…and donated to a progressive PAC.
Nope, 69 year old with same name, look at other comments in here for the source
Word is that’s a name clash
I’m actually incredibly excited to hear how the Conspiracy peddlers spin this, we’ll study this level of crazy forever.
I have heard some internet talking head turn their “democracts say fascist, make democrats shoot trump” into “democrats say fascist, even make republicans shoot trump”.
Ah, a very selective recognition of stochastic terrorism. Except it doesn’t quite fit because calling Repubs fascist isn’t a lie.
It sure is easier to convince Repubs to shoot since they are already brainwashed. Too bad it is hard to direct them at people who deserve it instead of shoppers and nightclub attendees.
No one deserves it.
There are plenty of people who deserve it. Oil barons lying about climate so that they can continue to profit at the expense of millions of lives. Insurance barons lying about healthcare so that they can continue to profit at the expense of everyone’s wellbeing.
Pass better laws. Get better lawyers. Elect better politicians. You only think murder is an option because you suck at all of the sane ways to handle things.
That brings up a good point. Murdoch and everyone brainwashing people with propaganda to the point that they allow Repubs to obstruct all progress so they can profit also deserve it as much as the Repubs obstructing all progress.
This has got to be the dumbest thing I have seen all day. Murdering people should not be an option. Enjoy your visit with the feds.
“Their rhetoric is convincing even Republicans! They’re clearly evil!”
I was told “he’s from Pennsylvania, he’s registered as a republican, but he’s a democrat. You see, the democrats have been voting as republican so they can vote on the republican ticket for Trumps enemies”
I just can’t. I’m not looking forward to work this week.
“Oh, so there are even less Republicans than reported?”
Odd that a Republican would.
Why?
Maybe he was a 2nd amendment guy who actually took the defending against tyranny bit seriously. Highly unusual, but not unthinkable.
There are Republicans who are upset that the party isn’t extremist enough.
If someone was republican who sees through the Trump cult, it’d be reasonable to see them infuritated with the party they once identified with. Given his age I’m not so sure I’d be conclusive one way or another right now though.
Seems mental distress and illnesses played another large factor here, as they so frequently like to do. Im not surprised the people being peddled the most propaganda are the one’s ‘snapping’.
I’m betting on libertarian
There are quite a few republicans pissed that Trump is the ticket again. They don’t like him and find him destructive to, well, everything.
Not so odd.
Not all republicans are the type that stormed the capital. Those just happen to be the loudest and draw the most attention.
Discord servers are restricted ring-fenced sections of the internet. They are often used by gaming groups and communities as secure chat rooms but are also used by fringe organisations to push their ideologies and discuss wild conspiracy theories and plots.
used by gaming groups and communities as secure chat rooms
Fucking lol
Who on earth thinks discord is secure? Convenient af, though
There’s nothing convenient about Discord’s UI, famously assembled by drunken idiot monkeys with a grudge against functional design.
It’s a glorified mirc client
Yes
And often gaming groups engage in the second, ruining it
Now THAT’S something we can regulate - politicians
Discord is so obvious, yet “oh noes china tik tok meta insta!!”
“One of them Discord users…”
“Who is this 4Chan?”
Archive: https://archive.is/OKkIi
How did they identify him using DNA? That’s a fucking red flag. Is there some database I’m not aware of? Or did he have prior arrests?
These days, you can opt in having your child’s dna stored after birth, in case they go missing or a natural disaster or something. We did it, but we opted to keep it physically in our own possession. It’s a little vial.
Some organizations do mass DNA collection from kids to help identify them later in life.
The school sends out a notification that the parents can sign up to have their kid swabbed so their kid’s tiny corpse can be identified. They don’t word it like that, but that is the idea.
So he may have been swabbed as a kid and they referenced that.
