Conservatives in Moco

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a republican, leaning more moderate these days (voted for Biden in the last election). I have lived here for 4 years and nobody has asked my affiliation. It’s pretty obvious who is liberal by yard signs or lack thereof.

The most annoying thing to me are the liberal NIMBYs in my neighborhood. They want equal treatment for all, but don’t think about putting a new library with low income housing in!

oh yes, I live in a neighborhood full of Dem signs, but those same people are still mad that our neighborhood was rezoned to a more "diverse" school cluster back in the 80s. They are still trying to move the neighborhood back to the less diverse cluster because they think it means their home values will go up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I register as independent and don’t talk politics. I remember one time helping out at a school event as a PTA member, the other moms, who were “liberals”, made it clear that they would never let their kids associate with kids whose parents differed politically (in the Bush/Romney/McCain era). I just smiled and kept my mouth shut. My kids didn’t necessarily agree with my politics and I saw no reason to turn them into pariahs. Middle school is tough enough.

I think it important to recognize that while the two parties may be clearly divided around certain issues, individual voters may not adhere so closely to a specific platform. For instance, being pro-life, I’m not only anti-abortion, I’m also pro gun control, masks, vaccines, universal healthcare, and environment. If I talked openly about politics, anywhere, I’d probably have both sides mad at me. Very few people these days seem interested in exploring the issues respectfully, seeking shared understanding, and finding solutions to problems. Both sides are too busy looking for a fight.

Trump and current “Republicans”, I don’t consider conservative. For the sake of preserving America as a free country, governed by the constitution (which I value as a conservative), last election I voted a straight Democratic ticket. While I may disagree with them on certain issues and certain directions they’re steering the country, the main thing now is to preserve the country and the freedom to argue over specific issues later.

I would really like to see Maryland adopt an open primary. I feel the current system pushes both parties to the extremes. By the time the general election comes along, there’s not likely to be any centrists for the independents to consider.

Lady, politics, what you don't discuss isn't a separate thing from everything that affects all of us. Everything is politics now...our heakth, our schools, our finances, our resources, everything . Believe me, you aren't fooling ANYONE by deciding to hide your values. Everyone knows what you think, and it's not pretty. But you know that. If what you believed had merit, you wouldn't be afraid to show yourself.

[Anonymous]

My H is conservative I’m liberal.

He’s not alt-right or MAGA and has for years dreaded the tea party overtaking his party.

He recently registered as democrat to feel his vote mattered in the mid term, will go back to R hoping to get a non MAGA presidential candidate.

He’s never felt any negative feedback from liberals but has a huge issue with now former friends who turned alt-right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You just register as a D and try to vote in the primaries to keep out the crazies they are popular with the Takoma/Silver Spring progressive Gestapo.

Gestapo, huh? What specifically has caused you harm enough to warrant a holocaust comparison?

Are you oblivious to the gigantic economic harm that the TP/SS has inflicted on the county?

https://harpswellstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Post-Pandemic-Economic-Leadership-for-Montgomery-County.pdf

Billions of dollars in lost opportunities. This inflicts tremendous harm on all of the residents for improving the quality of life. Crime is now rising and getting out of control. The progressivism of TP/SS is destroying the county for over 1M people, both in terms of economics and safety. The county govt controlled by TP/SS is directly responsible for this gigantic fiasco, and the people of those areas are just as responsible. TP/SS residents are thugs ruining the lives of everyone around them all in the name of so called progress.

And their policies directly led to places like Casa de Maryland assisting with unfettered illegal immigration to the county and the dramatic decline in quality of MCPS with the rise of ghost students. It’s main focus is really ESOL.

Then make sure to get out the vote! It’s a county-wide race. It makes no sense to register as R or I — you get no say who is County Exec. Signed, TP resident who voted for Blair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a republican, leaning more moderate these days (voted for Biden in the last election). I have lived here for 4 years and nobody has asked my affiliation. It’s pretty obvious who is liberal by yard signs or lack thereof.

The most annoying thing to me are the liberal NIMBYs in my neighborhood. They want equal treatment for all, but don’t think about putting a new library with low income housing in!

