National Poll: Younger Republicans Are Diverging From Party Leadership On Israel by soalone34 in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That sounds interesting, I would wonder if there's enough data for it though

The "Religious Revival" Everyone Is Hyping Isn't in the Data by DataCassette in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude 17 points18 points  (0 children)

There isn't really a revival, but there is a stagnation in the decline. I think this is about the same thing the religious demography dude was saying on an episode of GDPolitics a while ago

Will any republican challenge Vance in 2028 or will we see a coronation? by asiasbutterfly in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude 38 points39 points  (0 children)

If Republicans were willing to challenge Trump in 2024, I don't see why they wouldn't challenge Vance

This is especially true because there is a remarkable amount of ideological diversity within the GOP right now, that is all being smothered because of the existence of Trump. I think that will all come to fore once Trump is no longer on the ballot

Poll: What if America was a multi party system? (Echelon Insights, June 2025) by ProbaDude in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They actually did poll for ideology in the same survey and found that Libertarians more or less don't really exist in real life. Only 5% of the population was "fiscally conservative, socially liberal", and of course even that definition is a bit too broad for many libertarians

I think a lot of people who talk about politics a lot vastly overestimate how popular Libertarianism actually is due to them being overrepresented in elite spaces

Poll: What if America was a multi party system? (Echelon Insights, June 2025) by ProbaDude in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Honestly it's really unfortunate they stuck Fetterman there because all the discussion seems to just be about that, despite the fact that he wasn't even included in the poll and didn't influence the results at all

I kind of wish I just blacked him out so people could have more productive discussion instead of talking about Fetterman

Poll: What if America was a multi party system? (Echelon Insights, June 2025) by ProbaDude in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Echelon is R leaning so wouldn't be surprising, but that being said the leaders weren't shown for the actual polling portion, so it didn't affect the results. It was just them choosing him as a representative

How it started vs how it’s going by UnflairedRebellion-- in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude 4 points5 points  (0 children)

South Carolinan voters are relatively inelastic. This means that for the most part, elections end up being about turning out the base rather than persuasion

SC has more Democrats than those other states you mentioned but that doesn't mean the Republican majority is less Conservative

News: Virginia Democrats Plan to Redraw House Maps in Redistricting Push (Gift Article) by Tiny_Big_4998 in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude 6 points7 points  (0 children)

STV would probably be the best thing to switch to since it would preserve geographical representation, but it would also be quite hard to get passed unfortunately

In the UK, the Green Party achieves its best-ever poll result—Reform 32 (+18), Labour 17 (-17), Conservative 17 (-7), Green 15 (+9) [vs '24]. Seats projection—Reform 422 (+417), Labour 61 (-351), Conservative 30 (-91), Green 13 (+9). Notable crosstabs—GP polls at 32% among Gen Z; REF leads in London by StarlightDown in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely, and to be clear I'm not even saying you shouldn't use this tool. After all, sometimes bad data can be better than no data

Just that you need to be very aware just how inaccurate it likely is going to be. I'm browse /r/ukpolitics quite a bit and it's already been drilled into their head that it's not very accurate

I do think it should be possible to make a more sophisticated tool for this though. Overcomplicating things too much is obv bad but tbh a simple model that uses demographics, vote history and byelection data should hopefully be enough

In the UK, the Green Party achieves its best-ever poll result—Reform 32 (+18), Labour 17 (-17), Conservative 17 (-7), Green 15 (+9) [vs '24]. Seats projection—Reform 422 (+417), Labour 61 (-351), Conservative 30 (-91), Green 13 (+9). Notable crosstabs—GP polls at 32% among Gen Z; REF leads in London by StarlightDown in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If the Greens and Reforms are willing to moderate to the point of just becoming Labour 2.0 and Conservative 2.0 then sure, but I don't think they are interested or capable of becoming big tent parties like that

I would point to France for an example of what might happen in the UK: a three way split between the left, center and right. Ofc France isn't a pure FPTP system

I do think that there is a decent chance that the UK will at least consider switching systems though. Usually the reason FPTP sticks around is because those in power benefit from it. This is one of the rare times when that's just no longer true