California has been collecting dna from babies since the 80s apparantly
I wonder how many people there are aware
They could easily get samples from family members to confirm. I’m sure one or both of his parents were in discussions with the FBI shortly after this all went down
Yeah this seems obvious to me. “Can we swab your cheek to confirm if this is your son?” What parent wouldn’t want to know if their kid was dead or alive?
he didn’t have a criminal record according to the article, but if DNA records existed for his parents, you could still identify someone as offspring with pretty high confidence based on that IIRC
Why is it a red flag
Because it’s potentially indicative of a national database of everyone’s DNA, rather than just the criminal database, which would be (and perhaps is) a privacy nightmare
It’s not. Law enforcement can get a warrant on 23 & Me. Everyone turning over the DNA to random companies not required to comply with HIPAA is a terrible idea.
some large commercial dna testing companies share their databases with law enforcement, and additionally you really don’t need a close match to start identifying someone, 5th cousin type thing etc. heres an good video on the issue.
Some states have been collecting blood for almost 40 years and can’t even really say why. They just started doing it…
https://www.ibj.com/articles/58596-storing-babies-blood-samples-pits-privacy-versus-science
Like, they have an excuse for taking the samples that seems valid. Except I don’t think they’re actually testing them. And there’s no reason to keep after testing.
Now, I dont think it’s for a secret DNA database, I think it’s normal red state bullshit.
Just pointing out in some states the take and keep blood samples from every birth
When you’re rooting for a conspiracy all new info cam be read as a red flag if you’re creative and paranoid enough.
LET ME SEE HIS LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Born in Kenya, just as suspected!
Some say he was wearing a tan suit when he
was presidentpulled the triggerI heard he went to a local deli before the shooting and ordered a sandwich with “Dijon” mustard? Who does he think he is?
Privacy minded people don’t like the idea of easily accessible geology databases. This was a good use of that technology, but people worry about that technology be used for evil. Health insurance companies reflagging you, or much worse.
Did you mean *biology?
Blood has iron in it. Iron comes from rocks. Boom - geology.
Human flesh is weak. Stone is strong.
FROM THE MOMENT I UNDERSTOOD THE WEAKNESS OF MY FLESH…
Perhaps genealogy?
Could be geometry?
No no clearly they meant genieology
No, gene simmonsology. Ology that rocks.
There are geology databases that are public and or cooperate with authorities. Perhaps I’m a privacy nihilist, but IMHO, the cat’s kind of out of the bag for a lot of this. If you didn’t submit your DNA to a genealogy DB, you probably have family members that did so could see if they were 30% Italian or something.
Yes all these rocks and minerals need to be watched closely
Lol
I think you mean genealogy maybe?
Yeah. Autocorrect
I figured I was goofing on ya
That’s how they caught the golden state killer. I think it was his niece submitted a DNA sample and it popped up as related to the unknown sample they had.
I once read an expert on this and it seems they only need a very low amount of DNA samples (like 0.1% of the population) in the database to be able to narrow down any search to the sibling level.
And traditional detective work can then figure out which sibling, if there are multiple.
So yeah, the cat is out of the bag with this one.
Exactly, your DNA doesn’t need to be in the DB at all, you just your relatives DNA in the DB.
I saw that episode of Monk
It was the only reliable way to find who the biological parents of my father were, so yeah.
It was the only way I could find out if my biological father was 30% Italian so I’m with you
Some articles (like this one from USA Today have mentioned that in '21 he made a small donation to the Progressive Turnout Project, and it’s interesting that that’s missing from this article. Did it turn out to not be true or did they purposefully omit that?
I’m from Yurop so I don’t even pretend to understand the election system in the US let alone PA, but I’ve seen some comments that led me to understand that he could well be a Democrat even though he was a “registered Republican” because there might not even be good D candidates for him to vote for in PA, and many D voters tactically vote for the least bad R candidate.
Not sure him being a “gun lover” really necessarily paints him as a Republican either; Americans regardless of party affiliation can be pretty… uh, enthusiastic about guns, although yeah it does seem to be more common on the right but I’m not sure it’s enough to draw any conclusions from it.