Amen to this!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a republican, leaning more moderate these days (voted for Biden in the last election). I have lived here for 4 years and nobody has asked my affiliation. It’s pretty obvious who is liberal by yard signs or lack thereof.

The most annoying thing to me are the liberal NIMBYs in my neighborhood. They want equal treatment for all, but don’t think about putting a new library with low income housing in!

Amen to this!!!

+1. I’m a moderate R, don’t talk politics much at all outside of family and very close friends. I laugh with many of my democrat friends how we all pick and choose many of our positions without fear of any pov actually affecting any of us or our lives day to day …until, all of a sudden, it does…NIMBY…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My H is conservative I’m liberal.

He’s not alt-right or MAGA and has for years dreaded the tea party overtaking his party.

He recently registered as democrat to feel his vote mattered in the mid term, will go back to R hoping to get a non MAGA presidential candidate.

He’s never felt any negative feedback from liberals but has a huge issue with now former friends who turned alt-right.

As he should.

[Anonymous]

I have lived in the area a long time and found that liberals have become less accepting of other views. I keep my politics to myself and still have found other like-minded people. It takes a little time to discover this with new friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is it like to be a conservative Republican in Montgomery County? Do you have to hide your politics, do you witness “cancel culture”? Do you find other like minded people? Do you suck it up and register as a Democrat to vote for the most moderate candidates?

You just have to be discreet about it. My politics are pretty right-wing, but I don’t discuss them with my beloved MoCo neighbors for a few reasons. (1) discussion of politics here is generally pretty boring because it’s usually conducted the CNN level of analysis—people often have no real understanding of the issues they talk about and are just repeating what the media tells them about The Current Thing, and that’s just not super interesting to me (2) in the exceptional case where people do know what they are talking about, they also tend to be much more willing to acknowledge the shades of gray and the nuance of most issues. You can absolutely have discussions about the trade offs inherent to addressing climate change, for example, with people who are knowledgeable about energy issues, and even taking pretty conservative positions on narrow technical issues does not trigger the friend-or-foe dynamic that you’d get if you stuck a MAGA flag on your house or dared to challenge one of the core premises of left view of the world. (3) when in Rome, do what the Romans do. Only a jerk ostentatiously disses the gods of the city in which they live, (4) zero interest in proselytizing, you can’t convince anyone of anything, and there is no need to when the correctness of right-wing views is being manifestly confirmed by events to anyone with a modicum of objectivity that is paying attention to what is going on. (I kid, I kid.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you oblivious to the gigantic economic harm that the TP/SS has inflicted on the county?

https://harpswellstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Post-Pandemic-Economic-Leadership-for-Montgomery-County.pdf

Empower Montgomery is just a bunch of developers wanting more tax breaks amd incentives for themselves, so take that report with a grain of salt.

Top companies don't move to MoCo because our schools are in decline and the traffic is unbearable. Do your research - large companies move to where their top employees can send their children to top public schools and can easily get from home to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you oblivious to the gigantic economic harm that the TP/SS has inflicted on the county?

https://harpswellstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Post-Pandemic-Economic-Leadership-for-Montgomery-County.pdf

Empower Montgomery is just a bunch of developers wanting more tax breaks amd incentives for themselves, so take that report with a grain of salt.

Top companies don't move to MoCo because our schools are in decline and the traffic is unbearable. Do your research - large companies move to where their top employees can send their children to top public schools and can easily get from home to work.

Correct: particularly the schools. But it is a virtuous cycle - you have to have some business incentives and a culture of accepting business which attracts good employees who send their smart kids to public schools. The public school success I’m convinced studying MA success in the 90s until today is directly linked to business success. Your pol or public school admin makes fun of a parent who says the schools are not rigorous enough but they pay attention if, for instance, an Amazon executive says the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you oblivious to the gigantic economic harm that the TP/SS has inflicted on the county?

https://harpswellstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Post-Pandemic-Economic-Leadership-for-Montgomery-County.pdf

Empower Montgomery is just a bunch of developers wanting more tax breaks amd incentives for themselves, so take that report with a grain of salt.

