Long thoughtful, ultimately discouraging article

[InformedSource]

This is only for those who like to buy magazines and read long articles. It's called Lie Down for America: How the Republican Party sows ruin on the Great Plains by Thomas Frank, and it's in the April 2004 issue of Harper's. Unfortunately, it's not online.

Here are a couple quotes that give the tone of the piece:

"The poorest county in America isn't in Appalachia or the Deep South. It is on the great plains, a region of struggling ranchers and dying farm towns, and in the election of 2000, the Republican candidate for president ... carried it by a majority of greater than 76 percent. . .

"How can anyone who has ever worked for someone else vote Republican? How can so many people get it wrong? ..."

The article describes and depicts the situation but offers no cure.

[VeniceBeat]

1. All the Author Can Do

is provide a mirror for that 76%. Maybe some will see themselves.

I wonder what the Harper's Magazine saturation rate is in those areas.

[drthais]

2. don't have my current Harpers

but will soon
..a birthday present from my daughter

so I'll read this

I do not have an answer either

[eaprez]

3. Why do Union workers

or organizations support Republicans?
How can any blue collar working person support a Republican?
Because the Republicans have been very successful at portraying themselves as the party of "christian values".