And just so there’s no misunderstandings, I really don’t have a dog in this hunt so I’m not looking to blame Democrats for the shooting, I’m just trying to digest the news I’ve been reading.
Some articles (like this one from USA Today have mentioned that in '21 he made a small donation to the Progressive Turnout Project, and it’s interesting that that’s missing from this article. Did it turn out to not be true or did they purposefully omit that?
It was a donation to a get out the vote project. On inauguration day. About as useful as tits on a tractor.
I don’t know if he made the donation to make it seem like he was a Democrat or for no good reason, but he didn’t donate $15 on January 20th to help Democratic turnout.
They probably left it out because getting into it would only muddy the waters or even lend false credence to the cult’s conspiracy theories about him being “deep state antifa” or whatever.
It depends on the state (and their election laws) but some people register for the opposite primary to try and influence it.
Nothing here is controversial in the slightest, why the down votes?
And yes, there are plenty of liberal gun nuts, like me.
The donation is not confirmed to be him. The listed donation just came with a first and last name. No age or birth date, with no middle initial or name. There are a lot of people with the same first and last name and there’s no reason to believe it was this particular Thomas Crooks that made the donation.
The address on the Act Blue donation is also listed as Pittsburgh, not Bethel Park.
.
The Republican party registration has other corroborating information listed such as middle initial address and date of birth.
The donation only has the same first and last name.
So they’re including the Republican party registration, as it’s more confirmed… And they’re not saying he voted Republican, just that he was registered that way.
As for having an interest in guns, he owned an AR-15, so must have had some interest there.
As for having an interest in guns, he owned an AR-15, so must have had some interest there.
He was wearing a Demolition Ranch Tshirt. It’s a popular YouTube gun channel.
He was wearing a T-shirt from the merch store of the “Demolition Ranch” YouTube channel (huge gun channel) when he did this so yeah definitely
Turns out that was a different person with the same name.
NY Times article interviewed a classmate who indicated he had right leaning views.
I definitely think it’s possible he could be either. The bit about guns is mainly because guns is one of their things. Some Republicans love guns more than anything.
Either way, I’m mostly impressed at how quickly those facts became the most important bits of information. I guess it makes sense though. I’m just glad he’s white and not brown. lol
Well, when the tone police pipe up with their “but tha both sides [democratic] rhetoric!” - Democrats need to tell them that: yeah, the Republicans need to stop whipping up so much violence.
Dude was just taking out a felon sex offender, GOP dream. It just so happen this one was an ex-president.
He could be a dyed-in-the-wool GOP for six generations with no connections to any Left organization whatever.
He’ll be branded as a woke Antifa with a Black trans GF who was brain washed with peyote by a Native Shaman at a Liberal college.
Article says he was registered republican, but donated $15 to a grassroots democratic group shortly after the capitol riot, so… there you go.
So a patriot?
There’s a political organizer with the same name a few counties over. In 2021 the shooter was 17, and not legally able to donate in PA.
Speaking of finances, I’d like to know how much he lost to trumps scams. I’m just impatient, that will (or won’t) be discovered in the investigation
The ‘Thomas Crooks’ that made the donation was a 69 year-old democrat with the same first and last name.
Source?
The Act Blue entry has a Pittsburgh address (not Bethel Park, where the shooter was from).
.15102 is the zip code for Bethel Park though. There’s no portion of that zip code that goes into Pittsburgh. But we should all probably just wait for the fbi investigation to finish, they’ll have a lot more information I’m sure.
That’s a good and interesting catch, and while I did engage in the discussion do agree that it’s probably best to reserve any sense of certainty until the FBI shares their findings.
Wrong guy. That guy was 50, not 20. He did, supposedly send $15 to a progressive group. Let’s wait for the reports. Lots of rumors and misinformation. Bat-shit conspiracies to follow.
With the same street address as the shooter on the ActBlue donation record?
No idea if this is the case here but… people be named after their grandparents.
