wisconsin. They were already fucked under Walker, anyway.

This is so true. And realistically, it's the city of Milwaukee fault. Walkers rise to power was due to him being county executive of Milwaukee county before he became governor. Those elections had low turn out from city of Milwaukee residents (Milwaukee is a majority minority city), and Walker was able to coast to victory. It is shameful. Same reason that David Clarke gets to stay as sheriff.

As a Milwaukee resident and minority, I kinda understand black people in Milwaukee (and around the country) issues with democrats. Thing is, at least here in Milwaukee, the black leaders plain suck or are corrupt. Even in light of these things, the black community keeps electing these so called leaders that do nothing for them and are just there to collect a pay check or try to get money off of the public (read up on Michael Mcgee jr and sr).

I just think people have a weird and plainly wrong idea of what politicians can do for them. Yeah the system can and often does suck, but it isn't made better when you help elect politicians that will actively work to undermine you (by not voting or making a protest vote).
 
Weren't black voter numbers similar to 2012s? I think I saw that somewhere but it was close to the election so the data might have changed.
 

slit

Member
Milwaukee is the home of Sheriff David Clarke, the most proudly anti-Black cop in America. He runs as a Democrat. A Black prisoner just died in Sheriff Clarke's custody because the jail he runs cut him off water for 6 days. Im not sure how much worse it can get for Black folks in Milwaukee.

Simple. You get white supremacists in positions of high power at the federal level. Which is what has happened.The bigots have even more power now.
 

MightyKAC

Member
As soon as we graduated high school my Mom told me and my sister to leave Milwaukee Wisconsin as soon as we could.

She said, and I quote "This place is where Black dreams wither and die."

And man was she right.

My sister moved to Boston and I ended up joining the Navy and leaving the country.

That was the best advise my mother had ever given me.
 

jehuty

Member
Exactly, yet people in this thread can pull the "Dont come crying to us/Cant compare about people who don't vote", when they haven't gave a damn about any of the impoverished people in that city before they needed their sweet sweet votes.

While what you are saying is partly true, some elements of the black community are clearly to blame for the plight of the hood. Crime, toxic culture, corrupt politicians, broken families, those are issues that the black community in Milwaukee have to deal with internally. I live in Milwaukee, all my friends from the north side move the hell out because they know the situation is hopeless. They move to the south side, brown deer, or out of the state itself.

I honestly believe it's the culture that's the issue. Many people from the hood don't value education and will make fun of you for being a nerd or smart. Which is super weird to me cause in the east coast, the smartest people I know are from the hood. In Milwaukee it's this weird reversal were you get called bougie for knowing historical facts or like going to the symphony. It's extremely hard to help someone that won't help someone that won't help themselves.
 

entremet

Member
As soon as we graduated high school my Mom told me and my sister to leave Milwaukee Wisconsin as soon as we could.

She said, and I quote "This place is where Black dreams wither and die."

And man was she right.

My sister moved to Boston and I ended up joining the Navy and leaving the country.

That was the best advise my mother had ever given me.
Man, that's depressing.

Not your moves but the whole Black dreams wither and die part.
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
This is so true. And realistically, it's the city of Milwaukee fault. Walkers rise to power was due to him being county executive of Milwaukee county before he became governor. Those elections had low turn out from city of Milwaukee residents (Milwaukee is a majority minority city), and Walker was able to coast to victory. It is shameful. Same reason that David Clarke gets to stay as sheriff.

As a Milwaukee resident and minority, I kinda understand black people in Milwaukee (and around the country) issues with democrats. Thing is, at least here in Milwaukee, the black leaders plain suck or are corrupt. Even in light of these things, the black community keeps electing these so called leaders that do nothing for them and are just there to collect a pay check or try to get money off of the public (read up on Michael Mcgee jr and sr).

I just think people have a weird and plainly wrong idea of what politicians can do for them. Yeah the system can and often does suck, but it isn't made better when you help elect politicians that will actively work to undermine you (by not voting or making a protest vote).

I grew up in Fox Point and I remember the whole notion that "Michael McGee is coming for the white people"

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/06/us/call-for-black-militia-stuns-milwaukee.html

I also remember the program where they bussed kids in from poor black neighborhoods. Except it seemed to work out that these kids were all sons and daughters of middle to upper middle class black parents that happened to live in bad areas - at least in my grade.

I think a lot of the distrust and disillusionment of politicians was going on back then even. Factories have been leaving Wisconsin for like 30-40 years and nothing ever stopped it from continuing despite lots of politicians campaigning on the economy. It's like, when things get worse and worse for decades even when you're checking the (D) boxes I can understand why they'd give up.

