# Why does this board lean Democrat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 24, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626 "2013-04-24T23:00:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/261 "2013-04-30T15:11:38Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The search function won’t let me search for “gun nut”, but do you honestly think “gun grabber” has been used more than “gun nut” on this MB? Also, can you link to the GD thread you posted about. > > But, more generally, a poster here can write “Repuglicans” without anyone batting an eye, whereas you only see a few newbie posters using terms like “Demoncrats” and even then, they are usually jumped upon or hit with a flurry of :rolleyes:. It wasn’t even a Great Debates thread-[It was actually posted in General Questions](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=689543), as if it was a perfectly acceptable and neutral term to use in that forum. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/262 "2013-04-30T15:15:54Z")
Search using Google – _site:boards.straightdope.com “gun nut”_ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/263 "2013-04-30T15:19:02Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Search using Google – _site:boards.straightdope.com “gun nut”_ I fear such a search might damage the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/264 "2013-04-30T15:33:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I fear such a search might damage the internet. Not really. “Gun nut”-6,050 “Gun-grabber”-1,420 At first glance this shows you to be correct by a large margin, but keep in mind that “gun nut” has been around a much longer time than “gun grabber” so somebody needs to nail down the first time the latter phrase was used to get a proper comparison. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/265 "2013-04-30T16:12:33Z")
Let say the question is which end of a hard boiled egg to open. Swiftly, the debate descends to partisan bickering. One side offers the reasonable and sensible position that a boiled egg is naturally shaped to be opened at the larger end. Deranged and unnatural persons who cannot see the blazingly obvious object, and refer to partisans of common sense as “fat enders”. Now, these are people blessed with the common sense that God gave a goose, but provoked beyond decorum, they begin to refer to their opposite numb-nuts as “pointys”. This being a board devoted to reason and intelligence, one expects that “fat enders” outnumber “pointys” by at least ten to one. This is, after all, the Board for the smartest and hippest people on the planet, so that naturally follows. Wouldn’t one then expect that if the courtesy and decorum of both groups are about roughly the same, the term “pointy” would appear more often than “fat enders”, as the numbers of their relative partisans are so widely at variance? So, _of course!_ “pointy” would appear more often as there are more people inclined to say it! _Très duh!_ ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/266 "2013-04-30T16:37:54Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > But it was shown that they had opposed it before that, and nobody could show that they reversed their position either. > > I did a google search and found dozens upon dozens of examples, including post-Boston bombing statements by Dick Morris, making public statements that the NRA opposes taggants. If they have stopped opposing taggants, why don’t they make a statement refuting the claim? > > It’s not a resolved question, but it’s also not quite like the “show me a purple cow” test of proving a negative. They did before. Whether they still do is not clear, but there should be some pressure for them to make clear if they’ve changed their position. So, why do you consider this to be some kind of win? That is why I made a reference to Schrodinger in that thread, the argument made there by \*\*Bricker \*\*was an appeal to uncertainty, better than an appeal to ignorance but still looks like a bad argument, and it is clear now that the reference I made became a whoosh to **Bricker**. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/267 "2013-04-30T16:37:58Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > The trouble is, that relevant points are rare… > > If the conservative position is reasonable and the arguments are good, they have a fine chance of winning. It rarely is but when it is, this board tends to ignore anything short of airtight proof that the conservative position is correct. > [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Bump, what I said was demonstrably the case. Incontrovertibly. You can just gainsay it, or you can empirically show it to be wrong. If you like, we can start a specific thread. > > It will exemplify the issue of a deficit of conservative thinking and logical argument. Let’s do it! Well desire connotes intent. Intent is harder to prove than a callous indifference to the devastating effects the budget would have on the poor. > [@Lobohan](#): > > Is desiring to enact policies that would hurt the very poor, a desire to hurt the poor? No, that just means he’s an asshole. > [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Judge Smails: I’ve sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber. Didn’t want to do it. I felt I owed it to them. > Matthew 7-16: “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” > > I’ll never have a sit down with Ryan to talk about his heart. I can only judge him by what he does. When his budget plan doesn’t add up and wouldn’t reduce the deficit or create jobs or improve the economy, it ends up with only one guaranteed outcome - severe hardship for poor people. That’s it. There’s no mitigating outcome. Creating suffering for the poor is a feature not a flaw. It incentivizes them to stop being poor. Also, does it include a tax cut for job creators because some people would consider that a benefit. > [@bump](#): > > You are REALLY not getting it. The people who subscribe to the “moochers and looters” framework have their opinion, and you have theirs. In reality, neither is 100% right- one may have a better handle on things than the other, but it’s all shades of gray, not black and white. Its a pretty dark shade of grey. > [@](#): > > And yet, you make inflammatory statements about someone’s motivation and effectively accuse them of moral turpitude simply because they don’t agree with you? We all make judgments about people’s morality based on their actions and values. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > For that particular term, you have a point. As a general rule, though, this board is waaaaaay more tolerant of casual “cheap shot” terms coming from the left than from the right. It’s laughable to think there is any kind of balance. It’s one of the things I find most distasteful about the culture here. I think the result has been that the average quality of the conservative posters on this board is vastly superior to the average quality of the liberal poster on this board. Too many liberal posters on this board skate by on the “white privilege” of being in the majority. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Not really. > “Gun nut”-6,050 > “Gun-grabber”-1,420 > > At first glance this shows you to be correct by a large margin, but keep in mind that “gun nut” has been around a much longer time than “gun grabber” so somebody needs to nail down the first time the latter phrase was used to get a proper comparison. Gun nut isn’t always a perjorative term. Even among gun owners, we call ourselves and each other gun nut. But maybe its one of those perjorative terms like nigger and redneck that have been adopted by their victims to defuse their impact. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/268 "2013-04-30T16:46:56Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > I…this board tends to ignore anything short of airtight proof that the conservative position is correct. Or just change the subject, start with the “cite that water is wet”, or just say “Bush lied about Iraq”. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/269 "2013-04-30T16:58:14Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > I think this is an excellent post. Thanks! > [@](#): > > I’d add to it that there’s a tendency of a majority to want to quash any and all opposition. Can you expand on what you precisely mean here, and particularly how it applies to the SDMB? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/270 "2013-04-30T18:55:32Z")
That’s why the minority works so hard to become the majority. Or, failing that, lie down in the path and start tearing their hair and screaming “NO! NO! NO!”. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/271 "2013-04-30T19:03:59Z")
The basic question in the OP implies that boards that favor Conservatives/Republicans treat Liberals/Democrats with a respect that the former are not receiving here. Is this true? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/272 "2013-04-30T19:12:03Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > I’ve made clear that my opinion on Ryan is not simply due to having a difference of opinion. You cannot seem to hear that. Rather than understanding my elaboration of the matter, with explication through links to others who explain the impact of the budget and the degree to which it will result in harm to the poor, you reduce my position to schoolyard taunts.. No… nobody’s arguing here that it would hurt the poor, but rather whether or not Paul Ryan was wherever he was twirling his phantom mustache cackling about intentionally hurting the poor, or whether the injury to the poor was seen as either an incentive of sorts or an unfortunate consequence of something larger and longer term. Don’t get me wrong- I never liked Ryan’s plan either, but I’ve never seen it as a deliberately malicious plan to screw the poor; at its very worst, it’s a naked plan to enrich the wealthy more, with screwing the poor as a side-effect. But that’s a whole lot different than saying that Paul Ryan has a desire to hurt the poor, and that’s the crux of the matter here- it’s that kind of hyperbolic statement that Republican/conservative posters have to defend against that makes the playing field uneven and frankly, drives many good posters away from those threads, or from the board entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/273 "2013-04-30T19:24:12Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The basic question in the OP implies that boards that favor Conservatives/Republicans treat Liberals/Democrats with a respect that the former are not receiving here. No, it doesn’t. It makes no mention of right-leaning boards at all, and how this board treats conservatives doesn’t affect other boards in the slightest. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/274 "2013-04-30T19:27:34Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The basic question in the OP implies that boards that favor Conservatives/Republicans treat Liberals/Democrats with a respect that the former are not receiving here. Is this true? Um…where does it imply that? I’d say, in my own experience it’s definitely not true that other boards that are balanced differently treat Liberals/Democrats with more respect. Regardless, the actual question in the OP was simply why there are so many ‘Democrats’ here, by which I think the OP means left leaning folks. It has nothing to do with how Republicans or right leaning folks are treated here…that’s been sort of the side discussion. [QUOTE=OP] Why does this board lean Democrat? According to this 4-year-old poll (maybe it’s time for a new one), the left outnumber the right about 1.6-to-1 (assuming we count libertarians as right-leaning, and split the independents and “other” down the middle). What is it about the SDMB that attracts the left? Is it its affiliation with the Chicago Reader (seems unlikely)? We’re not really a special interest board, the only thing we really have in common (re General Questions and The Straight Dope column itself) is a pursuit of the truth, which would not appear to appeal to one side over the other. [/QUOTE] ETA: Or what Shodan said. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/275 "2013-04-30T19:32:55Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > No, it doesn’t. It makes no mention of right-leaning boards at all, and how this board treats conservatives doesn’t affect other boards in the slightest. > > Regards, > Shodan Bull. This whole “Conservatives are going elsewhere because they aren’t being treated fairly here” thing going on certainly implies that they are going somewhere more “fair”. Asking what they would consider to be fair on a board more to they liking is certainly within reason. Are they leaving to go to a liberal board that treats them better, a neutral board that treats everyone the same, or a conservative board where they get to be top dog? Where they go from here tells us what they would want to go on here if they were to stay, wouldn’t you say? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/276 "2013-04-30T19:34:22Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Don’t get me wrong- I never liked Ryan’s plan either, but I’ve never seen it as a deliberately malicious plan to screw the poor; at its very worst, it’s a naked plan to enrich the wealthy more, with screwing the poor as a side-effect. Thanks for your thoughtful response. Just one follow up: where was the money to enrich the wealthy supposed to come from? It was not a side-effect; it was a mechanism. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/277 "2013-04-30T19:38:50Z")
> [@bump](#): > > No… nobody’s arguing here that it would hurt the poor, but rather whether or not Paul Ryan was wherever he was twirling his phantom mustache cackling about intentionally hurting the poor, or whether the injury to the poor was seen as either an incentive of sorts or an unfortunate consequence of something larger and longer term. > > Don’t get me wrong- I never liked Ryan’s plan either, but I’ve never seen it as a deliberately malicious plan to screw the poor; at its very worst, it’s a naked plan to enrich the wealthy more, with screwing the poor as a side-effect. > > But that’s a whole lot different than saying that Paul Ryan has a desire to hurt the poor, and that’s the crux of the matter here- it’s that kind of hyperbolic statement that Republican/conservative posters have to defend against that makes the playing field uneven and frankly, drives many good posters away from those threads, or from the board entirely. BINGO! Reverse the people involved. “Obama wants to just tax the middle class to create his socialist state!” “Obama wants to take all of our guns away!” “Obama supports the Muslim states because he hates Israel!” Pretty pathetic, right? If anyone said something like this they’d be shouted down as some redneck derp Tea-Partier. You can’t read his mind any more than you can read Ryan’s (or can you?) and to give some half-assed ulterior motive to these politicians based on their policy decisions is ridiculous. Rephrasing as, “Obama’s tax policies appear to be negatively hurting the middle class to benefit Federal programs,” or “Obama’s proposed gun laws look like they will make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to purchase guns and may wind up restricting the models that they can get or even keep,” or “Obabma’s support for the many Middle East states that have been antagonistic to Israel can be detrimental to the safety and security of America’s long time ally.” ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/278 "2013-04-30T19:44:45Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Thanks for your thoughtful response. Just one follow up: where was the money to enrich the wealthy supposed to come from? > > It was not a side-effect; it was a mechanism. It’s not a zero sum game, Hentor…and, frankly, the poor don’t have enough wealth to make it worth while to try and steal it from them. Paul isn’t trying to steal the wealth from the poor to give it to the rich in some reverse Robin Hood scam, he wants to let the rich keep more of their wealth for themselves instead of having to give it to the poor. Now, whether that’s a good thing or a bad one is going to depend on ones perspective, but in Paul’s case he THINKS it would help both the rich and the poor. He could be wrong, but ascribing hateful motives is basically just partisan hackery. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/279 "2013-04-30T19:51:43Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Not really. > “Gun nut”-6,050 > “Gun-grabber”-1,420 > > At first glance this shows you to be correct by a large margin, but keep in mind that “gun nut” has been around a much longer time than “gun grabber” so somebody needs to nail down the first time the latter phrase was used to get a proper comparison. Why would that matter? I think you know very well that the case is true across the board with all such ‘searches’. The fact that the progressive folks on here get a pass at a much greater rate than the conservatives is rather well known, to all of us. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/280 "2013-04-30T19:55:51Z")
> [@XT](#): > > It’s not a zero sum game, Hentor…and, frankly, the poor don’t have enough wealth to make it worth while to try and steal it from them. Paul isn’t trying to steal the wealth from the poor to give it to the rich in some reverse Robin Hood scam, he wants to let the rich keep more of their wealth for themselves instead of having to give it to the poor. Now, whether that’s a good thing or a bad one is going to depend on ones perspective, but in Paul’s case he THINKS it would help both the rich and the poor. He could be wrong, but ascribing hateful motives is basically just partisan hackery. The wealth wasn’t generated by taximg the poor, since as you note they don’t have wealth to begin with. It was to be generated by slashing government expenditures that serve to reduce the hardships on the poor. Didn’t you understand that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626.md?page=15)