The full address associated with the donation appears within a February 2021 FEC document (page 189,746) listing all of Act Blue’s donations during the previous month. That street address and ZIP code match the home of the shooter, according to a public records search and photos of police searching the home.
The 69 Thomas Crooks doesn’t live in Bethel Park.
I doubt that will matter to the people who want it to be true. Honestly I feel so sad looking at this kid. Maybe I’m just old, but his high school yearbook pic looks like an elementary schooler to me. He looks so happy in his graduation video. As his father said: “What the hell happened?” I do wonder what will come to light when the discord is accessed.
I had a friend that was a die hard Bernie Sanders fan until Trump became relevant. He turned to a qanon following psycho that pushed away everyone close to him.
CNN reported that he registered Rep, but made donations to Dem. Of course that was right after it happened so plenty of room for your
Wait, this person shot Trump? How weird, he has the same name as the kid from yesterday who shot a teleprompter.
There’s been conflicting information. Trump’s right ear was bleeding, but the teleprompter was to his left (in front of him, but his head was currently turned right). If it was glass shrapnel, it should be the left of his face that was hit.
Is it possible there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll?
I mean, shrapnel can also ricochet, but I’m not sure what would’ve caused that in the immediate area around him really since there wasn’t really much behind him. The world may never know.
Crooks appeared to have featured in a TV advert for the BlackRock finance company filmed at Bethel Park High School and broadcast in 2023.
I just found a breadcrumb of what will undoubtedly be my favorite conspiracy theory to come out of this.
I don’t think enough people talk about what a boon the trump tax cuts for the rich were for the major asset management corps.
Who has time to worry about money and trickle-up economics when there could be trans ladies out there using the ladies’ room?!?!?
/s
you kid, but I was literally talking to somebody yesterday and this would not be far off from a summary of the discussion.
Yeah, I was being sarcastic, but the people I was impersonating absolutely operate that way. I dare say it’s a big part of the Republican strategy.
BuT, tHiNk Of ThE ChiLdReN!
The people that need to talk about it have no interest in entertaining the thought.
that is the biden campaign in a nutshell.
Lol, from one point of view, true. But if your choice is either Nazi Capitalism or Pandering Capitalism, maybe we don’t have to relegate ourselves to bigotry so quickly. I mean, if we have to live in this late stage capitalist hellscape until the boomers and xgeners die, maybe we don’t have to throw Elon musk a welcome back apartheid party.
Vance is a major stooge of Musk via Peter Thiel, and will have a direct access to sensitive information. Fuck Musk and everyone who thinks he is something special.
If you read the wiki comments there was someone questioning the relevance and thinking it should be removed before ending up a conspiracy theory lol
Is television commercial appearance notable?
“He is featured in a 2023 advertisement for BlackRock, an investment firm, that was filmed at his high school.” [12] -> CNN “What we know page”
I can sort of see an argument for both sides
but I also pretty much guarantee its gonna be a talking point on A. Jones’ show by end of this week if it stays in the article (maybe also if it doesn’t, but yeah)
but I also pretty much guarantee its gonna be a talking point on A. Jones show
I smell wonkery afoot.
it’s time to pray
Just a damn kid. No wonder he missed. Probably expected some kinda aim assist to kick in
He went for a 360 no scope but the fkn’ joycon drift sent him off course. Sad.
Yeah. Coulda made the whole world a much happier place. Hoping he wont be the last one to try it
Removed, advocating violence.
That’s not how things are supposed to work. Trump should be spending his life in prison.
On the tip of a shiv
Should be in jail.
Never going to happen. His pet judge just killed the best criminal case against him.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a better shooter.
It is not killed, it will be appealed.
We’re well past how things are “supposed” to work.
So you support murder. I do not.
So you would’ve sided with the nobles getting guillotined rather than the people doing the guillotining?
I mean, when they went in and killed all those nobles in the French Revolution that were already locked up, which im not a huge fan of
Do you side with the soviet revolutionaries, or the Tsar?
