Federal workers in the D.C. metropolitan area are less than 10% of the share of local workforce. This also correlates to local poopulation. So despite D.C. and its surrounding counties often voting Blue in national elections, the federal government is a small percentage of the population, even counting voting population so we cannot generalize that they are mostly Democrats. Personal observation is that they are a pretty mixed group since most federal workers are not from the area.
I will simply have to disagree with you. When I get back from vacation and have access to a laptop I will once again provide a list of federal complexes in the DC area including their history. Many were built in outlying poor communities to provide jobs and economic incentive. We will also take a look at the voting demographics of all the nearby counties. The huge majority of the federal workers impacted by the shutdown are in the DC area.
Well 1 out of 6 federal workers work in the D.C. area so the federal government is actually more spread out over the whole country than in the D.C. area: "The federal government currently employs just over 2 million full-time employees, excluding Postal Service workers. States with the most federal employees as of mid-2017 were California (250,000), Texas (200,000), Virginia (178,000) and Maryland (147,000). The vast majority of all federal employees -- about 79 percent -- work outside the D.C. region" http://www.governing.com/topics/mgmt/gov-trump-budget-federal-workforce-state-employment.html
The question is what percentage of the non-essential employees of the Departments that were shutdown are in DC. The percentages for the total number of federal employees is pretty meaningless.
I think the main point is we cannot generalize that the majority of those affected are democrats just becaue Trump is trying to shift the blame away from himself and the GOP. My stats show that previous generalizations were not true.
You are not getting the gist of his argument, Democrats are 'non essential' 'less educated' and 'minorities' which makes them less human than the great human specimen of the 'white Republican'. These people don't care about facts or data, they are so sure of their inherent biases that they know it cannot be any other way. It's the same argument for 'voter fraud' - they can't prove anything but they are sure it's happening millions of times every election cycle. No amount of data and figures will change a conservative's viewpoint, it's like the Gann and Elliott Wave traders - these people are dumb in the head.
First we need to take a look at which federal departments are impacted by the shutdown. Second we need to take a look at which employees in these departments are considered non-essential. Third we need to arrive at an appropriate approximation of how many of these employees are in the DC area. After this we can take a look at the political demographics in the DC area and then determine if Trump’s statement is true. This entire discussion is about if Trump’s statement is true and likely it is. The reality is that federal employees are just pawns in this political posturing. It is shameful that the government is being shutdown once again while Congress and the Whitehouse demonstrate how disfunctional Washington is. There is plenty of blame to go around for this particular shutdown including Trump who is a primary culprit.
You are saying that Trump analyzed the complete breakdown of federal employees, essential v. non-essential, geographic demographics an department by department breakdown before saying that most are democrats..... Why are you so quick to defend a comment he made off the top of his head to shift blame for the shutdown on democrats. So plenty of GOP federal employees don't give a shit then of not getting paid huh. That is rather insulting to the non-democrats who are also off work without pay. The breakdown of political affiliiations is really relevant to you/Trump with respect to the shut down? So if the majority are Democrats the shutdown was meant to punish democratic voters and was not really about the Wall? If the majority were GOP would Trump NOT shutdown the government?
The entire discussion here is if Trump is correct in his assertion that most of the impacted employees who are non-essential are Democrats. The answer is he is most likely correct. The debate over “who is to blame” is a political debate and totally separate subject. What federal employees feel about being off work work without pay (or future retroactive pay which has always been done and is in motion already in Congress) is another subject. The reality is there is a mix of reactions from federal employees ranging from “free vacation” to “I have work to do”. If the shutdown was done solely to “punish Democrats” then it would be breaking the law. The reality is that this is a shutdown over policy and budget. Each side, as always, is casting the blame at the other... and most people & federal employees are simply saying all the DC politicians are idiots.