Wall Street contemplates possibility of a Republican sweep as Trump gains in polls

CNBC ^ | November 4, 2016 | Tai Kim

[fieldmarshaldj]

No, I did. Remember ? I clicked the “X” on the old-style ballot machine.

[Impy]

Vaguely rings a bell now.

I’ve never seen one of those old machines.

Anderson TN vote 35,991 2.22%, you were the 1.

Anderson..in such a close state. Was your dad on crack?

[fieldmarshaldj]

This is what the machine looked like. You'd twist the little knobby things to mark an "X."

After you had your choices made, you'd pull the heavy lever hard across. They phased these out by the '90s down here. Some still were using these (such as NY) recently, apparently.

My father was not a fan of Carter. He went to a campaign rally here in Nashville for Ted Kennedy (I don't know if he voted for him in the primary) and got captured in a photo with The Swimmer (it was held at the college he worked for). He wasn't entirely sold on Reagan, either (he had been in CA briefly when Reagan was Governor early in his 1st term), but didn't want to upset his mother by voting for him (he was a year younger than I in 1980). He split the difference and went with Anderson and had me do the honors.

[BillyBoy]

>> Wallace: Had his beliefs. <<

I don't think my grandpa was ever a "segregation FOREVER!!!" kinda guy (though I was born in the 80s so I have no idea what grandpa was saying back in the 60s. However, my family is from Illinois, not the deep south)

Knowing grandpa, he probably liked Wallace's hardliner "law and order" platform to give the anarchist hippies a cold dose of reality, and Wallace's promise to nuke all the commies.

I have no idea how he voted in other elections, but if he didn't vote for a winner until Reagan, he must have voted against Carter, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, AND Eisenhower.

[Impy]

Yes, Wallace won a few Northern votes along those lines.

Going Stevenson, Nixon in 60, Goldwater, Wallace, McGovern?/Schmitz?, Ford, would have been a little bonkers.

[Impy]

Neat. Too bad they’re gone now.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Of course, if you go far south into Illinois, it’s more like a Mississippi Delta county. Cairo, which I’ve visited twice, a very sad place that should’ve been preserved for its history, but has almost obliterated everything left in its downtown, is as close to Jackson, MS as it is to Chicago (about 370 miles). I’m closer to Cairo here in Nashville than I am to Memphis (170 miles).

My earliest TN ancestors left Middle TN about at the end of the War of 1812 and settled in Edwards County, IL, which at the time included virtually the entire eastern half of the territory northward to Wisconsin (including all of “Chicagoland”). My GGG-grandfather’s father in law, Seth Gard, was one of IL’s Founding Fathers. From what I gathered, they were Democrat-Republicans at the time (not many Federalists were out in “the west.”) Presumably they went with the Jacksonians (since both my 4xG grandfather and 3xg grandfather and his brother(s) served under Jackson in the Creek Campaign in Alabama, and they came from NC and moved to TN as Jackson had).

Since my 3xg grandfather lived long enough to see the Civil War (and almost a decade past that), I got the impression they were of pro-Union sympathies. His grandson with his first wife (Gard’s great-grandson) apparently went to fight with the Union (presumably an IL regiment) and died during the war (probably 18-20 years old). Of course, Gen. Jackson would’ve been a Unionist during the war and likely become a Republican (or close to it, along the lines of Andrew Johnson).

If the voting preferences for Edwards County was any indication as to how my relatives voted for President, at least those who stayed in that county, it was Jacksonian in 1828-32 and then went Whig from 1836-56. Shifted to GOP in 1860 (1 of only 4 counties in Southern IL to vote for Lincoln over Sen. Douglas) and aside from 1912 when many Republicans decided to pick TR’s Progressives over Taft, has never cast a vote for a Democrat since 1832.

Of course, most of my relatives did not stay there for the long haul and did not blissfully keep their mostly sane and dependable voting record as Edwards Co. had.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Meh, it was easier just to push on the little red dot of the 1990s machines and finalize it all with the green push-button at the bottom. You would almost throw your arm out of the socket with that lever. =8-0>

[BillyBoy]

I could probably see his presidential voting pattern going Nixon ('60) Goldwater ('64), Wallace ('68), and Schmitz ('72), that sounds about right for grandpa.

Maybe in '76 he voted for Ford, MacBride, or was pissed off at the primary results and cast a write-in for Reagan in the general.

Similarly, I've never cast a vote for a winning Illinois gubernatorial candidate. My pattern has been Poshard ('98), Jim Ryan ('02), Stufflebeam ('06), Brady ('10) and Grimm ('14).

[stephenjohnbanker]

“If Satan’s left nut was running for office as a Republican, I’d vote for it.”

Yeah......but Paul Ryan isn’t running for POTUS.

[Impy]

I’ve been voting since 2002 GE Winners I’ve backed

2002: Topinka reelected Treasurer

2004: Bush but he lost IL

2010: Kirk to fill the vacant term, didn’t vote for him for the full term or for Topinka for Comptroller

2014: Rauner and Topkina, had to vote for her to stop Simon’s daughter

2015: Rahm over Chuy in the Chi Mayoral Runoff.

[BillyBoy]

I assume you also backed Rutherford for Treasurer, he and Fitzgerald are perhaps the lone statewide candidates I've backed that won.

[Impy]

Oh, yes, I did. I forgot ALL about him. Poor guy.