The revolutionaries? So you are advocating for the murder of not only the leader, but his young children too.
I agree. It was a dumb thing for him to even try in the first place, but it’s hard to blame some kid who was a teenager during the pandemic. Still, considering the case most likely to get Trump in jail was just dismissed I wouldn’t hold your breath for this country’s justice system.
Don’t make excuses for this idiot. He attempted to murder a politician because he didn’t have anything else going on in his sad life. We can all do better.
And that case will be appealed.
His classmates said he was a bully during high school. This doesn’t appear to be the victim nor the hero Lemmy tries so hard to make us believe.
Just keep in mind, the alt-right are rooting for a civil war for years now. So who do you think is behind inciting lefties to become violent, Lemmy?
It doesn’t matter who is behind it. The whataboutism on this is gross. It doesn’t matter what the other side does, we do not have to stoop to murder or threats. We can all be better.
Bro did not make use Gyro controls. Sad!
I like my gyro controls with extra tzatziki and no tomatoes.
20 years old, he never owned a gun before, 130 yard shot, nicked the ear. Honestly he was closer than would have expected.
Supposedly he actually hit the teleprompter and shards from that is what nicked Trump, so bro just missed entirely.
He was also not allowed to join his school’s rifle club for being a hilariously bad shot…
Oh lame. That makes more sense though, it’s not hard but it took me a bit of practice to nail 100 yard shots. If he was inexperienced it makes me wonder if the rifle was even zeroed properly, cause if it wasn’t there was no chance in hell he was going to hit Trump.
how is that even physically possible LMAO
I asked myself the same question
I totally agree. That’s not an easy shot to make, especially for someone who is not trained or experienced.
He came absurdly close to changing the course of history.
He failed to take the Coriolis effect into account.
Looking at that diagram showing kids position in relation to trump and the sniper that shot the kid, it’s bizarre that he could get a shot off before being spotted.
I saw a video of people pointing him out to security as he climbed up on the roof.
Why didn’t they do anything? Maybe just thought no shooter would set up in plain sight like that.
All very weird.
Also incredibly sad.
I heard people saw him, including the SS, but they waited to make sure he had an actual gun so they didn’t just waste a kid.
But I have a hard time believing that cuz if they have to wait until someone takes a shot before they do anything then what’s the point of even having security?
The distances they’re likely dealing with are very likely a significant factor. Being that far away, optics can only do so much to show you what is happening.
It’s hard to tell if it’s a rifle or not, and if the rifle is a real gun or something like Airsoft or a pellet gun or something that doesn’t actually pose any threat.
With the distance (or even up close) you can’t really be picky about where you’re aiming, you’re just trying to hit something, so shots are generally towards the chest where you’re most likely to hit, unfortunately shooting someone in the chest has the largest chance to be fatal, so you basically have to shoot to kill.
Killing someone for holding what looks like, but cannot be confirmed as a gun, on a building that’s outside of your protection zone, is a tough call. Once a shot rings out, the intention of the person and what they have is made very clear, and taking a shot at that point is valid and warranted.
First, I don’t think that SS, or any agency, wants to end the life of someone who is not doing anything wrong and not posing a risk to anyone, so IMO, they all rightfully err on the side of caution until a threat is confirmed or very obvious.
I’m aware that the local PD confirmed the threat, but I would assume that due to bad/slow/complex inter-agency and inter-team communication, the message did not reach the sharpshooter team which ultimately took the guy out… At least it didn’t reach them prior to when the shots were fired.
Knowing what I do about radio, communications and the methods by which information is transferred, the local PD officer likely radioed dispatch about it, where they faffed about trying to find how to contact the SS, ultimately they probably called someone in the SS, who relayed it to an on-site (or dispatch type) operator, likely sending it out on the wrong channel (sharp shooters are often on their own channel AFAIK), and it took so long for the information to reach the sharpshooter team that by the time they could have set up the shot, he was already firing at Trump. This is all conjecture and speculation based on my experience running communications for various events (I’m not security nor medical nor anything else, I’m part of a team brought in specifically to relay information between locations in real time). There’s often a bit of a game of telephone happening, and the message is usually not clear getting to the final person.
