Agreed that people’s view’s do not always fit neatly into categories.
For many people, voting for candidates who are pro-choice is the best way to protect one’s own family. YMMV.
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There’s a very good analysis in the Washington Post by county. The way to read the graph is to that X axis represents the % of people that wanted to restrict abortion rights, and the Y axis represents the % of people in that county that voted Republican in the last election.
When it comes to abortion rights, every county is to the left of the diagonal, meaning that this was not just a shift in a few counties, but in every county towards protecting the right to abortion.
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Yes, I know many peeps who have become single issue voters in the last couple of months.
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For most people protecting ones’ family is a multi level, changing, and personal decision tree. And yes YMMV.
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That’s very interesting, thank you for the post.
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Note also that this demonstrates how politicians can get “out of touch” (on various issues, not limited to abortion) by listening to noisy single issue voters in primaries, although the “out of touch”-ness may only be revealed when the issue is isolated on the ballot, rather than packaged with others in the form of politicians. However, not all states will have issues like abortion isolated on the ballot.
Regarding college students considering going to college in Kansas, while abortion is legal, access to it may be more limited than in some other states, according to sites like Kansas - Center for Reproductive Rights , so a student considering state laws on the subject when choosing a college still needs to consider whether the existing (and possible laws within state constitutional limits) laws are acceptable.
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I’ve always thought that party primaries produce strange candidates on both dudes of the aisle.
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This vote in Kansas is a good thing for neighboring states such as Missouri. So maybe school in neighboring states can be considered.
I wouldn’t say that I am pro abortion but rather that I’m pro women having the right to choose what’s best for them.
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I’m more conservative than liberal, but I will not vote for candidates that are trying to kill me or my daughter. This rabid extremism is a miss for conservatives. People who do not understand basic anatomy and physiology should not be writing medical policy. I am a religious person, but many of my Republican friends are not, they fall more into the categories of libertarian and business minded voters. They’re largely horrified by what’s transpiring. I am definitely rethinking college choices, where we’ll retire, etc… based on all of this. Good for Kansas. I do not believe most of these laws would withstand voters’ scrutiny.
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It looks like Michigan might be a choice to put on college lists
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I just heard/read about this data point:
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There’s a bit of sobering history here that should temper the joy/relief felt by pro-choice folks. In Mississippi in 2011 the voters rejected a so-called personhood amendment (iow, abortion ban). That ended with Dobbs. Legislators don’t always listen to their voters.
So just because Kansans rejected this, don’t necessarily assume that the state (and colleges) will be “safe” for your students.
https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1554651493965373440
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That’s why it is important to vote for legislators who represent your views.
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One difference, besides Kansas and Mississippi being different states of course, is that yesterday’s result is/was the first, post-Dobbs, where prior, abortion was legal in all 50 states.
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Based on your previous posts I don’t think you meant to communicate this message, but that saying implies vindictiveness by a woman. At least as I’ve always understood it.
I DO NOT think standing up for any woman’s right to personal healthcare is vindictive on the part of women. I hope other “banned” states, mine included, send the same loud and clear message as Kansas when we get the chance.
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I edited my earlier post to remove the offending language.
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Of course, politicians are packages of views; it is rare that any one politician will match your views exactly, so you have to choose which views matter to you more. Before Dobbs, there were more single-issue voters against abortion being legal (and usually more toward the “no exceptions” viewpoint) than there were single-issue voters for abortion being legal, and the former were noisy and influential in primaries, especially in highly gerrymandered districts where the general election result was a foregone conclusion. After Dobbs, the nature of single-issue voting regarding abortion may change.
Beyond that, many state legislatures are highly gerrymandered to be effectively one-party state legislatures (and where legislators’ only real competitive elections may be in primaries), even if statewide elections are competitive.
Students going to college with interest in political activism may want to consider in which states the political activism is likely to make a desired difference.
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Im socially liberal and pro-choice but I highly doubt people in certain states will see a huge drop off in college applications. Ill use Texas as an example.
Do people really think kids will stop applying to CS/Engineering/McCombs school of business at Texas or a bunch of STEM kids moving off Rice?
Baylor, SMU, TCU, Texas A&M are all conservative universities.
The majority of Texas schools get their kids from Texas and most could care less if there were literally zero liberal applicants from CA, Mass, NJ or NY.
Kids from Smith would probably never go to any of those schools anyways.
I think some posters will be surprised when it doesnt move the needle at all despite their own moral outrage.
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FWIW, we EMPHATICALLY disagree.
Kansas gives some hope. Let’s see.
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Which schools in Texas do you feel will see a huge drop?
Im only using Texas because Im from Texas originally so I understand the culture very well.
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