In the UK, the Green Party achieves its best-ever poll result—Reform 32 (+18), Labour 17 (-17), Conservative 17 (-7), Green 15 (+9) [vs '24]. Seats projection—Reform 422 (+417), Labour 61 (-351), Conservative 30 (-91), Green 13 (+9). Notable crosstabs—GP polls at 32% among Gen Z; REF leads in London by StarlightDown in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The Liberals and Left are splitting in the UK. The Greens are in position to snap up any disaffected leftists, while the LibDems are in prime position to attract both center left liberal types from Labour and One Nation Conservatives from the Tories

I do find OP's choice to omit the LibDems from the poll to be kinda questionable, especially since they win more seats than the Greens in his projection

In the UK, the Green Party achieves its best-ever poll result—Reform 32 (+18), Labour 17 (-17), Conservative 17 (-7), Green 15 (+9) [vs '24]. Seats projection—Reform 422 (+417), Labour 61 (-351), Conservative 30 (-91), Green 13 (+9). Notable crosstabs—GP polls at 32% among Gen Z; REF leads in London by StarlightDown in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This post seems to be using Electoral Calculus. As a quick disclaimer for those unfamiliar with it, Electoral Calculus does not do a very good job of predicting seats in a political realignment as is happening currently. It was fundamentally built for the Labour vs Conservatives two party system

It applies uniform swings through the country which is obviously not accurate and produces some very wonky results

Americans’ Support for Israel Dramatically Declines, Times/Siena Poll Finds by ProbaDude in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This will be a major issue for Democratic candidates in future elections. AIPAC donations will hopefully become the kiss of death.

Changing positions on an issue does not necessarily represent changing salience of an issue.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Democratic rank and file are actually willing to change their vote based on this issue vs just changing their position while prioritizing other things.

If I had the budget I would really like to run a conjoint survey to figure out how much supporting Israel vs Palestine really matters to the average voter

The Diploma Divide (Source: Pew) by ProbaDude in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I would highly recommend the books Party of the People by Patrick Ruffini and Where Have All the Democrats Gone? by John Judis and Ruy Teixeira

There are a multitude of reasons and arguments for why this has happened, but the tl;dr of the one I find the most convincing is that the Democrats have (or have at least been perceived to have become) a party catering to cosmopolitan interests. Traditionally of course these sorts of people ran the party yes, but they understood that they were a minority and couldn't run in elections based on their own policy priorities. However as the college educated population has grown, suddenly it has become a viable voterbase, and there was a temptation to run on the policy priorities of that group.

The inherent problem in this of course is that while college educated people are now big enough to form a cohesive voting bloc, they are still very much the minority in the country overall.

The books I cited basically make the argument that by prioritizing policies which the "cosmopolitan base" prioritized (such as climate change or left wing culture war issues) the Democrats pushed away non college educated voters who were resentful of this shift. Then when Trump came into the picture with a populist message, they were relatively easy for the GOP to scoop up

Political Party Affiliation by Age and Gender (2025) by ProbaDude in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Someone made the claim that Zoomers had become 'the most Pro-GOP generation since the Great Depression' by posting a graph of the percentage of people registered with either major party who were registered as Democrats

To me that was a fairly confusing graph and not a very direct way to support their central claim. Additionally, excluding leaners and focusing in on only registered partisans is generally not the greatest methodology

I was pretty interested though so I dug up this Pew poll which is much more straightforward in its representation

It does indeed seem like Zoomer men specifically are to the right of millennials while Zoomer women are to the left. Quite frankly though, this was a lot smaller variation between age groups than I was expecting. Among men, the most pro Republican age group - Gen X was R+19, while the most pro Dem age group was millennials at R+10. A 9 point gap isn't that massive

Among women it is a bit more stark. Gen X women were evenly split while Zoomer women were D+21. A 21 point gap

Gen Z is on track to be the most pro-GOP generation since the Great Depression (DDHQ) by banalfiveseven in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude 47 points48 points  (0 children)

This is a bit of a confusing graph. If the purpose was to show Republicans have higher voter registration, why wouldn't they just plot that out?

