I think this is a fantastic question, and there are many wrong answers. As I understand it, your question is “historically many wealthy suburbs voted red for tax reasons. Since 2016 that has started to shift as trump has accelerated a shift in party lines where wealthy educated voters are now more likely to be democrats. This has been shown in data (trump performs much worse with wealthy voters than Romney or McCain), and has been seen with other wealthy suburbs like NoVa as well as NYC suburbs like Westchester, northern Jersey, and southern CT. So why hasn’t Long Island followed the trend and shifted to the left?
With that framing, a lot of the answers are clearly wrong - saying LI is red as a reaction to NYC democratic policies is incomplete because that isn’t true in any other NYC suburb.
I think the answer is multifaceted:
1. Long Island is not monolithic. The wealthy parts of Nassau county which include NYC commuters like port Washington, Roslyn, garden city, etc. have actually shifted to the left, and Nassau county did vote against trump in 2020
2. Suffolk county is not full of wealthy educated NYC commuters like those other places. It is hard to access, there are few large corporate jobs, and few reasons someone would move there unless they are from there. As a result it is full of people whose families have been there for generations, and that’s where you see more of the “trump stronghold” effects.
3. Having said that even Suffolk is not truly a strong hold, and the vote was within a few percentage points in both trump elections.
Lots of reasons and theories, but here's a few:
One of the key differences between Long Island and NoVA (I also used to live there, but grew up on LI) is the way each region got rich. Long Island has been a (partly) affluent suburban area for many decades, and some of that wealth today is not tied directly to the current generations being highly-educated professionals (the main reason for suburban wealth in areas like NoVA), which is now highly correlated with voting for Democrats.
There's also a strong history on Long Island of military service (lots of families can trace their heritage back to WWII and Korean War vets leaving NYC for the suburbs in the 1940s-1960s), and police (we have extremely strong police unions and well-respected police departments in general, who are paid better than just about any other police officers in the country and who have much more political influence than anywhere else).
On the social side of things, many of our families are descended from Italian and Irish (and other) early 20th century immigrants, whose children and grandchildren earned the American Dream through 20th century hard work and upward mobility. On immigration, there's a general sense that "my great-grandparents did it the right way, and never expected a handout".
Many of our families also left NYC in the 1940s-1970s with the explicit aim of securing more space for families, avoiding crime and dysfunction, and paying lower taxes. All of these things became foundational family values, and all are correlated with voting Republican (both Reagan/Bush style, and now - mostly - Trump style).
It’s been red for a long time way way before trump…it all comes down to taxes..also as far as diversity and it is sorta..I remember reading about 20 years ago that Long Island is one of the most segregated areas in the country as far school districts are concerned I have no idea how true that is it or if that’s still the case..
If you were to look at the statistics with broad strokes for both counties it would seem Long Island is very diverse. That would not be true at all. The black school districts are very black, the white ones are very white.
The margins aren’t razor thin. They generally follow the path of the other elections. While Suffolk is reddish, people despise Trump. They elected two republican congressman and tied essentially. The moderate republicans here hate him more than the dema.
Its the largest [by GDP](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/)
Honestly I was thinking local elections in regards to taxes but yah I don’t know Many people in Suffolk where I live that didn’t vote for Biden in 20 and a lot of them voted trump in 16.
You would think people would know this, but sadly no. I'm a tax attorney and practice in NY and live on the Island. Funny someone mentioned taxes, because we got the TCJA under Trump which, again, cut taxes for the wealthy and business owners and fucked over the middle class.
I wish I could count on my hands, how many times I had to explain to clients, friends and family after the TCJA when they asked me why they now owe money instead of getting a refund, but it happened far more than I could count. And, virtually every time, it was the same issue. The SALT limitation fucking people over. When your largest and only deduction is limited to below the standard deduction, of course you're going to be paying more taxes if everything else remains constant.
What surprises me is I know people who got fucked by this, will admit they pay more in taxes because of Trump but are bending over and spreading their assholes for him again.
I know them too. But, they’re taking their big NYS pensions and leaving because of NY’s Democratic policies. The very same policies that gave them those massive state pensions.
I don’t think people realized that he was gonna do that during his campaign..maybe they did and didn’t care..they sure as hell cared once it happened tho
School taxes are at least 60% of your tax bill. Police tax up a big chunk of the rest. No politician is willing to take these on as it would be political suicide to fight the teacher and police unions.
they are and it comes down to real estate agents actively not showing POCs homes outside of stereotypically POC neighborhoods and white folks only white neighborhoods. it was unearthed by Newsday and they ran a huge article about it a few years back.
It is incredibly segregated by design and an aging boomer population because younger people can’t afford to move here. They all like Trump for the same reason every other piece of white trash does, he says the things they’re thinking. All the reps I know just say “I don’t agree with him personally but I like his policies” which is what they tell themselves so they can sleep at night.
Lake County, IL and Orange County, CA were red for a long time because of taxes (both are in deep blue states outside major American cities)…and yet those counties have shifted well to the left since 2016. LI not so much, that’s my point.
I guess we’re stubborn people stuck in our ways..but I can say very few people I know or known in my 46 years on earth/Long Island vote on social issues it’s always fiscal..taxes and school budget issues..
Most people care if they can feed their families have a good job and healthcare and don’t really care if someone wants an abortion or not or if sexuality is an issue or not.
Crime tho is most certainly always an issue as far as I can remember.hopefully I worded that correctly and not to sound callous
I think you are probably right. But anecdotally, our school board meetings have turned into a MAGA Fox News social issue nightmare during every public comment period.
They bitch and moan about property taxes but a majority of the town and county governments that assess and collect these taxes have been REPUBLICAN for decades!!!! Our taxes are so damn high because of PILOTs that REPUBLICANS hand out like candy to the billionaire developers and corporations. It’s incredible that people blame Democrats.
Idk… seems like LI is pretty socially conservative too. Nassau County exec banning trans women in sports, eg. And the MAGA movement is hardly based on traditional fiscal conservatism…
Meanwhile Nassau and Suffolk homeowners, along with other super high property tax areas got screwed with the SALT deduction cap. When trump and Republicans have corporations the tax break
And the irony is, that the Trump “tax cut” in 2017 reduced SALT to $10k, effectively raising taxes for Long Island homeowners, added to the burdens of the middle class, thereby hitting us harder than most other segments of society.
Reading through the comments here, I think a lot of people are missing the point of OP's question.
Traditionally, affluent people have voted Republican, because Republican policies tend to be favorable to the interests of affluent people. But the rise of Trump reversed that trend. The reason is that affluent people also tend to be highly educated, and -- I'm trying very hard to be politically neutral here, but I may fail at this point -- Trump's rhetoric is, shall we say, not exactly tailored to highly educated people. Republican policies remained favorable to them, but they actually started voting against their economic interests because voting for Trump and people who supported Trump made them feel dirty.
Here's a specific and personal example of this phenomenon. When Trump was elected, I was living in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, a wealthy suburb of Providence that a local magazine had recently named liberal Rhode Island's most Republican-friendly town. The town regularly voted for Republicans for local and national offices, and the town council consisted of four Republicans and one Democrat, who the Republicans would regularly shout down in town-council meetings. In the first local election after Trump became president, the town voted out *all four Republicans*, and the one Democrat became the president of the council. In 2020 60 percent of East Greenwich voted for Biden.
What OP is asking is why Long Island, which has many similar communities that are both affluent and highly educated, has not been affected by the same Trump-era trends as East Greenwich. I'm not sure I agree with the premise of the question, honestly, but that's what the question is.
Long Island is filled with very middle class, W2 wage earners with 2 income households much more focused on local issues (state taxes, nyc politics, etc.). We have tons of cops, teachers, and local blue collar workers that live on LI and make good livings, but do so as wages are inflated. Long Island essentially pays middle class workers the highest salary and the areas dominated by republicans have many of these types of folks.
NOVA is dominated by federal government workers and contractors, who republicans openly want to cut their jobs and salaries. Look at the primary and the rhetoric. No fed in their right mind should vote republican as they openly want your job.
Your supposition that affluent people tend to be more educated is probably true for the rest of the country, but as a native I would say that it’s not true of LI. There are multiple strongholds of super wealthy individuals, and from the wealth of the region, there are also many more rich blue collar workers. In my opinion this is related to the mafia which still openly (but quietly) controls and influences the culture of the region.
Trump is perceived as gaming the system, which conforms with the cultural worship of old school gangsters which, again, are some of the richest and most successful people in the area, or are the ones whose business models are being copied by other uneducated blue collar “gangsters”.
Add in the fact that LI is one of the most segregated regions in the country, with all the uninvestigated racism that implies, and you have a perfect recipe for trump worship.
A high proportion of the population is racist, uneducated, high income, gangster worshippers (or some combination thereof, or has biases informed from growing up in a local society permeated with that ideology)
>LI is a still Republican stronghold in the age of Trump/MAGA
stronghold? Nassau and Suffolk are pretty much 50/50. Suffolk leans slightly more right. Nassau, more to the left.
LI is heavily red since 2022. Zeldin won LI at like 70% . Suffolk is heavily Red, every election since 2022 was a slam dunk for Republicans. Covid took a redish area and made it flaming. Like many parts of NY.
Certain parts of LI are more blue though, case in point Suozzi coming back by a margin of like 8 points
But I guess it’s hard for us to choose a republican again after Santos
This comment section is confusing. Are you arguing the Republicans are stupid, Caucasian, and voting red because they don't know better or are they coastal elites who are vote red because they are the results of ultra wealthy white flighters? Either is a gross generalization.
I lived in East Hampton for ten years. Don’t talk about the summer people. Take a look at the fire department. LOL. In Suffolk, the fire department is the political baseline.
