Ed Kilgore sent me to this new PPP Georgia survey, which asked the following musical question:
Q14 Do you consider yourself to be a Georgia or
Georgia Tech fan, or are you not a fan of either
school?
Survey says…
Georgia 40%
…………………………………………………..
Georgia Tech 17%
…………………………………………..
Not a fan of either school
43%
If you crawl into the weeds a little bit by checking out the crosstabs, you’ll see that major party political affiliation didn’t matter – both Democrats and Republicans favor Georgia over Tech. The only political group that favored Tech was the one composed of people who voted third party or couldn’t remember who they voted for in the last presidential election. Which makes complete sense, when you think about it.
Get The Picture 
Glad to see COFH unites us!
To paraphrase:
This is not a red state or a blue state, but a red-and-black state!!!
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There is no way 17% of all Georgians are Tech fans. My guess is closer to 5%.
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My impression is that it’s largely confined to the Atlanta area. But most Georgians do live near Atlanta.
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Chi Square test or it didn’t happen!
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Not sure why 3rd party going to Tech makes “complete sense” – believe that has to do more with sample size than anything. Judging from the comments at GTP, I would be surprised if I was the only one around here who voted Libertarian in November, especially in a state where Romney had the election locked up in double digits…
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+100
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I believe there was a semi-nationwide poll like this a few weeks ago, I think in The Wall Street Journal. Basically, they put the 2 biggest teams in each state i.e. us and Tech, Florida and Florida State, Texas and ATM “heads up”, and measured their fans on various characteristics (age, party affiliation, etc.). Nothing really surprising in any of it. (And Cosmic, I can assure you you weren’t the only one to vote Libertarian….)
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The real question is how many Georgia State Panther fans are out there. I’m guessing Curry made a real dent in fandom over the last couple of years.
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40% Georgia fans helps explain the 49.9999% who want to fire Mark Richt.
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Tech may have 8-10% of the state’s football fans, I wouldn’t be surprised Alabama, Florida, and Auburn each have as many.
Wish there really was a strong 3rd party, might make the other two move off the extremes and gove this country a chace to survive the crisis situation we are facing.
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A lot of folks in the South are Libertarians awaiting a viable candidate imo.
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Define what you mean by a “viable candidate”.
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I hope you are right, but I think a lot of folks in the south are simply GOP homers, neither fiscal conservatives regarding military spending, corporate cronyism, tariffs, drug wars, etc – nor champions of civil liberties.
Re-electing Chamblis and Isakson after those stinkbugs voted for the bailouts blew my doors off and made me realize just what a battle this will be. If Team Red said they wanted to declare war on Canada to free the French they would still carry Georgia in a landslide.
Re: the Senator’s comment, I thought Gary Johnson was viable, ie with more money and a (much) better campaign organization I thought his personal story, policy positions, articulation of his views, “regular joe” demeanor, etc, would have been very appealing to a lot of voters.
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I meant, “Re your concern about Gary Johnson’s viability”, not the Senator’s comment.
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Could not disagree more, it is exactly the opposite. The majority of Republican voters I have ever met are staunchly conservative on fiscal principles and strong security positions. The majority of Democrats I encounter actually favor most of those stances but are blinded a single, passionate issue that overrides all else (abortion, unions, gay rights, etc.)
I was not referring to a single candidate vote, there needs to be a moderate party alternative to bring about change. Candidates today must accept the national parties’ positions and ignore the preferences of their constituents. This wasn’t always the case, and I feel it is why we are now so divided and only have extreme options.
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Could not disagree more. The GOP are nearly as spend-happy as their counterparts across the aisle, they just have slightly different constituencies.
When a sitting Republican president (Bush) and half his party in congress, including the GOP nominee (McCain) agree to spend $700 billion bailing out private companies on the backs of taxpayers, or pass a $400 billion prescription drug bill, or continue the centralization of education through programs like No Child Left Behind, or continue to spend billions fighting a drug war for which there is zero Constitutional authority, and they continue to defend loopholes in the tax code for special interests, then no, I’m sorry, I do not see them as fiscal conservatives.
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As for needing a party of moderation, I disagree. The so-called extremes of both sides may have some ideas I don’t like, but they are the only elements that fight for our individual liberty. Our so-called moderates are the aimless political animals who give curtsies to corporatism and use the government as a means to distribute political capital to 51% while eroding the liberties of the 49% – with any given argument, you may find your personal liberty on one side or that percentage or the other, but the net effect is a loathsome candy snatch of power, money, and votes.
We need staunch, old-school liberals who will truly stand up for civil liberties and who we may hope can be convinced about economic liberties, and staunch old-school conservatives who will fight for economic liberties and who we may hope can be convinced about civil liberties.
If they were alive today, conservative Goldwater would be shocked about the erosion of our *civil liberties*, and liberal Kennedy would be shocked about our reckless *fiscal policy*. That these arch-rivals would be near-allies in this current era, and in opposition to almost everything this congress stands for, ought to give us real pause.
I have had all I can stomach from these “moderates”.
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There is a place for Libertarians: either Washington State or Colorado.
You can smoke all the dope you want legally.
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