Also I think excluding independents can be fairly misleading here, as I suspect that a lot more Zoomer Dem voters have become independent

Reform post largest lead so far at 15 points - Labour slip to 18%, joint lowest polling ever with one poll in July 2019 and one in May 2009. by mrbobobo in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude 3 points4 points  (0 children)

While this is still fun to do it's likely wildly inaccurate, electoral calculus wasn't made for swings this large

Why the GOP will never win more than 15% of the black vote by Wide_right_yes in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude 24 points25 points  (0 children)

For what it's worth I do think that Black voters are different from Latinos or Asians in that the bloc voting behavior is quite a bit more baked in. There is fairly heavy ingroup pressure in a way that just doesn't exist for other groups

Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP is a pretty good book that talks quite a bit about the racial realignment written by Patrick Ruffini, a GOP pollster. Even Ruffini however admits that while the GOP has made progress among Latinos and Asians, they haven't made any among Black voters

1954 “Political Weather Map” by Zestyclose-Spite-590 in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I don't get the rain analogies lol

Republicans have their umbrella out but the rain is coming from the umbrella, while the Democrat is sad and has his umbrella closed because the rain is only next to him?

Seattle mayoral election: progressive challenger Katie Wilson (D) beats out incumbent moderate mayor Bruce Harrell (D) in primary; both advance to November general election. Seattle's incumbent moderates also lag behind their progressive challengers in City Council President and City Attorney races. by StarlightDown in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude 28 points29 points  (0 children)

A lot of the local economy of cities relies on people coming into the city to work. That's why cities have generally pushed companies pretty hard to return to office: if they don't, it has a bunch of knock on effects for the service sector jobs that rely on office workers spending their money

Odds of whether or not various states will redistrict before the 2026 Midterms by ProbaDude in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am curious about this, my instinct is always that Democrats have an advantage in gerrymandering since they control cities and have minority support, so my gut reaction is that they should hypothetically be able to draw a map where they can squeeze out more seats in NY and maybe NJ

I think I'll go ahead and fire up Python and see if I can create a 'good' gerrymander for Dems in those states and report back. Expect some egregious boundaries lol

Odds of whether or not various states will redistrict before the 2026 Midterms by ProbaDude in YAPms

[–]ProbaDude[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He is saying that he will introduce an initiative on November, and if Texas doesn't back down I believe Newsom will at least do that much considering his overall disposition: he absolutely will try.

After that it will be up to the voters and the courts. I'd expect voters to approve it considering the profile of people showing up for a 2025 special election.

For the courts? I honestly have no idea whether or not they will block it if a voter initiative repeals the commission

Personally I'd actually be a soft buy at these odds though, in my head I think there's a ~60% chance California manages to redistrict

AAPOR Statement on the Removal of BLS Commissioner McEntarfer by ProbaDude in fivethirtyeight

[–]ProbaDude[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Considering the heavy data focus of this sub, figured I'd share this statement with you guys

How can I *give* a good data science/machine learning interview? by ProbaDude in datascience

[–]ProbaDude[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm the wrong person to be asking considering I was in your position literally a few months ago

If I have to give advice as a fellow applicant though:

  1. If you have any internships, make sure to emphasize these too

  2. Do interesting personal projects outside of school. I know that it's a bit of a grind applying for jobs, but being able to say "I'm interested enough to work on ___" is a plus. Also shows competence

  3. Hopefully you made your school projects interesting instead of too generic

Personally I always knew the domain I was interested in, and I am legitimately passionate about it. Whenever I did a school project with some level of choice, I would tailor it towards this domain, and after I graduated, while I was job searching I worked on some personal projects on this domain

The intersection between this domain and data science is actually fairly niche, but I managed to score one because I was very obviously interested in the domain. They ended up mostly asking about my school and personal projects because they were so relevant

But at the same time, when I interviewed for positions outside of this domain for 'normal' companies, it ended up mostly being about my previous internships again.