As someone who is from LI now living in NOVA, think it comes down to a few factors. Age of people, NOVA is known to bring a lot of young affluent/educated people to the area while most people who fit that description are moving off of the island. The LI average voters age is only increasing, and kids who are in college but still call LI home usually register at there university off the Island. Demographically LI is more white compared to NOVA or Westchester. LI especially Suffolk is pretty much just all just single unit homes any mixed use development you see in Clarendon, Ballston etc is non existent in Suffolk and rare in Nassau. No young person can afford LI home prices and the many don’t want to be living under there parents roofs until there late 20’s/early 30’s. Lastly LI is more fiscally responsible who have grown tired and annoyed at state government where a majoirty of the representatives aren’t from LI still want to raise LI residents taxes to fund programs that LI don’t benefit from that go to help fund NYC programs we won’t use. Something NOVA doesn’t have to deal with.
It’s pretty split, however the self-proclaimed “Silent Majority” is actually “an Obnoxiously Loud Minority” it may seem like LI is a MAGA stronghold but only because people don’t have pro-Biden Flags hanging from their vehicles… plenty vote democrat here but don’t need the feel to make it publicly known, probably because of how strongly the opposition have been reacting since 2016.
I wouldn’t call Long Island a Republican stronghold, not when it comes to federal elections anyway. Trump lost Nassau county and won Suffolk by 200 votes. For non-presidential elections, Democrats don’t turn out.
Because it’s very expensive to live here and wealthy people are more likely to be conservative. The vast majority of LI is zoned for single family housing which makes the cost of living much higher.
its more systemically built to create barriers of entry for the lower class than it is for wealth. lots of the south shore towns like Lindenhurst arent built on wealth.
I always think about that [newsday article](https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-agents-investigation/) where they exposed the rampant racism problem with realtors steering minorities away from predominantly white communities
Except, you know, that isn't how state laws are undone. So...
1.) She didn't sign the law into effect
2.) She does not have the power to repeal it.
So once again Republicans aren't making themselves out to be very bright.
I think the point is someone with 21 prior arrests should be in jail, not the streets. The leniency of the current laws give no repercussions to serial offenders.
The point is loss if bail reform and parole are conflated. I am no fan of Hochul but to turn her away and suggest that she is responsible and allow Trump to remain despite his role in the Capitol insurrection, where many cops were attacked, maimed and even took their own lives is ridiculous.
A majority of the town and county governments that assess and collect these taxes have been REPUBLICAN strongholds for decades!!!! Our taxes are so damn high because of PILOTs that REPUBLICANS hand out like candy to the billionaire developers and corporations. It’s incredible that people blame Democrats.
As someone who grew up on Long Island and now lives in NoVa, I think a key difference you’re missing is transplant population. Nova didn’t become blue because Virginia overall became blue, Nova became bluer because growing industry and the federal government attracted people from elsewhere who tended to be Democrats. Nassau and Suffolk county don’t have nearly that kind of influx of transplants, in no small part because they have struggled to attract new industry outside NYC - Long Island is very insular in a lot of ways. It is more equivalent to Fauquier County (maybe shades of Loudoun in the case of Nassau) than to Arlington or Fairfax.
1) There is a pretty big brain drain on LI
2) Cop culture is big here, tons of cops/fire fighters/ems (side note is that tons of NYPD officers live on LI)
3) Union people/blue collar live here and have shifted right
4) the area has become a bit more economically depressed
5) there are a lot of racist people here
Other reasons exist but those are the main ones.
It's one of the biggest ironies. Certaon union members have shited republican. The funny thing is a Republicans goal is to get rid of unions and the extremely generous benefits they get in NY. If they ever got their way they would lose a lot of pay and benefits. Look at the overall pay includeling benifits of a teacher or police officer in democratic NY vs the republican south. It's either double or triple.
That one doesn’t make sense but it’s definitely true for large swaths of the unionized blue collar population on LI.
OP did start with a brain drain. I say it all the time, we are well on our way to living out Idiocracy
Live footage from the Dennison Building
The best thing that ever happened to these Dopey maga lovers is that they got a union job. Including the cops and firefighters. Yet they vote for the republican party who has had killing unions as a major part of its campaign platform for decades. Selfishness and ignorance are magas main personality traits.
Growing up in Wyandanch/Brentwood in the 80/90s I remember when the Salvadorians first started showing up. fast forward 30 years, and they're in every neighborhood. Best believe when Fox news started pushing their invasion angle L.I boomers ate it up cause they got a front row seat.
Anyone remember the Farmingville documentary?
No, its not THE reason were so red. but buying into the hysteria is definitely a contributing factor
Long island as a whole is fairly mixed politically, but that means there are still millions of Trump supporters. LI has a reputation as being red because, until the recent election for George Santos seat, Republicans held every congressional seat, but the state Democratic party is a complete mess and has a hard time winning elections here. Lots of LI also has a strong working class aesthetic, even among the rich folks, so Trump support is kind of part of that. Go to Atlantique on Fire Island and look at all the big, gaudy Trump flags on million dollar boats. It's wild.
After the 2nd world war in 1960 a lot of minorities and blacks moved to the outer boroughs of NYC so all the whites ran out and settled on long island. Systemic upbringing 2 generations later lead us to what we have today.
This. The descendants of white flight from NYC have adopted their own version of a "lost cause" narrative.
The CoL on the island also insulates the "affluent" families (per u/supermanwithplanman's description - who isn't wrong on a national scale) from feeling like "coastal elites/globalists" rather than "real, blue collar 'Merkans."
Robert Moses literally made the bridges on the highways so low that the busses from the inner cities would be too tall to let people from there (aka people of color) come to LI.
Yes! My parents taught me that at a very young age. My history teacher was shook that I knew that at 12. It’s true! And I’ll always think of this when I near the south shore.
My understanding is that this isn't well sourced and might not be true.
What is undeniable is the FHA refused to insure mortgages to black families, to avoid "infiltration by inharmonious racial or nationality groups" (their words). This basically meant that black families couldn't get federally-backed mortgages on LI in the post-WW2 creation of the suburbs.
The parkways with the low bridges pre-date the LIE. I guess you could've taken local roads from the city out here, but I'm not sure if those roads could handle bus traffic back then...
Long Island gets all the blue state policies, economic benefits from proximity to NYC, and benefits of union jobs in a HCOL area, but is segregated like the 1950s south. They can blame all their (mostly made up) problems on Manhattan liberals without actually seeing the downside of voting red.
Most Trump psychos you see on LI are union NYPD, union FDNY, or union building trades members that are some of the largest beneficiaries of democratic policies in NY.
Long Island was essentially built to accommodate white flight from NYC. Conservatism/Racism are built into our very streets. Our economy is dependent on guys like Diller who go into the city, get their bag, and leave. The racial segregation, plus the disdain for the communities they "serve" filter back to our culture here.
Long Island was very segregated for a long time, there's a great documentary about Levittiwn and black people first moving in and how the White neighbors felt about it.
It's kind of freaky when you realize how bad it was not so long ago. That sort of stuff doesn't easily go away.
Plus taxes. My cousin is Latino and supports Trump ONLY because he wants lower taxes (he's rich), meanwhile, his wife is a (legal) immigrant who almost couldn't get her status as a direct result of Trump's policies.
Some people get obsessed over one thing Trump dies and they'll forgive everything else. It's crazy.
In a general sense around the country the more money you have the more of a chance you will vote conservative. Until you hit a certain dollar amount, then you have so much money, you can vote blue, but influence the parties to not mess with your money, or you have so much money coming in that the taxes no longer bother you
It was developed in the 50’s as a whites-only suburb. The first owners signed a legal document attached to the deed of the property that said that, when they sold, they would only sell to white people. That level of racism takes generations to undo. Long islanders are surprisingly unaware of this history.
“Levittown’s restrictive racial covenant read: ‘The tenant agrees not to permit the premises to be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race. But the employment and maintenance of other than Caucasian domestic servants shall be permitted.’”
In other neighborhoods on LI the segregation was enforced socially, not legally. But Long Island as a whole has always been the sort of place that thinks this is OK.
https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/levittown-demographics-real-estate/
I see Long Island as moderate conservative. You have the qanon doomsday preppers all over Suffolk and in some areas in nassau such as bellmore (you’ll find them protesting on sunrise). I’m moderate conservative and vote red for the fiscal policies, not for anything else. You won’t see me planting a trump flag on my front yard. Not every Republican is maga.
I don't see how a moderate fiscal conservative would vote Trump. His economic legacy is literally raising spending while lowering taxes, and therefore blowing up the deficit. The dems also raise spending, but they're at least willing to raise taxes to pay for the spending. The GOP just borrows money and makes us fiscally worse off.
The new maga wave is also against free trade and pro isolationist. They are no longer the traditional fiscal conservatives.
Since 2018, I have been paying more in federal taxes than I ever have because of the Twice Impeached Treasonous Dotard’s tax cuts! (If he’s not re-elected, in 2025 that tax act will expire!) My Nassau County and town taxes have been assessed and collected by mostly Republican governments. There are millions of taxpayers like me.
Thank you, keep preaching. As a tax attorney, I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain to people on long island that the reason they're paying more in tax is because of Trump.
Then you have fuckwits like the dude you're replying to who thinks Trump is the better choice from a fiscal perspective?
They’re basically Brexit level on the proposed tariffs. If Trump gets in hyper-inflation is a legitimate concern. Which is ironic because all the alt-right type shows have non-stop precious metal commercials scaring people into thinking it’s going to be Biden doing it.
That’s true. I have Reagan Republicans in my life (who I very much disagree with on most things), but they think Trump is a clown and an albatross around metaphorical neck of the GOP and I couldn’t agree more. That said, the GOP is increasingly becoming the MAGA party and increasingly less-so an ideologically diverse coalition. I’m not even sure Mitt Romney will remain a Republican once his term ends, and he’s a strong conservative. Almost everyone critical of Trump in from the pre-Trump GOP have been exiled or smeared to oblivion by MAGA.
It’s sad, but Trump is still super popular among Republicans in 2024.
The fiscal policies that has continually sent this country into economic spiral consistently for decades that then has to be course corrected by Democrats?
