The shooter was 12 when Trump was first elected. archive

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    This isn’t as easy as it seems. Apparently it’s not uncommon to register to vote in a closed primary like PA for the opposite party you prefer in order to dilute the vote for the candidate you don’t like by voting for the person running against them in the party. So he may be a “registered republican voter”, but that may be as a minor act of sabotage rather than his real politics.

    E: what’s up with the rebuttals? “Yeah it happens but not really”? So it happens, but it couldn’t with this guy? If I’m wrong and he’s actually a Republican, great! But downvoting the possibility he registered the opposite of his beliefs isn’t gonna make it disappear.

    • droopy4096@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      I would agree with the theory (as I’ve personally witnessed people registering for opposing party to wreck havoc there internally), BUT: I rarely came across hardcore gun-loving Democrat, watching NRA-related content.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 months ago

        The last two points are very valid. It’s definitely something I considered, but this is such an F’d up timeline that I can’t help but be very pessimistic.

    • johker216@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      Apparently it’s not uncommon

      You know what’s incredibly more common? Being an actual Republican and voting in a Republican Primary.

      Everyone loves a harmless conspiracy theory, but this theory is anything but. Unless the shooter specifically admitted to this conspiracy theory, peddling this bullshit is reckless. About as stupid as child molesters in pizza place basements that don’t exist.

      • WraithGear@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Is it even more common to being a republican and assassinating the leader of the party? He “said” he was republican, but the shooting at republicans say otherwise. And i trust actions more than words. And the actions don’t get any more louder than that. Besides it does not matter one iota what Party he is affiliated with. The only thing that matters is the disappointment that he missed

    • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      This definitely happens, though it’s not remotely as common as just voting for your preferred party in the primary.

      A friend and I both voted Republican in a primary a couple years ago. The Democratic lineup wasn’t interesting and it was obvious who was going to win on it. Quite frankly our votes didn’t matter much there. But the GOP contenders were a mixed bag of semi-moderates and MAGA bootlickers. We felt it was most important to keep the Trumpy psychos out of the general election, so we voted against them.

      In a way I think it was the right call at the time. On the other hand, I get a lot of SMS spam to my number now from scammy pro-Trump sources. Of course I report those to the FTC every time, but it’s still gross.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Just letting people know what a PA resident told me. Too bad people don’t want to hear it. If the guy was left leaning and registered as a Republican downvotes aren’t going to make it better.

    • markr@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      That is almost entirely a myth. Yes, there are ‘cross over votes’ in states that don’t have open primaries but facilitate party enrollment, but those cross over voters are almost always ‘independent’ voters who enroll and then unenroll and are not doing anything other than voting for the candidate of their choice in the primary that candidate is running in. So called ‘strategic voting’, as far as I know, has never made any difference in any presidential primary, but go ahead and bring up the bodies.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        It’s not for presidential races.

        Its for state level races where you’re in one of the 40+ states where it’s a forgone conclusion what party wins the general.

        So some people give up their presidential primary vote, to vote in the state level primaries for the party virtually guaranteed to win their state, then vote for their preferred party in the general even if their candidate won the primary for the other party

        You might not think it’s common, but it’s the only way a lot of people’s votes have any actual effect, so lots of people do it