Top companies don't move to MoCo because our schools are in decline and the traffic is unbearable. Do your research - large companies move to where their top employees can send their children to top public schools and can easily get from home to work.

One of the reasons why our schools are in decline is because we have a larger lower-income population moving in. School performance is directly tied to SES. We have a huge new population of lower income, less-skilled employees. What are we doing about it? What jobs are we creating and what jobs are we training for? Or will we just leave this new population less-educated and skilled than boomers, Gen X, and the older millenials?

The government here is great for creating social welfare programs. And that's fine. But in concert with that, they need to be incentivizing business growth too. And they aren't. And that's why we've stagnated in most economic measures, or even regressed. 16 of the 20 most common occupations don't make enough money to be self sufficent in Montgomery County. That is a huge problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you oblivious to the gigantic economic harm that the TP/SS has inflicted on the county?

https://harpswellstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Post-Pandemic-Economic-Leadership-for-Montgomery-County.pdf

Empower Montgomery is just a bunch of developers wanting more tax breaks amd incentives for themselves, so take that report with a grain of salt.

Top companies don't move to MoCo because our schools are in decline and the traffic is unbearable. Do your research - large companies move to where their top employees can send their children to top public schools and can easily get from home to work.

+1. And one of their co-founders was David Blair. What an amazing coincidence!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it like to be a conservative Republican in Montgomery County? Do you have to hide your politics, do you witness “cancel culture”? Do you find other like minded people? Do you suck it up and register as a Democrat to vote for the most moderate candidates?

You just have to be discreet about it. My politics are pretty right-wing, but I don’t discuss them with my beloved MoCo neighbors for a few reasons. (1) discussion of politics here is generally pretty boring because it’s usually conducted the CNN level of analysis—people often have no real understanding of the issues they talk about and are just repeating what the media tells them about The Current Thing, and that’s just not super interesting to me (2) in the exceptional case where people do know what they are talking about, they also tend to be much more willing to acknowledge the shades of gray and the nuance of most issues. You can absolutely have discussions about the trade offs inherent to addressing climate change, for example, with people who are knowledgeable about energy issues, and even taking pretty conservative positions on narrow technical issues does not trigger the friend-or-foe dynamic that you’d get if you stuck a MAGA flag on your house or dared to challenge one of the core premises of left view of the world. (3) when in Rome, do what the Romans do. Only a jerk ostentatiously disses the gods of the city in which they live, (4) zero interest in proselytizing, you can’t convince anyone of anything, and there is no need to when the correctness of right-wing views is being manifestly confirmed by events to anyone with a modicum of objectivity that is paying attention to what is going on. (I kid, I kid.)

I think the bolded is what gets SO lost in political discussions these days. It surprises me that there are so many people with blind allegiance to one party or candidate without questioning what they are doing. Blind devotion to any politician or party seems so crazy to me- people should be questioning and pushing politicians to make sure their votes at least attempt to reflect what their constituents want. I see so many people singing the praises of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act who haven't even read it. Then there are people who automatically rush to defend Trump when his house is searched by the FBI- NOBODY outside the FBI knows what they were looking for and it is crazy-making to see people say it is a witch hunt without having the details.

I am a registered D because I live in DC but would not hesitate to register as an R if I lived in a state where I could cast votes for more moderate Rs in a primary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My H is conservative I’m liberal.

He’s not alt-right or MAGA and has for years dreaded the tea party overtaking his party.

He recently registered as democrat to feel his vote mattered in the mid term, will go back to R hoping to get a non MAGA presidential candidate.

He’s never felt any negative feedback from liberals but has a huge issue with now former friends who turned alt-right.

me, exactly. Easy enough to switch parties in MoCo. I did this in 2016 to vote in the R primary against Trump.

And yep, lost respect for a Trump supporting friend we knew. I don't support uber progressives, either, but at least they weren't trying to overthrow our elected government or support threatening to harm elected officials because they wouldn't support their leader.

Crazy F*ers.