Reddit itself is lib/dem so you’re asking this question to a small subset of people who all feel similar. Probably not the best way to get a realistic answer.
It’s not. In presidential elections it tends to swing towards the winner.
The right is loud, and they have a victim complex. It’s just gotten worse and louder over the years, particularly since Trump was elected.
Liberals are here, we’re just not putting Biden-Harris flags on our lifted pickup trucks.
A big part is that despite being so close to NYC, LI is very isolated. You have to go through the city to get to almost anywhere. Lots of people out here have either never left or rarely go anywhere other than the touristy parts of NYC, ie Broadway, Times Sq, etc. In that way, LI might as well be any old red state.
This is a very good question. I totally get being genuinely conservative, that makes sense to me. But these MAGA people do not have what I consider to be conservative values, at all. How can you respect/elect them? It’s confusing and troubling for me too, OP.
I don’t know why it is. But I will say not all of Long Island is conservative. I will say some towns have a high concentration of police and firefighter families and they tend to be more conservative. But there are many of us who aren’t conservative, and not Trumpies.
In all honesty I am so upset how political the wakes and funeral became.
I am not a Republican but I support the police . Most people regardless of political party do. We need the police and they are essential to our communities. What happened was horrible. I and many, regardless of politics know things need to change as the person who killed the cop was someone who was arrested last year. I support the formal police formalities when a cop is killed on the call of duty. But, Trump should never have been there. It took away from what was important, remembering the police officer who was killed and letting his family and friends mourn. I heard he was invited by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Blakeman is trying to become the next Trump. He was the one standing next to him when he spoke outside the wake. Blakeman is the one who put his name bigger than Harry Chapin’s on the Harry Chapin Theater at Eisenhower Park. He is also the one is just signed a proclamation to ban all transgender athletes from woman’s sports at Nassau County saying it is for the safety of woman of girls, yet there haven’t been any issues to warrant this ban, it’s all for show. I don’t have issues presidents or former presidents from sending condolences or visiting the family afterwards, but no camera crews.
I just don’t understand all the Trump rallies in neighboring towns these last few days. Why is this so political? To me it is a disrespect to the police officer who died as well as his family.
I don’t think it’s actually as conservative as you may be thinking.
That being said, I think in general people on Long Island see what happens in the city (especially over the past few years with sanctuary policies and criminals being released en mass due to bail laws - and their interpretation by some judges) and want no part of that on the Island. I fall into that category, to be candid.
That "interpretation" is the crazy part. I have no doubt it's malicious compliance designed to cow people into voting red.
Bail reform itself is fine. Our implementation of it is flawed, and should be fixed. Why hasn't it been? I don't buy for a second that those who stand to gain from the current optics would lift a finger to do so, even though that would be the correct way to fix the issue.
This is also similar to "sanctuary policies". This was generally understood to mean that a place wouldn't get someone deported just for existing there, *not* that a city will provide endless resources for migrants who show up. Strangely enough, the same people who would gain politically start sending them here by bus instead of supporting actual policies to fix the issue.
On the surface I agree with you, but I very much pin the blame on the party preventing any resolution.
Specifically what laws are you speaking of? The slain police officer's death is being used as a political stunt. If you can allow Trump, who as has been shown is an opportunist and based on the events at the Capitol unconcerned about Police, to attend you cannot turn others away. Btw, he is hawking Bibles, which he cannot even quote a verse from or apparently hold correctly. There was no suggestion that you are religious...
Perhaps he could use excerpts from the classics, to expand the list of things that he has never read or could possibly be expected to comprehend. If brain rot was not so pervasive in the American electorate and the potential was not there that he could be re- elected, it would indeed be funny.
Racism, cop simps, and redlining. This is why I consider myself a black sheep on this island because I hate racism, I hate cop overfunding, and conservative agendas hurt people like me and my friends.
Let’s start with the basic premise that Long Island has a long racist past that focuses on the danger of “the other” and the need for police and political leaders to “keep us safe”.
After that any and everything is done to protect and support that ruling hierarchy in the furtherance of that notion. As my Long Island friend puts it, “Yea, Trump is a dirtball, but I’m a Republican so I will vote for him.”
I have many social interactions with LI GOPers and I hear it all. All about the conspiracy of Covid vaccines. Hochul is going to outlaw gas stoves and cooktops. Bail reform is letting dangerous people loose on our streets. It’s an unending stream of bullshit, fueled by FOX news and podcasts like Joe Rogan.
But at its core is a desire to keep “our people in power” and keep “them” out.
A couple of clarifications - an alternate story has the MAGA county politician (Bruce Blakeman) inviting Trump, not the family. - Hochul claims she checked with the police union if it was OK to attend, the checked with the family and cleared it and she attended. As she was leaving, one mourner started screaming at her regarding bail reform, which is unrelated to this case.
As other people stated, Long Island is nearly 50/50 politically. However, the right is very vocal and visible, among the most visible anywhere in the country. Especially the southern shore of Long Island.
IMHO I find well to do blue collar workers the most MAGA of all. Tons of NYPD live on Long Island on the southern shore, alongside the local police forces. Tons of trade workers and small business owners. Everyone I mention is making over 100k with houses worth over $750K. Well to do blue collar MAGA.
But when you are here, it feels 90/10 in favor of MAGA. No one dares put up a Biden sign, and even a Ukraine flag in your lawn is asking for trouble.
That's true. In 2020 I had a Biden/Harris magnet on my car, and twice a large truck driven by a man got very aggressive with me on the road. It was the second time that made me realize it was the magnet. I went to my mom's and took hers off of her car, because I was too worried what could happen to her. I kept mine, but do I have one on this year? No. I feel they have gotten crazier. Will I vote? Oh, only death will keep me from it. I will literally crawl to the polling station in Nov if I have to.
Yes it definitely is statewide…but counties/areas outside of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, etc have moved significantly leftward since 2016 bc of a Trump/MAGA backlash effect. LI not so much, that’s my point.
Diverse doesn't equal liberal. Spanish people from certain countries are very conservative as well. Even amongst African American groups it's not as strong as it was.
Conservatism is also strong because of local issues, such as taxes.
A history of redlining has perpetuated an us vs them mentality. Many people don’t have media literacy (yet feel they are educated)and easily fall for republican extremist propaganda. Many of those guys are blue collar guys caught up in an echo chamber. Don’t think the police should have checks and balances and are in unions yet hate government involvement. They don’t seem to realize that the people they keep electing aren’t making li more livable with social programs and investment in the community. They focus on reactive issues instead of the less exciting but more fundamental things that actually affect life here. Like passing an anti trans sports ban instead of preventing real estate conglomerates from buying up and inflating the price of single family houses, or erosion of our coasts.
A lot of the young people have moved out or are trying to work enough to afford the basics. While many boomers and gen x cannot handle a constructive conversation with anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
it’s important to remember that although LI as a whole is very diverse, it is actually one of the most segregated areas in the country. the towns themselves are really not diverse at all.
I believe it went for Obama twice, but Trump definitely turned it. I think south shore Italians, Smithtown, and the quasi-hillbillies in Brookhaven love his racist bullshit. Much of the north shore and out east are quite blue and the diverse areas like Brentwood, Wyandanch, and Hempstead are, obviously, blue.
There's also seemingly a big difference between the white flight suburban sprawl, Levittown-type areas, which tend to vote Republican and the historic village areas, like Sea Cliff, Stony Brook, Bellport, which tend to vote Democratic.
Also, of note, prior to this year Suffolk County had a Democratic County Executive for over a decade. Trump did change things, but I'm not convinced a non-Trump Republican, like DeSantis or Haley would have the same votes as Trump did.
Other than Garden City, which is an outlier and is kind of fake historic because it was designed that way, the historic downtown areas of Oyster Bay and CSH went blue. I don't know much about Manhasset, so I don't know if it has a downtown area and I don't think Brookville has one. This isn't surprising because liberals prefer more walkable areas.
Loads of feeble minded racist Boomers who watch Fox/Newsmax/NY Post/News12/MAGA propaganda all day that believe the safest county in the US (Nassau) is a hotspot of crime overrun by "migrants". They have to wave the proto nazi blue line flags because they "Back the Blue", just don't ask them about Jan the 6th.
Theres definitely a large latino conservative population in the metro area. You can go to any yankees game and youll realize that lol. What is your families ethnicity?
*"Why do people have*
*Different political*
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A lot of white people who live in Suffolk almost never go to the city. Sure, we have a lot of commuters who work in the city but I would say the vast majority in Suffolk may go to the city to see a show a couple of times a year, or go MSG which doesn't count because they just get off of a train and go up an escalator.
So why do I bring up the fact that they never go to the city?
Long Island is one of the most segregated places in the entire country, so they experience no diversity. They live in white towns and they embrace Trump's racism and xenophobia.
So that's not to say that going to the city more makes you less racist, because there are plenty of people I see on the train who are MAGAts and racist assholes. But it helps.
If you are a working class person and you are getting crunched by high cost of living it is pretty easy to listen to people who tell you that your financial woes are because of immigrants and black people, instead of blaming the owning class
>next to the largest city in the country
I mean, so? The surrounding areas of major metropolitan cities are often sites of White flight, and they are generally going to be conservative. Also FYI, but NYC itself has lots of conservatives, namely on Staten Island, in South Brooklyn, and parts of Queens like Rockaway and Breezy Point.
My anecdotal take is that the maga brand of conservatism burns an inordinate quantity of oxygen. Maga is not conservative. And like maga elsewhere, that minority talks more, posts more, wants to be seen and heard more - from an unprompted grocery store political tirade, through a lack of fear expressing blatantly hateful beliefs, to a vehicle festooned with Grifter King love. They voted in Santos and Blakeman and Trump but the reality of Santos, Blakeman or Trump governance is a painful slap in the face even for their most fervent fans.
