In Rural USA, Republicans Win with Guns, Abortion

[RedEarth]

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (Reuters) - Farmer Kathleen Vinehout knows why guns and abortion, favored Republican Party themes, trump the economy or health care at election time in a swathe of states stretching from Texas to the Canadian border.

Rural Americans "vote their values more than their self-interests," says Vinehout, a member of the National Farmers Union from western Wisconsin.

Republican ideas about gun ownership resonate in a region where self-reliance is a way of life and social issues dominate. Highways are flanked by anti-abortion billboards.

.......

Author Thomas Frank, who this summer published "What's the Matter with Kansas?" a book that deals with the increasing social conservatism in the Midwest, said rural states "vote against their own economic interests."

Rural poverty rates, now 14.2 percent, consistently exceed urban rates, just as rural income trails urban levels

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6407351

[DenverDem]

1. Guns, abortion and crushing ignorance-that's rural USA.

Coming from deep East Texas I know first hand how amazingly stupid and misinformed humans can be.

[gWbush is Mabus]

2. They think Bush is smart when he says FORCIFEROUSLY in a debate

[Moderator]

3. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x882778