Milwaukee is one of those cities where people are moving away from (like Detroit). In all my years in Texas, Arkansas, and even now here in St Louis, I meet so many people that left the state due to economic reasons. As much as I love certain parts of Wisconsin and will root for the shitty Brewers and my amazing Packers, it's hard to imagine ever going back when the economy is that tenuous and has been for years.
 

aeolist

Banned
these are the voters that need to be won back next time, not the trump supporters. these are the people who need to have their concerns addressed by a candidate who clearly cares about them if we want to win back the white house.

hillary clinton was obviously not that person.
 
Sometimes when a building is not up to code it is cheaper to tear down the current one and build a new one versus fixing the current one.

I think this is what we are about it see.
 

MightyKAC

Member
It's extremely hard to help someone that won't help someone that won't help themselves.

This, in a nut shell is Milwaukee's biggest issue.

The other things you mentioned are mentioned were also spot on (being young, black and nerdy in Milwaukee Public Schools gets you into a LOT of fights) but many of the minorities there simply are not motivated to do anything about how bad their situation is.

The apathy in Milwaukee is so damn thick it's almost physically visible.
 

jehuty

Member
I grew up in Fox Point and I remember the whole notion that "Michael McGee is coming for the white people"

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/06/us/call-for-black-militia-stuns-milwaukee.html

I also remember the program where they bussed kids in from poor black neighborhoods. Except it seemed to work out that these kids were all sons and daughters of middle to upper middle class black parents that happened to live in bad areas - at least in my grade.

I think a lot of the distrust and disillusionment of politicians was going on back then even. Factories have been leaving Wisconsin for like 30-40 years and nothing ever stopped it from continuing despite lots of politicians campaigning on the economy. It's like, when things get worse and worse for decades even when you're checking the (D) boxes I can understand why they'd give up.

Milwaukee is one of those cities where people are moving away from (like Detroit). In all my years in Texas, Arkansas, and even now here in St Louis, I meet so many people that left the state due to economic reasons. As much as I love certain parts of Wisconsin and will root for the shitty Brewers and my amazing Packers, it's hard to imagine ever going back when the economy is that tenuous and has been for years.


I actually feel like Milwaukee is making a rebound (I think Detroit is too). Milwaukee downtown is booming with tons of new development and even more to come. The east side is still booming and I really believe river west is about to get new developments too. Bay view is the hottest housing market in Wisconsin and tons of residents are starting to "discover" the south side and see that it's actually not dangerous at all. Milwaukee is even focusing now on the water industry and tech jobs (and it has made great strides in both but especially water tech). With our universities, Marquette and UWM, our residents tend to be highly educated.

Of course, and this is the kicker. None of this applies to the north side (which is mainly black residents). Here is where Milwaukee becomes hopeless. Again, for tons of reasons but external and internal. My heart goes out to black people trying to make something of themselves in Milwaukee. Talking to them, you can hear how disappointed they are in their community. It didn't use to be this way in the past. Restaurants and bars would thrive in the north side. Now you have to order food or get cash from a bank from the other side of bullet proof glass. And the children suffer the most. Imagine what is must be like being told, "if you are smart, you are a sell out and trying to be white". It makes no sense at all.

I really want to understand why being smart is frowned upon in the hood. It can't be blamed on rap music either. Rappers for the most part rap about reading and figuring out the truth and activism all the time.
 
This is a bad article.

It's not the black voter's duty to defend this country from white supremacists. It's white voter's duty to reject it.

No, it's a good article. The only bad part is Democrats responding to it by accusing these voters of being selfish, lazy, ignorant, etc. rather than looking in the mirror at their own failed candidates and campaign strategies.
 

Jeffrey

Member
im really curious what the 2020 election turn out % will be compare to 2016.

Maybe Trump really will be the key to kickstarting people to care a bit about something, anything?
 

MightyKAC

Member
No, it's a good article. The only bad part is Democrats responding to it by accusing these voters of being selfish, lazy, ignorant, etc. rather than looking in the mirror at their own failed candidates and campaign strategies.

I'm pretty sure we're in the shape we're in because both of these factors are a reality.
 
  • Dems need to earn people vote (and make sure they are not reversing on social issues for votes--also known as throwing other people under the bus)
  • You need to vote. There is more on the ballot than the president nominee. Write in Harambe and pick your Senators and other officials, and vote on your propositions
 
To be honest I don't feel a lot of hatred for the African Americans who have become apathetic. There lives are about to get much worse but the entire GOP has systematically been attempting to disenfranchise black voters for years. They will regret it soon enough
 

Dickleson

Banned
Exactly, yet people in this thread can pull the "Dont come crying to us/Cant compare about people who don't vote", when they haven't gave a damn about any of the impoverished people in that city before they needed their sweet sweet votes.

Stupid smug liberals
 
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