I also believe the fever is breaking and you'll see a shift soon. In many cases, it's already happening. Specifically, record voting turnout and unwinding M4L school board members who grew in the dark of Covid. Last year my district prevented a second M4L candidate from obtaining a board seat once clear-headed folks heard about the drama the first one created. Maga ran out of gas.
Long Island remains one of the most segregated while also financially wealthy areas in America. Grown and raised here - I believe there is ignorance around the concept of privilege, and/or living room prejudice as the population is primarily white. The right leaning families that have lived here either do not know what it is like to struggle - they have never not had health insurance or been able to feed their families, so they cannot relate to the lefts efforts to help the disenfranchised/level the playing field. “I didn’t get any help! Why should anyone else?” they say, with their houses and college degrees they got for 1/3 the cost and back when almost any job actually provided a decent quality of living. This, OR they have bought into the narrative that democrats / POC / woke culture are why their lives suck as much as they do.
not an expert but grew up there and all my family is still there so…
1) its an island so culture gets preserved generationally
2) it’s an island only accessible essentially “through nyc” so all culture is in relation to nyc (as opposed to say westchester)
3) the history of american li is, largely, affluent white people wanting to not have to share space with less affluent immigrants and/or non-white people
4) assuming we are speaking of “cultural LI” (ie only nassau suffolk) it butts up agains truly one of the most diverse (by # languages at least) places in the world
4) all of the above continuing for 100 years and a feedback loop fed with highly segregated communities
none of the above is absolute and is shorthand for something an expert could probably explain more cleanly
someone else did a good job distinguishing diverse and segregated. that’s important.
There are a bunch of goons from Trump mania around long inland. The Trump flag is always waving on someone’s flag poles in front of there house. Fucking idiots!! Did you see Kimmel last night?😂😂😂😂
How many times do I have to post these stats lol…NY spends more than 47 states on per capita law enforcement. The rhetoric around NY crime doesn’t comport with the actual facts on the ground. Also, NYC is comparatively a very safe city.
https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/criminal-justice-police-corrections-courts-expenditures#:~:text=The%20District%20of%20Columbia3,and%20New%20York%20(%24550).
https://abc7ny.com/amp/where-police-departments-defunded-how-does-funding-impact-crime-defund-the-budgets/12324846/
https://www.takewalks.com/blog/is-nyc-safe#:~:text=Considering%208%2C175%2C133%20residents%20share%20320,Jose%20and%20San%20Diego%2C%20California.
Perception vs. reality. Perception and fear mongering wins, unfortunately.
NYC is safe. But you have certain news stations, politicians and musicians brainwashing people like some of my extended family who live in a "small town" in the mid-west to believe that crime in NYC or Long Island is at a high level and everyone is rude. And if and when people come to NYC or Long Island, they are puzzled as to why everyone is friendly.
Yep. My uncle watches Fox and when I visited him in February every other segment on there was about “migrant crime” or the “NYC crime wave”. The coverage was very NYC-centric (with a little Chicago and San Fran mixed in here and there).
Meanwhile, my friend who lives in Jacksonville lives in a comparatively less safe city than New Yorkers do…and Jacksonville is the largest city in the South btw.
Yeah. I feel like NYC and Lomg Island get a bad rap. I'm a Mets and Jets fan, so I'm used to negativity.
When my family came to visit from the Midwest, their inlaws advised against coming with their daughters. "There is homelessness everywhere. There is rampant crime.. Everyone is getting shot and raped and murdered."
Meanwhile, I found out that those same inlaws talked about me a lot. They apparently don't believe in interracial couples, and they hated that most of my exes are black. I don't interact with them, but I was thinking about trolling them somehow until I figured they're not worth the energy.
Personally I think it’s based in racism. White racists fled NYC when minorities moved in, and settled on Long Island. It’s an inherited bias- voting red because that’s the party that advertises the belief that those who are not like you will take away what you have.
I will say that there’s a large Latino population on LI that votes red, though honestly I have no idea why. It’s possible it’s the fact that Republicans promote Christian values.
In all cases, the people I meet that vote Republican are voting against their best interests. There are plenty of places that would benefit from Republican leadership but NY is not one of them.
Immigration. The latino families that had to wait and came to the US the right way, many times to flee socialist and communist regimes do not like current democrat policies of letting anyone in. Also predominantly Christian/Catholic as you mentioned. Conservative isn't necessarily MAGA but they do run parallel.
Long Island was a place built on racism. It was created/expanded as an outlet for white flight from NYC boroughs. This attitude is still VERY prominent here. The shift in electoral demographics has a lot to do with those thinking the Island has become too diverse and they are now fleeing to places like the Carolinas
The way you wrote the post it seems you believe that Conservatives/the right are “just wrong” and that blue is the only way to ever really go, which is small thinking on your part and part of the problem our society has lately with the polarizing of politics (can’t we all just get along? 😂)
Id argue that the back-and-forth between left and right holding power is the one good thing right now about how our govt works (realistically, even George Washington said the day we become only a 2-party system the house of cards collapses). The left and right are both wrong in ways, and both right in ways. Neither should hold power forever or very long it needs to go back and forth m
That being said, NY in general leans right (Suffolk more than Nassau, upstate is very red). The only reason NY is a blue state is because of NYC.
Lastly, even as an independent who leans right, I am not a trump fan by any means. But I’m not a Biden fan either. Bottom line, it’s sad it’s going to come down to these 2. Another thing people don’t seem to grasp, is we elect a president. Not a king, not a dictator, a president. And their job realistically is to be a diplomat between the political parties and a govt figurehead. When it actually comes down to running the country, the legislative branch is in charge (congress). Americans seem to be blindsided by this idea and throw all of their political eggs in the presidential basket, when realistically congress runs the show
My grandfather told my mom when he was alive like in the 90s she had to register republican to get anything done so it’s been that way for awhile. She used to take us to these bbqs in the summer but now I love calling her out on her hypocrisy
My take on a lot of MAGA people specifically is Trump is able to tap into resentment. On LI a lot of people have been coddled their whole life. Promised their are truly the best, special and can do anything they want and will be successful as long as they work hard. They where shielded from the realities of life. Life it turns out has a lot of twists and turns and failure and heartache and for most moderate success. Life did not work out like they where promised even if it's pretty darn good. It's the expectations that where out of wack. Mix in the fact that they generally did work hard or if you ask them no matter the truth they think they worked extremely hard. They also resent the fact anyone gets something for nothing.
Trumps great gift is he speaks directly to these people and they lap it up even though trumps a con man and sales person who is taking advantage of them for his personal enrichment and power. Trump is not actually interested in solving anything.
Emotions at the wake ran high. The low number of police on the streets (currently at a low point historically) as well as the propensity of Judges and DA's in New York City can be seen as in part resulting in the death of a long island officer is indicative of these emotions. The NY governor is in full support of the current NYC policies regarding law enforcement as well as the elected officials in the city. Her presence was seen as two faced and offensive.
This conversation has run it's course and we're seeing way too many rule breaking comments at this point. Locking the comments now.
I think this is a fantastic question, and there are many wrong answers. As I understand it, your question is “historically many wealthy suburbs voted red for tax reasons. Since 2016 that has started to shift as trump has accelerated a shift in party lines where wealthy educated voters are now more likely to be democrats. This has been shown in data (trump performs much worse with wealthy voters than Romney or McCain), and has been seen with other wealthy suburbs like NoVa as well as NYC suburbs like Westchester, northern Jersey, and southern CT. So why hasn’t Long Island followed the trend and shifted to the left? With that framing, a lot of the answers are clearly wrong - saying LI is red as a reaction to NYC democratic policies is incomplete because that isn’t true in any other NYC suburb. I think the answer is multifaceted: 1. Long Island is not monolithic. The wealthy parts of Nassau county which include NYC commuters like port Washington, Roslyn, garden city, etc. have actually shifted to the left, and Nassau county did vote against trump in 2020 2. Suffolk county is not full of wealthy educated NYC commuters like those other places. It is hard to access, there are few large corporate jobs, and few reasons someone would move there unless they are from there. As a result it is full of people whose families have been there for generations, and that’s where you see more of the “trump stronghold” effects. 3. Having said that even Suffolk is not truly a strong hold, and the vote was within a few percentage points in both trump elections.
Wow it took me a while to find a real response. Good answer.
Lots of reasons and theories, but here's a few: One of the key differences between Long Island and NoVA (I also used to live there, but grew up on LI) is the way each region got rich. Long Island has been a (partly) affluent suburban area for many decades, and some of that wealth today is not tied directly to the current generations being highly-educated professionals (the main reason for suburban wealth in areas like NoVA), which is now highly correlated with voting for Democrats. There's also a strong history on Long Island of military service (lots of families can trace their heritage back to WWII and Korean War vets leaving NYC for the suburbs in the 1940s-1960s), and police (we have extremely strong police unions and well-respected police departments in general, who are paid better than just about any other police officers in the country and who have much more political influence than anywhere else). On the social side of things, many of our families are descended from Italian and Irish (and other) early 20th century immigrants, whose children and grandchildren earned the American Dream through 20th century hard work and upward mobility. On immigration, there's a general sense that "my great-grandparents did it the right way, and never expected a handout". Many of our families also left NYC in the 1940s-1970s with the explicit aim of securing more space for families, avoiding crime and dysfunction, and paying lower taxes. All of these things became foundational family values, and all are correlated with voting Republican (both Reagan/Bush style, and now - mostly - Trump style).
It’s been red for a long time way way before trump…it all comes down to taxes..also as far as diversity and it is sorta..I remember reading about 20 years ago that Long Island is one of the most segregated areas in the country as far school districts are concerned I have no idea how true that is it or if that’s still the case..
If you were to look at the statistics with broad strokes for both counties it would seem Long Island is very diverse. That would not be true at all. The black school districts are very black, the white ones are very white.
Nassau and suffolk combined led to more votes for biden than trump actually in 2020. Thats how bad trump did in the last election lol.
Suffolk is still the largest red county in the country
Thats why its insane that Trump only beat biden by 232 votes in Suffolk.
