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Ann Higgins's avatar

The point with asking why (white) women would vote Republican is that if they do so they are voting against interest and the vast majority of them must be aware of that on one level or another. Every woman knows how close she came to getting pregnant when she didn’t want to be, every woman knows how easily pregnancies can go wrong, every woman can sympathise with the desperate longing for a child even if she hasn’t felt it herself. Even if none of that has affected them personally it’s impossible not to know that it might affect your sister/daughter/niece one day.

So asking this question is not a suggestion that they are somehow second class citizen, it’s asking why would you do this, if not to yourself but to your sisters?

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vorpal's avatar

Canuckistan perspective here, but we have a similar dynamic between conservative and liberal which has become more heated and partisan.

I work in the oil and gas sector (Albertastan) and the people I work with vote conservative because of singular, often petty reasons. They do not see beyond what benefits them, be it the promise of lower taxes and legislation discriminating against people they don't like. It doesn't personally affect them either way who is in power, but like a sporting event, they choose sides and cheer. They are intelligent, articulate and successful, but politically will go for the candidate that panders to their worldview.

However, as Stephen points out above, you cannot tell these people how to vote. The proof of that was here in 2015, when the incumbent conservative premier (who was a transplant from down east) when confronted about shaky economic outlook told a news outlet that Albertans had to 'look in the mirror' to see who was to blame, not the 4 decades of Conservative government.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/prenticeblamesalbertans-goes-viral-after-jim-prentice-s-look-in-the-mirror-comment-1.2982524

He was trounced in the following election and Albertans voted in the lefty New Democratic Party in a landslide as a punishment to being blamed by their ruling dynasty. We reverted back to conservative in the next election (with the further right loopy Danielle Smith) but the upshot was you don't tell Albertans what they don't want to hear. Even if you're the dynastic rulers.

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