In my experience I’ve had bad reports from random event goers that turn into nothing. Recently at an event I had a report of someone collapsed, vomiting, and needing medical. When I arrived, there was nobody there, myself and the medical staff were thoroughly confused. We asked around and apparently, they didn’t collapse, they threw up a bit (probably alcohol related as there was alcohol at the event), then shuffled off by friends. We had no description of the person, nothing to go on at all on order to find them and confirm their condition, only a vague direction from the witnesses in trucks and tents nearby. We never found them, and the person who originally reported it disappeared into the crowd as quickly as they appeared. So we were left to wander around trying to find someone who looked like they had just thrown up in a crowd of people (likely around 200 or more). Another example was someone saying there was an injury, gave a location and myself and the medical team jumped into action. We went to the described location and nobody needed help nor had an inquiry. After canvassing around for about 3-4 minutes, we found them several hundred feet away, stationary, waiting for us to arrive, but in a completely different area.
My point is, getting accurate information across from those that need help to those that can help is a challenge because the simple game of telephone between the points is unreliable at best. If you’re ever reporting anything, to anyone, please, for the love of everything, be specific and direct. Don’t just point and say, “over there” because there’s an entire world of stuff “over there”. If you can cite a nearby address or landmark, do that, otherwise give a direction and your best estimate of distance. If it’s a person or thing, do your best to describe the individual or object. Don’t assume that the recipient knows anything about the area.
I love doing communications work for events, it’s one of my favorite hobbies. However, people are garbage at telling me what they need and where. To be clear, my team often works with medical/security, and often we travel with them to give updates to the rest of the team as we go. We have people listening where their only job is to relay information and record it, similar to dispatch. So we put as much information as we can on the air. Radio calls travel at the speed of light, so we can often get information distributed more quickly than having to pick up your cellphone and calling someone. Our systems are also independent from the cellphone networks so if there’s a problem with those services, we can still operate, giving us an advantage over other options, including stuff like GMRS/FRS which can be intercepted or interfered with by anyone with a handheld radio capable of using those channels. I know that the police, military, secret service, Airforce, etc, all have their own, independent, radio frequencies that do not overlap, so communication between agencies is usually dealt with separately from the radio. The best case is that one member of an agency is outfitted with a radio from the other service, so dispatch can call them directly to relay traffic. Behind that is that two dispatch operators are in constant communication, either by phone or by presence (being physically near eachother), but neither seems to be the case here. No matter what, it’s still a game of telephone to get a message from one agency to another, or even from one field operator to another when they’re on different channels, even within the same service/agency.
They don’t. They have a shoot first, ask questions later mandate. There was retired USSS basically saying they’re given the discretion.
Nobody would be screaming for an agents head if they offed someone with a gun (bb gun or not) setting up on a roof with siteline to a president at a campaign event.
They totally knew he was there. There’s a video of the counter sniper lining him up right as the shooting started.
I can only imagine how disenfranchised this young man had to feel to be able to do this
This isn’t as easy as it seems. Apparently it’s not uncommon to register to vote in a closed primary like PA for the opposite party you prefer in order to dilute the vote for the candidate you don’t like by voting for the person running against them in the party. So he may be a “registered republican voter”, but that may be as a minor act of sabotage rather than his real politics.
Apparently it’s not uncommon
You know what’s incredibly more common? Being an actual Republican and voting in a Republican Primary.
Everyone loves a harmless conspiracy theory, but this theory is anything but. Unless the shooter specifically admitted to this conspiracy theory, peddling this bullshit is reckless. About as stupid as child molesters in pizza place basements that don’t exist.