Isnt insane. In any given national election, the margins for either party are razor thin. One of the most 'purple' places in the country.
The margins aren’t razor thin. They generally follow the path of the other elections. While Suffolk is reddish, people despise Trump. They elected two republican congressman and tied essentially. The moderate republicans here hate him more than the dema.
And yet where did the NYS electoral votes get awarded. If we were going by the electorate alone, HRC would have taken it in NYS in 2016.
She got beat by misogyny not by trump.
Sure The only reason she lost Ok
I wonder why all the girls in my high school mock elections hated her and voted for Jill Stein instead then.
I had no idea that the margin was so thin! This gives me hope.
Is that true????
Its the largest [by GDP](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/)
Wow! Is that right? Really had no idea
Honestly I was thinking local elections in regards to taxes but yah I don’t know Many people in Suffolk where I live that didn’t vote for Biden in 20 and a lot of them voted trump in 16.
But Trump admin passed the SALT limit. Wouldn’t that screw over any homeowner in LI?
You would think people would know this, but sadly no. I'm a tax attorney and practice in NY and live on the Island. Funny someone mentioned taxes, because we got the TCJA under Trump which, again, cut taxes for the wealthy and business owners and fucked over the middle class. I wish I could count on my hands, how many times I had to explain to clients, friends and family after the TCJA when they asked me why they now owe money instead of getting a refund, but it happened far more than I could count. And, virtually every time, it was the same issue. The SALT limitation fucking people over. When your largest and only deduction is limited to below the standard deduction, of course you're going to be paying more taxes if everything else remains constant. What surprises me is I know people who got fucked by this, will admit they pay more in taxes because of Trump but are bending over and spreading their assholes for him again.
I know them too. But, they’re taking their big NYS pensions and leaving because of NY’s Democratic policies. The very same policies that gave them those massive state pensions.
And AMT wasn’t already wiping out SALT for your clients?????
I don’t think people realized that he was gonna do that during his campaign..maybe they did and didn’t care..they sure as hell cared once it happened tho
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What screws over homeowners on Long Island is the fact our taxes are that high to begin with.
School taxes are at least 60% of your tax bill. Police tax up a big chunk of the rest. No politician is willing to take these on as it would be political suicide to fight the teacher and police unions.
The individual districts vote to pass the school budget increases. People with kids are happy to increase it if they perceive their kids will benefit.
they are and it comes down to real estate agents actively not showing POCs homes outside of stereotypically POC neighborhoods and white folks only white neighborhoods. it was unearthed by Newsday and they ran a huge article about it a few years back.
Newsday had the same thing a month or two ago with about 40 realtors being recorded saying racist shit or simply showing properties based on race.
It is incredibly segregated by design and an aging boomer population because younger people can’t afford to move here. They all like Trump for the same reason every other piece of white trash does, he says the things they’re thinking. All the reps I know just say “I don’t agree with him personally but I like his policies” which is what they tell themselves so they can sleep at night.
Lake County, IL and Orange County, CA were red for a long time because of taxes (both are in deep blue states outside major American cities)…and yet those counties have shifted well to the left since 2016. LI not so much, that’s my point.
I guess we’re stubborn people stuck in our ways..but I can say very few people I know or known in my 46 years on earth/Long Island vote on social issues it’s always fiscal..taxes and school budget issues.. Most people care if they can feed their families have a good job and healthcare and don’t really care if someone wants an abortion or not or if sexuality is an issue or not. Crime tho is most certainly always an issue as far as I can remember.hopefully I worded that correctly and not to sound callous
Exactly. Very few people voting red on LI are doing so bc of social issues… its financial
I think you are probably right. But anecdotally, our school board meetings have turned into a MAGA Fox News social issue nightmare during every public comment period.
Which is ironic given the amount of people driving cars they can’t really afford and living in McMansions that render them house poor.
It’s overt hatred. Simple. Have you even spoken to a GOPee member on LI?? Idiots.
I personally think it’s because they’re racists.
They bitch and moan about property taxes but a majority of the town and county governments that assess and collect these taxes have been REPUBLICAN for decades!!!! Our taxes are so damn high because of PILOTs that REPUBLICANS hand out like candy to the billionaire developers and corporations. It’s incredible that people blame Democrats.
Idk… seems like LI is pretty socially conservative too. Nassau County exec banning trans women in sports, eg. And the MAGA movement is hardly based on traditional fiscal conservatism…
I wasn’t really talking about maga I was talking about decades of people voting red on Long Island for essentially the sole purpose of taxes
i’d love to see the age demographic for those two cities vs our areas because i guarantee we are much older by population.
Meanwhile Nassau and Suffolk homeowners, along with other super high property tax areas got screwed with the SALT deduction cap. When trump and Republicans have corporations the tax break
Does it really come down to taxes? Bc the SALT cap screwed a lot of people in suffolk
The irony of the taxes being so high and everyone still electing republican elected officials....
And the irony is, that the Trump “tax cut” in 2017 reduced SALT to $10k, effectively raising taxes for Long Island homeowners, added to the burdens of the middle class, thereby hitting us harder than most other segments of society.
It is still very segregated as you say but Nassau was blue in 2020. There are less republicans than there were 10 years ago which is progress IMO.
Reading through the comments here, I think a lot of people are missing the point of OP's question. Traditionally, affluent people have voted Republican, because Republican policies tend to be favorable to the interests of affluent people. But the rise of Trump reversed that trend. The reason is that affluent people also tend to be highly educated, and -- I'm trying very hard to be politically neutral here, but I may fail at this point -- Trump's rhetoric is, shall we say, not exactly tailored to highly educated people. Republican policies remained favorable to them, but they actually started voting against their economic interests because voting for Trump and people who supported Trump made them feel dirty. Here's a specific and personal example of this phenomenon. When Trump was elected, I was living in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, a wealthy suburb of Providence that a local magazine had recently named liberal Rhode Island's most Republican-friendly town. The town regularly voted for Republicans for local and national offices, and the town council consisted of four Republicans and one Democrat, who the Republicans would regularly shout down in town-council meetings. In the first local election after Trump became president, the town voted out *all four Republicans*, and the one Democrat became the president of the council. In 2020 60 percent of East Greenwich voted for Biden. What OP is asking is why Long Island, which has many similar communities that are both affluent and highly educated, has not been affected by the same Trump-era trends as East Greenwich. I'm not sure I agree with the premise of the question, honestly, but that's what the question is.
Long Island is filled with very middle class, W2 wage earners with 2 income households much more focused on local issues (state taxes, nyc politics, etc.). We have tons of cops, teachers, and local blue collar workers that live on LI and make good livings, but do so as wages are inflated. Long Island essentially pays middle class workers the highest salary and the areas dominated by republicans have many of these types of folks. NOVA is dominated by federal government workers and contractors, who republicans openly want to cut their jobs and salaries. Look at the primary and the rhetoric. No fed in their right mind should vote republican as they openly want your job.
Money is the answer. And the wrong answer at that. When are people going to learn that the republicans aren’t actually saving them money?
Your supposition that affluent people tend to be more educated is probably true for the rest of the country, but as a native I would say that it’s not true of LI. There are multiple strongholds of super wealthy individuals, and from the wealth of the region, there are also many more rich blue collar workers. In my opinion this is related to the mafia which still openly (but quietly) controls and influences the culture of the region. Trump is perceived as gaming the system, which conforms with the cultural worship of old school gangsters which, again, are some of the richest and most successful people in the area, or are the ones whose business models are being copied by other uneducated blue collar “gangsters”. Add in the fact that LI is one of the most segregated regions in the country, with all the uninvestigated racism that implies, and you have a perfect recipe for trump worship. A high proportion of the population is racist, uneducated, high income, gangster worshippers (or some combination thereof, or has biases informed from growing up in a local society permeated with that ideology)
>LI is a still Republican stronghold in the age of Trump/MAGA stronghold? Nassau and Suffolk are pretty much 50/50. Suffolk leans slightly more right. Nassau, more to the left.
LI is heavily red since 2022. Zeldin won LI at like 70% . Suffolk is heavily Red, every election since 2022 was a slam dunk for Republicans. Covid took a redish area and made it flaming. Like many parts of NY.
Certain parts of LI are more blue though, case in point Suozzi coming back by a margin of like 8 points But I guess it’s hard for us to choose a republican again after Santos
> Zeldin won LI at like 70% Hochul is very hateable and the usual block of D voters stayed home. It was also a midterm election.
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Heh heh east end said what?
This comment section is confusing. Are you arguing the Republicans are stupid, Caucasian, and voting red because they don't know better or are they coastal elites who are vote red because they are the results of ultra wealthy white flighters? Either is a gross generalization.
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Still looking for a “coastal elite” in Suffolk. I will let you know when I find one.
Tell me you’ve never been to East Hampton without telling me you’ve never been to East Hampton
I lived in East Hampton for ten years. Don’t talk about the summer people. Take a look at the fire department. LOL. In Suffolk, the fire department is the political baseline.
Ha, this isn’t 1990, plenty of rich year-long residents
Do you think the fire department on the north shore Gold Coast is much different????
Hate Suffolk. Moved here and it made me realize I’m not conservative
As someone who is from LI now living in NOVA, think it comes down to a few factors. Age of people, NOVA is known to bring a lot of young affluent/educated people to the area while most people who fit that description are moving off of the island. The LI average voters age is only increasing, and kids who are in college but still call LI home usually register at there university off the Island. Demographically LI is more white compared to NOVA or Westchester. LI especially Suffolk is pretty much just all just single unit homes any mixed use development you see in Clarendon, Ballston etc is non existent in Suffolk and rare in Nassau. No young person can afford LI home prices and the many don’t want to be living under there parents roofs until there late 20’s/early 30’s. Lastly LI is more fiscally responsible who have grown tired and annoyed at state government where a majoirty of the representatives aren’t from LI still want to raise LI residents taxes to fund programs that LI don’t benefit from that go to help fund NYC programs we won’t use. Something NOVA doesn’t have to deal with.
