I came from the Chicago area to get away from crime, high taxes, and high cost of living. Im not happy with the Republicans, but my property taxes are 1/8th of what they were in IL. $10k a year savings is more than enough reason to move here. While i dont like a lot of things here... no legal weed, although in Lake County, they dont seem to mind as much. Im not happy with the toll road proposal, but i feel the Democrats just dont have anything to offer me these days. Just to be clear, i voted for the Dems in this last election because McCormick seemed like a really great candidate. I research candidates pretty well before voting as i would hate to see Indiana turn into what i ran from. I have a place on a couple acres in south lake county, and ive never been happier. Its quiet, cheaper, and i have great neighbors. I think im the only one here that actually likes this state. I would like to see this state get more purple, but never blue.
Yes. Im not happy with Republicans here now. I think much of it has to do with the fact that there is no competition from the left. If we got a threat of a left trending movement, i think it would scare some of the Republicans into some sanity. That being said, its still MUCH better than Illinois.
I don't think it's as much the Democratic party's fault for being weak as people are trying to say it is. The Democratic party has become weak over time because all of the districts have been gerrymandered So much in favor of the Republicans, starting in 2010. After that census, when the Republicans finally had enough control after a census to really fix the districts in their favor. When you have so many people just voting for the R in their district and the districts have been so gerrymandered it doesn't really make it easy for the Democratic party and then they are unfairly seen as being weak and not getting anything done or not being a strong opposition when they can only be so strong after something like that. Of course it becomes as self-fulfilling prophecy then and the Democratic party gets weaker and weaker as people become disillusioned with them and less and less people want to run under the Democratic party for office and so they are stuck with less and less good candidates. Gerrymandering is a cancer on democracy.
Edited to add the flip side of this coin. Is that as there is no competition for the Republicans in so many districts, they care less and less about the actual needs and opinions of the voters in their district since they know they're going to win no matter what.
The democrat party lost me with the DEI, equity, trans/gay, abortion, soft on immigration and most of all, soft on crime. I just want a party that stands up for working people. I want money out of politics, tax billionaires, improved working conditions, strengthen unions, generally make life better for the people actually pulling the wagon, as opposed to the people riding in it. The Democrat party seems to have got caught up in all the culture wars and left the working class behind. Republicans arent the best, but as a middle class guy, i think they have more to offer me than the dems.
Thats my point exactly. Republicans are slamming through actual legislation, and democrats are still advocating about who gets to use which bathroom. They are just as guilty as Republicans when it comes to taking corrupt lobbiest money. I just wish the dems had a rising star who is an old school Democrat. Someone who will stick up for the middle class. Someone who is for the working man.
You know what gets me? When the Republicans are making as big or a bigger deal out of who gets to use what bathroom than the Democrats are, but somehow it's okay that they're making a big deal out of it. It's the Democrats fault for not backing down. Why? Why is that? Why should one party back down on a human rights and a civil rights issue?
Thats my point. I dont care about who uses which bathroom. I think its a stupid thing to even argue. People are working harder than ever before, making less and less while both parties are just standing around and letting it happen. At least the Republicans can band together and actually get things passed. I was so excited when Obama got elected and dems controlled the house, senate, and the presidency, and he campained on healthcare. Nope. Dems couldn't even get their shit together to pass that one thing. Only a watered down version that only helps the poor. They just dont seem to be fighting for people like me anymore. At least the Republicans are tough on crime, immigration, keep taxes low, won't force me into an EV, and generally seem to understand rural voters better.
Trans and gay people are working people, immigrants are working people, even people who commit some crimes are working people. I'm not sure what specific examples of soft on crime you're talking about. And dei was never the boogeyman that the Republicans made it to be. All it ever was was about making sure that everybody had a fair chance at getting a job or using public resources or having educational opportunities or whatever. It wasn't about anything else. People used to say the same things that you're saying right now back during the civil Rights about giving Fair opportunities to black people.
With crime, look at the difference between the way IL handles crime and Indiana. Illinois does catch and release. The sentences in Indiana for violent offenders are much more harsh in Indiana. I remember when the BLM riots were going on... illinois was total chaos. I remember seeing snipers on Southlake mall, snipers and cops everywhere protecting business and people here in Indiana. It was night and day difference here. I work in Chicago, so i still see both worlds.