Is it even more common to being a republican and assassinating the leader of the party? He “said” he was republican, but the shooting at republicans say otherwise. And i trust actions more than words. And the actions don’t get any more louder than that. Besides it does not matter one iota what Party he is affiliated with. The only thing that matters is the disappointment that he missed
I’d point you to the assassin of John Lennon - he is/was a big Beatles fan but murdered John anyway because of who John became. That still doesn’t have anything to do with the parallel argument, in this case, of the likelihood that Mark was pretending to be a Beatles fan or not.
Actions do speak louder than words - this would-be assassin registered as a Republican. The conspiracy theory that he was trying to affect a Primary makes no sense based on timing alone, let alone there not being an iota of evidence indicating he wasn’t a Republican. Republicans created the environment for this kid to do what he attempted to do and they should own up to their culpability rather than rely on bots and useful idiots to blame everyone but themselves for this problem.
Why is EVERYONE blaming someone else. jfc, both sides without any real information is jumping in trying to blame the other with weak sauce evidence. You are doing the exact same just like a redditor. Why would you care if it turned out he was democrat ? You afraid that the republicans would blame the left? Big whoop.
Bro, you inserted yourself into a conversation where someone claimed that the shooter was cosplaying a Republican and, inexplicably, defended them. The only person you should be getting butthurt with is yourself instead of dropping the inevitable “both sides” shit 🤣
The dislike for Trump crosses party affiliation and traditional right/left dichotomies. That is to say that there are A LOT of Republicans that dislike Trump and don’t see him as an ally, or see him as quite the opposite, in fact.
Possibly. But no one knows anything really, so this whole “he’s not with us! Our side would never do such a thing!” Is ridiculous. I have said it somewhere else, but i was thinking about changing my registration so i could vote for some other challenger in the republicans primary, but keeping Joe Biden from being the democrat nominee was too important to risk doing that.
This definitely happens, though it’s not remotely as common as just voting for your preferred party in the primary.
A friend and I both voted Republican in a primary a couple years ago. The Democratic lineup wasn’t interesting and it was obvious who was going to win on it. Quite frankly our votes didn’t matter much there. But the GOP contenders were a mixed bag of semi-moderates and MAGA bootlickers. We felt it was most important to keep the Trumpy psychos out of the general election, so we voted against them.
In a way I think it was the right call at the time. On the other hand, I get a lot of SMS spam to my number now from scammy pro-Trump sources. Of course I report those to the FTC every time, but it’s still gross.
I would agree with the theory (as I’ve personally witnessed people registering for opposing party to wreck havoc there internally), BUT: I rarely came across hardcore gun-loving Democrat, watching NRA-related content.
The last two points are very valid. It’s definitely something I considered, but this is such an F’d up timeline that I can’t help but be very pessimistic.
Indeed. Party affiliation only indicates which party’s primary you wanted to participate in.
He would have had to think to do that 3 years ahead of time.
Can you not change party affiliation at any time?
You can but he didn’t. He set his affiliation 3 years ago.
“When people tell you who they are, believe them.”
Also, Occam’s razor.
Just letting people know what a PA resident told me. Too bad people don’t want to hear it. If the guy was left leaning and registered as a Republican downvotes aren’t going to make it better.
That is almost entirely a myth. Yes, there are ‘cross over votes’ in states that don’t have open primaries but facilitate party enrollment, but those cross over voters are almost always ‘independent’ voters who enroll and then unenroll and are not doing anything other than voting for the candidate of their choice in the primary that candidate is running in. So called ‘strategic voting’, as far as I know, has never made any difference in any presidential primary, but go ahead and bring up the bodies.
It’s not for presidential races.
Its for state level races where you’re in one of the 40+ states where it’s a forgone conclusion what party wins the general.
So some people give up their presidential primary vote, to vote in the state level primaries for the party virtually guaranteed to win their state, then vote for their preferred party in the general even if their candidate won the primary for the other party
You might not think it’s common, but it’s the only way a lot of people’s votes have any actual effect, so lots of people do it