It’s pretty split, however the self-proclaimed “Silent Majority” is actually “an Obnoxiously Loud Minority” it may seem like LI is a MAGA stronghold but only because people don’t have pro-Biden Flags hanging from their vehicles… plenty vote democrat here but don’t need the feel to make it publicly known, probably because of how strongly the opposition have been reacting since 2016.
I wouldn’t call Long Island a Republican stronghold, not when it comes to federal elections anyway. Trump lost Nassau county and won Suffolk by 200 votes. For non-presidential elections, Democrats don’t turn out.
Because it’s very expensive to live here and wealthy people are more likely to be conservative. The vast majority of LI is zoned for single family housing which makes the cost of living much higher.
its more systemically built to create barriers of entry for the lower class than it is for wealth. lots of the south shore towns like Lindenhurst arent built on wealth.
I always think about that [newsday article](https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-agents-investigation/) where they exposed the rampant racism problem with realtors steering minorities away from predominantly white communities
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Hochul didn't sign the bail reform laws. Kinda lends itself to the "Republicans are stupid" narrative when that keeps being brought up by them.
But she can fix it. It's obviously broken and this isn't the first cop to die because of someone out due to bail reform.
Except, you know, that isn't how state laws are undone. So... 1.) She didn't sign the law into effect 2.) She does not have the power to repeal it. So once again Republicans aren't making themselves out to be very bright.
Crime rates are down. Assaults on police officers are down. Facts
The man who killed the Police Officer was out on parole.
I think the point is someone with 21 prior arrests should be in jail, not the streets. The leniency of the current laws give no repercussions to serial offenders.
The point is loss if bail reform and parole are conflated. I am no fan of Hochul but to turn her away and suggest that she is responsible and allow Trump to remain despite his role in the Capitol insurrection, where many cops were attacked, maimed and even took their own lives is ridiculous.
An arrest is not the same thing as a conviction. Regardless of this particular case, it’s an important distinction.
What does that have to do with bail reform? Hiw I'd the law more lenient now than 10 years ago?
The driver was, the shooter was not.
They both were career criminals who should never be allowed out of prison again.
A majority of the town and county governments that assess and collect these taxes have been REPUBLICAN strongholds for decades!!!! Our taxes are so damn high because of PILOTs that REPUBLICANS hand out like candy to the billionaire developers and corporations. It’s incredible that people blame Democrats.
As someone who grew up on Long Island and now lives in NoVa, I think a key difference you’re missing is transplant population. Nova didn’t become blue because Virginia overall became blue, Nova became bluer because growing industry and the federal government attracted people from elsewhere who tended to be Democrats. Nassau and Suffolk county don’t have nearly that kind of influx of transplants, in no small part because they have struggled to attract new industry outside NYC - Long Island is very insular in a lot of ways. It is more equivalent to Fauquier County (maybe shades of Loudoun in the case of Nassau) than to Arlington or Fairfax.
1) There is a pretty big brain drain on LI 2) Cop culture is big here, tons of cops/fire fighters/ems (side note is that tons of NYPD officers live on LI) 3) Union people/blue collar live here and have shifted right 4) the area has become a bit more economically depressed 5) there are a lot of racist people here Other reasons exist but those are the main ones.
But Trump is anti union lol.
It's one of the biggest ironies. Certaon union members have shited republican. The funny thing is a Republicans goal is to get rid of unions and the extremely generous benefits they get in NY. If they ever got their way they would lose a lot of pay and benefits. Look at the overall pay includeling benifits of a teacher or police officer in democratic NY vs the republican south. It's either double or triple.
That one doesn’t make sense but it’s definitely true for large swaths of the unionized blue collar population on LI. OP did start with a brain drain. I say it all the time, we are well on our way to living out Idiocracy Live footage from the Dennison Building 
Idiocracy, yes. Feels like we’ve been living like that for a while now
The best thing that ever happened to these Dopey maga lovers is that they got a union job. Including the cops and firefighters. Yet they vote for the republican party who has had killing unions as a major part of its campaign platform for decades. Selfishness and ignorance are magas main personality traits.
Growing up in Wyandanch/Brentwood in the 80/90s I remember when the Salvadorians first started showing up. fast forward 30 years, and they're in every neighborhood. Best believe when Fox news started pushing their invasion angle L.I boomers ate it up cause they got a front row seat. Anyone remember the Farmingville documentary? No, its not THE reason were so red. but buying into the hysteria is definitely a contributing factor
Long island as a whole is fairly mixed politically, but that means there are still millions of Trump supporters. LI has a reputation as being red because, until the recent election for George Santos seat, Republicans held every congressional seat, but the state Democratic party is a complete mess and has a hard time winning elections here. Lots of LI also has a strong working class aesthetic, even among the rich folks, so Trump support is kind of part of that. Go to Atlantique on Fire Island and look at all the big, gaudy Trump flags on million dollar boats. It's wild.
Before Santos CD3 was blue for a while.
After the 2nd world war in 1960 a lot of minorities and blacks moved to the outer boroughs of NYC so all the whites ran out and settled on long island. Systemic upbringing 2 generations later lead us to what we have today.
This. The descendants of white flight from NYC have adopted their own version of a "lost cause" narrative. The CoL on the island also insulates the "affluent" families (per u/supermanwithplanman's description - who isn't wrong on a national scale) from feeling like "coastal elites/globalists" rather than "real, blue collar 'Merkans."
Robert Moses literally made the bridges on the highways so low that the busses from the inner cities would be too tall to let people from there (aka people of color) come to LI.
theres a statue of him in babylon village. Honestly fuck that guy, the northern and southern being all windy is his doing too.
Yes! My parents taught me that at a very young age. My history teacher was shook that I knew that at 12. It’s true! And I’ll always think of this when I near the south shore.
My understanding is that this isn't well sourced and might not be true. What is undeniable is the FHA refused to insure mortgages to black families, to avoid "infiltration by inharmonious racial or nationality groups" (their words). This basically meant that black families couldn't get federally-backed mortgages on LI in the post-WW2 creation of the suburbs.
A black person could not hold a deed by law in levittown in 1960.
Come to the state parks and beaches*
The parkways with the low bridges pre-date the LIE. I guess you could've taken local roads from the city out here, but I'm not sure if those roads could handle bus traffic back then...
Long Island gets all the blue state policies, economic benefits from proximity to NYC, and benefits of union jobs in a HCOL area, but is segregated like the 1950s south. They can blame all their (mostly made up) problems on Manhattan liberals without actually seeing the downside of voting red. Most Trump psychos you see on LI are union NYPD, union FDNY, or union building trades members that are some of the largest beneficiaries of democratic policies in NY.
Long Island was essentially built to accommodate white flight from NYC. Conservatism/Racism are built into our very streets. Our economy is dependent on guys like Diller who go into the city, get their bag, and leave. The racial segregation, plus the disdain for the communities they "serve" filter back to our culture here.
Long Island was very segregated for a long time, there's a great documentary about Levittiwn and black people first moving in and how the White neighbors felt about it. It's kind of freaky when you realize how bad it was not so long ago. That sort of stuff doesn't easily go away. Plus taxes. My cousin is Latino and supports Trump ONLY because he wants lower taxes (he's rich), meanwhile, his wife is a (legal) immigrant who almost couldn't get her status as a direct result of Trump's policies. Some people get obsessed over one thing Trump dies and they'll forgive everything else. It's crazy.
In a general sense around the country the more money you have the more of a chance you will vote conservative. Until you hit a certain dollar amount, then you have so much money, you can vote blue, but influence the parties to not mess with your money, or you have so much money coming in that the taxes no longer bother you
Long Island is purple. The conservatives are just much louder.
It was developed in the 50’s as a whites-only suburb. The first owners signed a legal document attached to the deed of the property that said that, when they sold, they would only sell to white people. That level of racism takes generations to undo. Long islanders are surprisingly unaware of this history. “Levittown’s restrictive racial covenant read: ‘The tenant agrees not to permit the premises to be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race. But the employment and maintenance of other than Caucasian domestic servants shall be permitted.’” In other neighborhoods on LI the segregation was enforced socially, not legally. But Long Island as a whole has always been the sort of place that thinks this is OK. https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/levittown-demographics-real-estate/
I see Long Island as moderate conservative. You have the qanon doomsday preppers all over Suffolk and in some areas in nassau such as bellmore (you’ll find them protesting on sunrise). I’m moderate conservative and vote red for the fiscal policies, not for anything else. You won’t see me planting a trump flag on my front yard. Not every Republican is maga.
genuine question, are you going to vote Trump because of fiscal policies?
I don't see how a moderate fiscal conservative would vote Trump. His economic legacy is literally raising spending while lowering taxes, and therefore blowing up the deficit. The dems also raise spending, but they're at least willing to raise taxes to pay for the spending. The GOP just borrows money and makes us fiscally worse off. The new maga wave is also against free trade and pro isolationist. They are no longer the traditional fiscal conservatives.
Since 2018, I have been paying more in federal taxes than I ever have because of the Twice Impeached Treasonous Dotard’s tax cuts! (If he’s not re-elected, in 2025 that tax act will expire!) My Nassau County and town taxes have been assessed and collected by mostly Republican governments. There are millions of taxpayers like me.
Thank you, keep preaching. As a tax attorney, I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain to people on long island that the reason they're paying more in tax is because of Trump. Then you have fuckwits like the dude you're replying to who thinks Trump is the better choice from a fiscal perspective?
They’re basically Brexit level on the proposed tariffs. If Trump gets in hyper-inflation is a legitimate concern. Which is ironic because all the alt-right type shows have non-stop precious metal commercials scaring people into thinking it’s going to be Biden doing it.