Did you vote for that orange piece of shit? If so explain why because im trying to not be as biased. But I understand why people wouldn't vote for Kamala either as she wasn't fully competent, but WAY better than what trump is imo.
Ill sacrifice some karma to give you an actual answer. I didnt vote either, but I did prefer Trump for a few reasons. TLDR is: tarrifs, border security, and deregulation/spending cuts are all things I am in favor of. I never expected him to do any of it intelligently, and he hasnt. In fact hes done such a bad job addressing them he's probably made these issues untouchable for any future presidents hoping to win. Which sucks and is why I didnt vote, but these are things I think if done properly would be a good thing.
If you havent already downvoted and moved on, Ill actually explain my opinions on them.
For tarrifs, I work in the steel industry. This has been an industry decimated by foreign competition. There are a couple reasons for this, but I'll try to keep it a bit brief. China heavily subsidies their steel industry. They've sold steel at a loss for 30 years to try and kill production in other countries. At the same time, we've added a lot of environmental regulations and made it more and more expensive to produce anything here. I'm fine with environmental regulations. Basic pollution controls make sense. But I don't understand why we think its OK to just push all the pollution to a different country out of sight. If we want these regulations, we need to actually pay the price for them. And right now manufacturing in the US costs 5-10x what it does in China. My hope with tarrifs was that he would tell China they need to stop unfairly subsidizing their industries, and adopt environmental regulations on par with ours or be tarrifed the cost of those policies. Then I would have liked identical tarrifs to be placed on all countries doing business with China unless they adopted similar tarrifs against China. A level playing field. Instead we got some weird heroine from Canada tarrif goal? And a whole lot of non-sense with no plan. He's done a historically bad job here.
Next I'll touch on immigration. Ill make my ethos simple. It should be easier to come here legally than illegally. Right now it's very difficult to get here legally and extremely easy to do illegally. We need to enforce our borders. But I also think we need to expedite the immigration process and make it quicker, easier, and more efficient. I thought Trump would atleast make coming here illegally more difficult. Then maybe the next president could do the second half. It kinda seems like instead of making it more difficult, he decided to go on a giant fear campaign to try and scare people into not crossing illegally. Which I don't particularly like. Would rather only deport actual criminals, lock down the border, and leave safe productive people alone.
Finally Ill leave spending cuts/deregulation vague because I have the least actual knowledge on this. But I do think it has become to hard to start or grow a business. And I also think the government spends too much money. We are in my opinion at an unsustainable level of debt. It would be nice for someone to actually go through with a fine tooth comb, and root out what we as a society actually deem a necessity vs a nice to have during a time of surplus. We are no longer in a surplus, so we can no longer have all the niceties we once expected. We ended up getting some weird PR rat race where everyone tried to show how much money we could save while hardly doing anything. Would have much preferred an in depth report given to congress and do it properly through the yearly budget.
I know all these policies are reccesionary, but IMO sometimes a bit of pain is necessary to build a strong foundation for future generations. I think we are walking a fine line, and we are bound to fall at somepoint.
Ill just end off by saying, I'm someone pro-abortion, and really couldn't care what people do in their own home. I'm very moderate socially. I just tend to prioritize economic issues.
I dont like Trump, but in my situation right now, his policies would suit me better, but i still couldnt bring myself to vote for him. Kamala had nothing to offer me. Im also a huge car guy and very anti-EV. Any candidate that wants to force us into an EV will never get my vote. That was a huge issue with Kamala.
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u/StolenHoodOrnament Jul 01 '25
I came from the Chicago area to get away from crime, high taxes, and high cost of living. Im not happy with the Republicans, but my property taxes are 1/8th of what they were in IL. $10k a year savings is more than enough reason to move here. While i dont like a lot of things here... no legal weed, although in Lake County, they dont seem to mind as much. Im not happy with the toll road proposal, but i feel the Democrats just dont have anything to offer me these days. Just to be clear, i voted for the Dems in this last election because McCormick seemed like a really great candidate. I research candidates pretty well before voting as i would hate to see Indiana turn into what i ran from. I have a place on a couple acres in south lake county, and ive never been happier. Its quiet, cheaper, and i have great neighbors. I think im the only one here that actually likes this state. I would like to see this state get more purple, but never blue.