Why do many working stiffs...

[demosincebirth]

and some poor, vote republican? I just don't understand it. Their arguments just don't stand up.

[Vickers]

1. Cuz the baby Jayzus tells them to, I reckon

Plus libruls hate America...didn'tcha get the memo?

/RW talking points

[boobooday]

2. One word: Propaganda

I think that pretty much explains it. Well, maybe not. It's a combination of trashing our educational system and all it once stood for (i.e. critical thinking) and the Power of Propoganda.

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[barbaraann]

3. Mindcontrol.

I hear there's a new release of "The Manchurian Candidate" coming out soon.

[Dropkick]

4. Bought off with a "tax-cut" nt

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

6. My elderly ex-neighbors are afraid of tax hikes

The husband is a union man and staunch labor supporter who says he votes Democratic in local elections and Republican in national. He and his wife are afraid of Kerry because he's going to "raise their taxes." What can you do about people who get all of their news from Rethug attack ads? I told him the Republicans don't do anything for people like us, but he wouldn't hear it. ARRRGGGGGHHHH!!

[NoPasaran]

9. Of course that's a "tax cut" that does nothing for them

It might put a few more more dollars on their take-home paycheck, but they pay for it by losing services, loading their children with federal debt, or having their state and local taxes go up to make up the shortfall.

The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

[Dropkick]

13. Exactly. Local taxes are going up...

...to cover the huge shortfalls. But for some reason, people don't seem to be making the connection between less government funding = higher local taxes.

I wonder how many cities are on the verge of bankruptcy (like my city, Pittsburgh) since BushCo? I know here in Pgh, police officers have been laid off, there's ominous talk of this also happening with firefighters and EMS (all this in the era of terrorism, when first responders should be receiving more funding for added training etc, instead less $$$ and layoffs); our city has cut funding for MANY services (no public pools this summer for the kids of Pittsburgh!!!!).

But yeah. They got their $300 check in the mail, so all is right in the world.

[OneTwentyoNine]

24. I'd bet 99% couldn't tell if they have any more money or not....

All they hear is that tax cut parroted over and over so YOU just know you got cut a HUGE break.

Bullshit,maybe $100.00 per year more for the average worker and the country goes broke. Meanwhile these idiots are paying almost $1.00 per gallon more for fuel than when Clinton was in office. Man.....


David

[Lou_C]

23. $300.00 dollars to shop at Walmart makes me want to vote Republican

:shrug: I don't think so!

[david_vincent]

5. Desperation to belong

When you're excluded by poverty and other factors, you want to feel a part of something. This is what the Republican party has been so great at doing. They offer poor people no support at all in real terms, but a great deal of support by offering a sense of belonging, while fooling them all the while about their own elitism -- the fact that Republican bigwigs wouldn't be caught dead hobnobbing with an oil change tech who dropped out of the 10th grade. It's such a deeply cynical ploy because it fools them into believing that they're accepted as equals while treating them as rubes.

[Blue Gardener]

7. They don't read

They may on occasion watch the news on TV, but by and large they just aren't paying attention. I really try not to sterotype, but honestly, they only talk politics when sitting on a barstool having a beer with their buddies, and they tend to believe whatever they hear whether it's true or not. I work with people like this, and it's pointless trying to reason with them.

[Sporadicus]

8. My Personal Theory

is that an optimism lingers that involves 'The American Dream.' Some working-class individuals - no matter how hopeless their prospects for job advancement or social climbing - cling to the hope that their lot in life will improve. Once they obtain plutocratic status, they'll be glad they supported business-friendly legislation and tax cuts for the wealthy.

[ikojo]

10. Because a lot of working people buy into the American myth

that if only they work hard enough and sacrifice enough, they, too will be rich. Many Americans see themselves as pre-rich and not poor. Heck, if you ask people in the wealthy suburbs surrounding any city, they will tell you they are middle class. There is no real class consciousness among working people in this country. The rich have a class conciousness that is lacking among poor and working class Americans.

Even working people get upset at the thought of taxing the rich. They believe, wrongly, that most rich folk worked themselves up from the slums of America and to tax them at a greater rate is to punish success (Rush says this on an almost daily basis).

Go here for a wealth of information on wealth inequality and its effects in the US

http://inequality.org/

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

21. It's like a gambler's mentality, isn't it

"Many Americans see themselves as pre-rich and not poor." Great summary!

As soon as they hit the lottery....as soon as big government gets off their backs...all those ships will come sailing in.

[AP]

11. On wedge issues like morality, religion, and militarism, race.

Bush definitely tries to make working class white guys think that if they suffer it's because of an immigrant, black person, or woman holding them back (and if they succeed, it's because they did it on their own).

Republicans try to create the impression that the government has no place trying to make life better for people, and that it's good to be a cowboy.

A lot of working class people fall for it.

[demosincebirth]

15. I think you are right,

I hear on some RW talk-shows, a few idiots complain about the democrats, will some how, take away their guns...like, if some how, their guns are more important than feeding their families. Tsk,tsk, tsk, its hard to figure.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

17. Yep, agreed...and don't forget gun control

That's been the GOP game plan since the late 70s: convincing people that if someone else gets something, it means they took it away from you - and they use the government to get their hands on what is rightfully yours.

There was an excellent article on this subject in Harper's a few months ago, which contained this sentence: "People getting their fundamental interests wrong is what American politics is all about."

[Union Thug]

12. Misinformed,

Network news, longer work hours, no time to inform themselves, exposure to drive time radio, commercials, sitcoms, stupid action films, emotional jingoism, inexperience with critical thinking skills, TEE-VEEEEE, lack of historical perspective... it goes on and on.

In the tech world, there's this bizarre incarnation of libertarianism that makes these idiots (my workmates) think that they will be the next bill gates, even as their jobs are being outsourced...

Dumbasses....

[edhopper]

14. I'm sorry to say...

But having worked in a blue collar job for a dozen years and seeing white guys support repukes whose agenda was clearly anti-worker, the main reason they voted repub was that dems just tax them and give the money to the n*g*rs and sp*cs. Yes the repukes have played the race card very well in the last few decades. Remember that the Southern Dems used to be the biggest bigots out there, and the whites in the South would not vote republican because "Lincoln freed the Slaves". Johnson moved the Dems into the party for civil rights and the repukes became a home for bigots (Jesse, Strom, Trent).
Unfortunately the main reason working whites vote repub is racism.

[Dropkick]

16. Ugh, sad but also true nt

[wryter2000]

19. Welcome to DU

:hi: dropkick

[Dropkick]

25. Thanks!! nt

[wryter2000]

18. Welcome, Ed

You hit the nail on the head with that one. Sorry to say.

[davekriss]

20. Nascar Dads ...

This should be required reading here...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16885

[OneTwentyoNine]

22. Cause them gull dern Liburals will take MY guns away.....

There's a huge segment of the Repuke voting population. Not a care in the World about how the idiot they vote for will run the country,just as long as they can keep their guns. Meanwhile over the next four years they get shafted on wages,health care etc,yet they don't care.

Wonder how many that feared Clinton was coming for their guns still have the SAME guns?? They shell out millions to the NRA out of fear and propaganda making those guys filthy rich. On and on it goes....

David