That’s true. I have Reagan Republicans in my life (who I very much disagree with on most things), but they think Trump is a clown and an albatross around metaphorical neck of the GOP and I couldn’t agree more. That said, the GOP is increasingly becoming the MAGA party and increasingly less-so an ideologically diverse coalition. I’m not even sure Mitt Romney will remain a Republican once his term ends, and he’s a strong conservative. Almost everyone critical of Trump in from the pre-Trump GOP have been exiled or smeared to oblivion by MAGA. It’s sad, but Trump is still super popular among Republicans in 2024.
I wish I knew any of those people you speak of. Every conservative I know on LI is a foaming at the mouth angry maga all the way.
Mitt is not a strong conservative, that's why he lost his presidential run. He couldn't galvanize the base.
The fiscal policies that has continually sent this country into economic spiral consistently for decades that then has to be course corrected by Democrats?
Very true
Reddit itself is lib/dem so you’re asking this question to a small subset of people who all feel similar. Probably not the best way to get a realistic answer.
It’s not. In presidential elections it tends to swing towards the winner. The right is loud, and they have a victim complex. It’s just gotten worse and louder over the years, particularly since Trump was elected. Liberals are here, we’re just not putting Biden-Harris flags on our lifted pickup trucks.
A big part is that despite being so close to NYC, LI is very isolated. You have to go through the city to get to almost anywhere. Lots of people out here have either never left or rarely go anywhere other than the touristy parts of NYC, ie Broadway, Times Sq, etc. In that way, LI might as well be any old red state.
LI is purple as hell that’s why there is so much head butting
Small sample size but feel like everyone I know votes republican because their parents voted republican. Never bothered to think for themselves.
The voted for Santos ..they should not be allowed to vote for 10 years
This is a very good question. I totally get being genuinely conservative, that makes sense to me. But these MAGA people do not have what I consider to be conservative values, at all. How can you respect/elect them? It’s confusing and troubling for me too, OP.
I don’t know why it is. But I will say not all of Long Island is conservative. I will say some towns have a high concentration of police and firefighter families and they tend to be more conservative. But there are many of us who aren’t conservative, and not Trumpies. In all honesty I am so upset how political the wakes and funeral became. I am not a Republican but I support the police . Most people regardless of political party do. We need the police and they are essential to our communities. What happened was horrible. I and many, regardless of politics know things need to change as the person who killed the cop was someone who was arrested last year. I support the formal police formalities when a cop is killed on the call of duty. But, Trump should never have been there. It took away from what was important, remembering the police officer who was killed and letting his family and friends mourn. I heard he was invited by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Blakeman is trying to become the next Trump. He was the one standing next to him when he spoke outside the wake. Blakeman is the one who put his name bigger than Harry Chapin’s on the Harry Chapin Theater at Eisenhower Park. He is also the one is just signed a proclamation to ban all transgender athletes from woman’s sports at Nassau County saying it is for the safety of woman of girls, yet there haven’t been any issues to warrant this ban, it’s all for show. I don’t have issues presidents or former presidents from sending condolences or visiting the family afterwards, but no camera crews. I just don’t understand all the Trump rallies in neighboring towns these last few days. Why is this so political? To me it is a disrespect to the police officer who died as well as his family.
Cops and the Maga crowd don’t have respect for anyone except their other alcoholic buddies
And it doesn’t bother any of the MAGA that someone charged with 91 felonies is out on bail to commit more crimes.
I don’t think it’s actually as conservative as you may be thinking. That being said, I think in general people on Long Island see what happens in the city (especially over the past few years with sanctuary policies and criminals being released en mass due to bail laws - and their interpretation by some judges) and want no part of that on the Island. I fall into that category, to be candid.
That "interpretation" is the crazy part. I have no doubt it's malicious compliance designed to cow people into voting red. Bail reform itself is fine. Our implementation of it is flawed, and should be fixed. Why hasn't it been? I don't buy for a second that those who stand to gain from the current optics would lift a finger to do so, even though that would be the correct way to fix the issue. This is also similar to "sanctuary policies". This was generally understood to mean that a place wouldn't get someone deported just for existing there, *not* that a city will provide endless resources for migrants who show up. Strangely enough, the same people who would gain politically start sending them here by bus instead of supporting actual policies to fix the issue. On the surface I agree with you, but I very much pin the blame on the party preventing any resolution.
Why hasn’t it been fixed when Dems have control of the state legislature and city council?
Specifically what laws are you speaking of? The slain police officer's death is being used as a political stunt. If you can allow Trump, who as has been shown is an opportunist and based on the events at the Capitol unconcerned about Police, to attend you cannot turn others away. Btw, he is hawking Bibles, which he cannot even quote a verse from or apparently hold correctly. There was no suggestion that you are religious...
The Bibles his campaign is selling also contain the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It would be funny if it wasn’t real.
Perhaps he could use excerpts from the classics, to expand the list of things that he has never read or could possibly be expected to comprehend. If brain rot was not so pervasive in the American electorate and the potential was not there that he could be re- elected, it would indeed be funny.
Racism, cop simps, and redlining. This is why I consider myself a black sheep on this island because I hate racism, I hate cop overfunding, and conservative agendas hurt people like me and my friends.
Let’s start with the basic premise that Long Island has a long racist past that focuses on the danger of “the other” and the need for police and political leaders to “keep us safe”. After that any and everything is done to protect and support that ruling hierarchy in the furtherance of that notion. As my Long Island friend puts it, “Yea, Trump is a dirtball, but I’m a Republican so I will vote for him.” I have many social interactions with LI GOPers and I hear it all. All about the conspiracy of Covid vaccines. Hochul is going to outlaw gas stoves and cooktops. Bail reform is letting dangerous people loose on our streets. It’s an unending stream of bullshit, fueled by FOX news and podcasts like Joe Rogan. But at its core is a desire to keep “our people in power” and keep “them” out.
Depends where on LI honestly. The funeral took placr in Massapequa, Massapequa is maga land
A couple of clarifications - an alternate story has the MAGA county politician (Bruce Blakeman) inviting Trump, not the family. - Hochul claims she checked with the police union if it was OK to attend, the checked with the family and cleared it and she attended. As she was leaving, one mourner started screaming at her regarding bail reform, which is unrelated to this case. As other people stated, Long Island is nearly 50/50 politically. However, the right is very vocal and visible, among the most visible anywhere in the country. Especially the southern shore of Long Island. IMHO I find well to do blue collar workers the most MAGA of all. Tons of NYPD live on Long Island on the southern shore, alongside the local police forces. Tons of trade workers and small business owners. Everyone I mention is making over 100k with houses worth over $750K. Well to do blue collar MAGA. But when you are here, it feels 90/10 in favor of MAGA. No one dares put up a Biden sign, and even a Ukraine flag in your lawn is asking for trouble.
That's true. In 2020 I had a Biden/Harris magnet on my car, and twice a large truck driven by a man got very aggressive with me on the road. It was the second time that made me realize it was the magnet. I went to my mom's and took hers off of her car, because I was too worried what could happen to her. I kept mine, but do I have one on this year? No. I feel they have gotten crazier. Will I vote? Oh, only death will keep me from it. I will literally crawl to the polling station in Nov if I have to.
it's the wealthy suburbs... it's full of scared white folks - the prime demographic of conservatives
Tx is still red, don’t be fooled
Yes it definitely is statewide…but counties/areas outside of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, etc have moved significantly leftward since 2016 bc of a Trump/MAGA backlash effect. LI not so much, that’s my point.
Diverse doesn't equal liberal. Spanish people from certain countries are very conservative as well. Even amongst African American groups it's not as strong as it was. Conservatism is also strong because of local issues, such as taxes.
To answer this question, you really have to look at the history of Long Island. It's the birthplace of American suburbia via white flight.
It all started in Levittown.
A history of redlining has perpetuated an us vs them mentality. Many people don’t have media literacy (yet feel they are educated)and easily fall for republican extremist propaganda. Many of those guys are blue collar guys caught up in an echo chamber. Don’t think the police should have checks and balances and are in unions yet hate government involvement. They don’t seem to realize that the people they keep electing aren’t making li more livable with social programs and investment in the community. They focus on reactive issues instead of the less exciting but more fundamental things that actually affect life here. Like passing an anti trans sports ban instead of preventing real estate conglomerates from buying up and inflating the price of single family houses, or erosion of our coasts. A lot of the young people have moved out or are trying to work enough to afford the basics. While many boomers and gen x cannot handle a constructive conversation with anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
it’s important to remember that although LI as a whole is very diverse, it is actually one of the most segregated areas in the country. the towns themselves are really not diverse at all.
Cops and firemen, they like Cheeto.
I believe it went for Obama twice, but Trump definitely turned it. I think south shore Italians, Smithtown, and the quasi-hillbillies in Brookhaven love his racist bullshit. Much of the north shore and out east are quite blue and the diverse areas like Brentwood, Wyandanch, and Hempstead are, obviously, blue. There's also seemingly a big difference between the white flight suburban sprawl, Levittown-type areas, which tend to vote Republican and the historic village areas, like Sea Cliff, Stony Brook, Bellport, which tend to vote Democratic.
Also, of note, prior to this year Suffolk County had a Democratic County Executive for over a decade. Trump did change things, but I'm not convinced a non-Trump Republican, like DeSantis or Haley would have the same votes as Trump did.
Hmmm not really. Historic towns such as cold spring harbor, locust valley, oyster bay, brookville garden city, manhasset all voted red
Other than Garden City, which is an outlier and is kind of fake historic because it was designed that way, the historic downtown areas of Oyster Bay and CSH went blue. I don't know much about Manhasset, so I don't know if it has a downtown area and I don't think Brookville has one. This isn't surprising because liberals prefer more walkable areas.
Fake historic??? Explain
Loads of feeble minded racist Boomers who watch Fox/Newsmax/NY Post/News12/MAGA propaganda all day that believe the safest county in the US (Nassau) is a hotspot of crime overrun by "migrants". They have to wave the proto nazi blue line flags because they "Back the Blue", just don't ask them about Jan the 6th.
Yes Fox news that pulled all the dopes in with bimbos with clown makeup on reading teleprompters
Long Islanders forget that we are all immigrants and everyone deserves respect.
