If you want to indicate the backwardness and willful ignorance of many on the right wing, there are ways to do it that don't use indicators of poverty--such as poor dental hygiene, inadequate clothes and shoes, and other signs of deprivation--in order to dehumanize.
I live in rural Appalachia, where poverty is ugly. I am missing teeth. Some of my clothes are torn and I have been without decent footwear. I have lived in conditions where a daily bath was not a possibility...I have even raised free range pigs for slaughter. I have lived in half-rotten single-wide trailers, surrounded by neighbors who lived in cobbled together shacks and worse. Their politics were diverse and in general I didn't ask probing questions; I regret that some most definitely had beliefs counter to their interests. Nevertheless their humanity is not contingent upon hiding the ugly aspects of their poverty.
I wouldn't say I or any of my neighbors look like this particular person. But the things about us that indicate our region of origin and our station in life are used in this image to convey a person who is less than human, and deserving of contempt rather than compassion. I find the goal contemptible on a progressive board, not humorous.
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