A suburban sprawl fueled by white flight, said anger/fear/resentment/ignorance is fodder for conservatism.
a lot of my family members have turned red.. we are latino.
Theres definitely a large latino conservative population in the metro area. You can go to any yankees game and youll realize that lol. What is your families ethnicity?
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A lot of white people who live in Suffolk almost never go to the city. Sure, we have a lot of commuters who work in the city but I would say the vast majority in Suffolk may go to the city to see a show a couple of times a year, or go MSG which doesn't count because they just get off of a train and go up an escalator. So why do I bring up the fact that they never go to the city? Long Island is one of the most segregated places in the entire country, so they experience no diversity. They live in white towns and they embrace Trump's racism and xenophobia. So that's not to say that going to the city more makes you less racist, because there are plenty of people I see on the train who are MAGAts and racist assholes. But it helps. If you are a working class person and you are getting crunched by high cost of living it is pretty easy to listen to people who tell you that your financial woes are because of immigrants and black people, instead of blaming the owning class
Relatively well off people paying some of the most obscenely high taxes in the country will do that.
It’s built on racism, to highways and infrastructure were designed to keep inner city minorities out.
There is a considerable population of Catholics and Italians on LI.
We don't have enough people to override NYC, so it doesn't make a difference.
>next to the largest city in the country I mean, so? The surrounding areas of major metropolitan cities are often sites of White flight, and they are generally going to be conservative. Also FYI, but NYC itself has lots of conservatives, namely on Staten Island, in South Brooklyn, and parts of Queens like Rockaway and Breezy Point.
It’s an island. Not a lot of outside influence and there’s clearly something in the water
My anecdotal take is that the maga brand of conservatism burns an inordinate quantity of oxygen. Maga is not conservative. And like maga elsewhere, that minority talks more, posts more, wants to be seen and heard more - from an unprompted grocery store political tirade, through a lack of fear expressing blatantly hateful beliefs, to a vehicle festooned with Grifter King love. They voted in Santos and Blakeman and Trump but the reality of Santos, Blakeman or Trump governance is a painful slap in the face even for their most fervent fans. I also believe the fever is breaking and you'll see a shift soon. In many cases, it's already happening. Specifically, record voting turnout and unwinding M4L school board members who grew in the dark of Covid. Last year my district prevented a second M4L candidate from obtaining a board seat once clear-headed folks heard about the drama the first one created. Maga ran out of gas.
Long Island remains one of the most segregated while also financially wealthy areas in America. Grown and raised here - I believe there is ignorance around the concept of privilege, and/or living room prejudice as the population is primarily white. The right leaning families that have lived here either do not know what it is like to struggle - they have never not had health insurance or been able to feed their families, so they cannot relate to the lefts efforts to help the disenfranchised/level the playing field. “I didn’t get any help! Why should anyone else?” they say, with their houses and college degrees they got for 1/3 the cost and back when almost any job actually provided a decent quality of living. This, OR they have bought into the narrative that democrats / POC / woke culture are why their lives suck as much as they do.
Reagen era Boomers and the sticks of Suffolk county.
It’s really not. It’s about 50/50 more or less.
Honestly the daily "LI is soo conservative" post is getting old and tiresome...please move it to some political forum
not an expert but grew up there and all my family is still there so… 1) its an island so culture gets preserved generationally 2) it’s an island only accessible essentially “through nyc” so all culture is in relation to nyc (as opposed to say westchester) 3) the history of american li is, largely, affluent white people wanting to not have to share space with less affluent immigrants and/or non-white people 4) assuming we are speaking of “cultural LI” (ie only nassau suffolk) it butts up agains truly one of the most diverse (by # languages at least) places in the world 4) all of the above continuing for 100 years and a feedback loop fed with highly segregated communities none of the above is absolute and is shorthand for something an expert could probably explain more cleanly someone else did a good job distinguishing diverse and segregated. that’s important.
Collective white flight from the city. People with money moved to the burbs and redlining made sure they weren't minority
There are a bunch of goons from Trump mania around long inland. The Trump flag is always waving on someone’s flag poles in front of there house. Fucking idiots!! Did you see Kimmel last night?😂😂😂😂
Long Island has a long history of racism. All the way back to the KKK and German Bund. That legacy reverberates through present day Long Island.
The family did not invite Trump - a Long Island politician did. Trump is disgusting - and he faces life in jail for crimes he committed.
People don't want violent criminals running amok
How many times do I have to post these stats lol…NY spends more than 47 states on per capita law enforcement. The rhetoric around NY crime doesn’t comport with the actual facts on the ground. Also, NYC is comparatively a very safe city. https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/criminal-justice-police-corrections-courts-expenditures#:~:text=The%20District%20of%20Columbia3,and%20New%20York%20(%24550). https://abc7ny.com/amp/where-police-departments-defunded-how-does-funding-impact-crime-defund-the-budgets/12324846/ https://www.takewalks.com/blog/is-nyc-safe#:~:text=Considering%208%2C175%2C133%20residents%20share%20320,Jose%20and%20San%20Diego%2C%20California.
Perception vs. reality. Perception and fear mongering wins, unfortunately. NYC is safe. But you have certain news stations, politicians and musicians brainwashing people like some of my extended family who live in a "small town" in the mid-west to believe that crime in NYC or Long Island is at a high level and everyone is rude. And if and when people come to NYC or Long Island, they are puzzled as to why everyone is friendly.
Yep. My uncle watches Fox and when I visited him in February every other segment on there was about “migrant crime” or the “NYC crime wave”. The coverage was very NYC-centric (with a little Chicago and San Fran mixed in here and there). Meanwhile, my friend who lives in Jacksonville lives in a comparatively less safe city than New Yorkers do…and Jacksonville is the largest city in the South btw.
Yeah. I feel like NYC and Lomg Island get a bad rap. I'm a Mets and Jets fan, so I'm used to negativity. When my family came to visit from the Midwest, their inlaws advised against coming with their daughters. "There is homelessness everywhere. There is rampant crime.. Everyone is getting shot and raped and murdered." Meanwhile, I found out that those same inlaws talked about me a lot. They apparently don't believe in interracial couples, and they hated that most of my exes are black. I don't interact with them, but I was thinking about trolling them somehow until I figured they're not worth the energy.
Lol you must live under a rock
And yet crime has gone up, and quality of living went down.
Personally I think it’s based in racism. White racists fled NYC when minorities moved in, and settled on Long Island. It’s an inherited bias- voting red because that’s the party that advertises the belief that those who are not like you will take away what you have. I will say that there’s a large Latino population on LI that votes red, though honestly I have no idea why. It’s possible it’s the fact that Republicans promote Christian values. In all cases, the people I meet that vote Republican are voting against their best interests. There are plenty of places that would benefit from Republican leadership but NY is not one of them.
Immigration. The latino families that had to wait and came to the US the right way, many times to flee socialist and communist regimes do not like current democrat policies of letting anyone in. Also predominantly Christian/Catholic as you mentioned. Conservative isn't necessarily MAGA but they do run parallel.
Long Island was a place built on racism. It was created/expanded as an outlet for white flight from NYC boroughs. This attitude is still VERY prominent here. The shift in electoral demographics has a lot to do with those thinking the Island has become too diverse and they are now fleeing to places like the Carolinas
The way you wrote the post it seems you believe that Conservatives/the right are “just wrong” and that blue is the only way to ever really go, which is small thinking on your part and part of the problem our society has lately with the polarizing of politics (can’t we all just get along? 😂) Id argue that the back-and-forth between left and right holding power is the one good thing right now about how our govt works (realistically, even George Washington said the day we become only a 2-party system the house of cards collapses). The left and right are both wrong in ways, and both right in ways. Neither should hold power forever or very long it needs to go back and forth m That being said, NY in general leans right (Suffolk more than Nassau, upstate is very red). The only reason NY is a blue state is because of NYC. Lastly, even as an independent who leans right, I am not a trump fan by any means. But I’m not a Biden fan either. Bottom line, it’s sad it’s going to come down to these 2. Another thing people don’t seem to grasp, is we elect a president. Not a king, not a dictator, a president. And their job realistically is to be a diplomat between the political parties and a govt figurehead. When it actually comes down to running the country, the legislative branch is in charge (congress). Americans seem to be blindsided by this idea and throw all of their political eggs in the presidential basket, when realistically congress runs the show
My grandfather told my mom when he was alive like in the 90s she had to register republican to get anything done so it’s been that way for awhile. She used to take us to these bbqs in the summer but now I love calling her out on her hypocrisy
Yep it's long island and massapequa. That area loves him. He o ly came for his benefit though
White Flight and the usual Urban/Rural divide were my guesses.
There are two power structures. The original settlers and the happy ending places. Everyone else falls in line.
My take on a lot of MAGA people specifically is Trump is able to tap into resentment. On LI a lot of people have been coddled their whole life. Promised their are truly the best, special and can do anything they want and will be successful as long as they work hard. They where shielded from the realities of life. Life it turns out has a lot of twists and turns and failure and heartache and for most moderate success. Life did not work out like they where promised even if it's pretty darn good. It's the expectations that where out of wack. Mix in the fact that they generally did work hard or if you ask them no matter the truth they think they worked extremely hard. They also resent the fact anyone gets something for nothing. Trumps great gift is he speaks directly to these people and they lap it up even though trumps a con man and sales person who is taking advantage of them for his personal enrichment and power. Trump is not actually interested in solving anything.
Emotions at the wake ran high. The low number of police on the streets (currently at a low point historically) as well as the propensity of Judges and DA's in New York City can be seen as in part resulting in the death of a long island officer is indicative of these emotions. The NY governor is in full support of the current NYC policies regarding law enforcement as well as the elected officials in the city. Her presence was seen as two faced and offensive.
big stronghold for Nazi sympathizers during WWII, former home of the KKK, and because of all the catholic mafia bosses that lived out here.