Why do the working class persist in thinking the Pubs are on their side?

[Richardo]

Here's the tax shift from the Texas Legislatures school funding plan. Sure glad to see those well-deserved tax breaks for $100K+. (Texas is 100% run by the GOP.)

[Zuni]

1. what a load of crap

take from the poor---give to the rich

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Pathetic, isn't it?

[asthmaticeog]

2. Read "What's the Matter With Kansas?" by Thomas Frank (n/t)

[Richardo]

3. It's on my list - I've heard good things.

[Siena]

9. I was going to say the same thing...

It's really about concentrating on one issue (ie: abortion, gay marriage, etc) and while you've got everyone hypnotized on that issue, it really makes no difference what else you do.

[ClassWarrior]

18. That was going to be my suggestion - plus "Don't Think of an Elephant."

NGU.

[element23]

4. think high school

It's not that they think the pubs are on their side, it's that they just want to be on the pubs side.

It's like in high school were some nerd would idol worship some jocks even though they were just going to mess with them anyhow.

[Richardo]

5. Bingo, element23

Welcome to DU! :toast:

[element23]

6. thanks man

cheers!

[driver8]

7. Exactly!! I am in a union, and I cannot believe how many of my

co-workers supported shrub. I kept telling them, "You guys are slitting your own throats...bush doesn't give a fuck about you."

Their response?

"Oh yeah? Well, Kerry's a pussy."

Way to go, idiots...

[Richardo]

8. Yeah - combat vet vs champagne flyboy.

Idiots.

[xxqqqzme]

10. staff a dem booth, twice a month

@ a local swap meet. Rethugs come up 'n ask us 'where's the rethug booth?'. I tell them 'there isn't one! they got your vote, they don't care.'

[Stil]

17. Or some kind of

hell hound. Used to get the same thing at work. Converted three, just found out another has been sending letters to the whitehouse asking why have they abandoned him and other supporters. And where is the return of morals in the whitehouse. Of course the most he's gotten back are form letters. So....

[cally]

30. Welcome to DU

and congrats on converting three.

[Nay]

11. Excellent analogy, element23. That's exactly what it's like.

They so desperately want to join the clique that they don't even mind getting kicked in the teeth -- after all, if you get kicked in the teeth, the Pubs are paying attention to you, aren't they?

[mikelewis]

21. I think it's a bit more complicated than that...

The line the Repubs use is, "Lower Taxes, Less Government and Better Security." Try and find someone who wants more taxes, more government and less Security. If a person is disillusioned by the Democratic Party, this sales pitch is attractive. It boils down to the fact that they're better at selling bullshit than we are. The Republican party is owned and operated by the major corporations, they understand mass marketing and consumer appeal. While some of this could be clique envy, I think the greater concern should be the marketing package. The Republicans have proved that they can sell shit if only they package it properly. We either need a better product or a better way of selling our shit.

On Edit:
Welcome to DU!

[element23]

25. thanks mikelewis

and I agree with you.

The repubs have the market (or the image of it) of the fun stuff like lower taxes, blowing shit up and talking like cowboys.

Meanwhile, the Dems have the unenviable task of trying to run a country and maintain some sort of order in the universe while at the same time trying to protect silly things like air and water for the future. It's a tough sell to the general public who has a short attention span (except when watching cars go around in a circle).

Also the greater public seems really enamored of a large white men with a southern-ish accents. They'll buy anything from them.

[CTyankee]

12. they're wannabes

They think that if they vote Republican they will magically become rich. They wannabe like their "betters." I heard a political science professor at Yale give a lecture on this phenomenon and he basically pointed out that historically Americans have felt linked in their identity to the upper class, which is why they didn't openly revolt against the wealthy landowners. He said that deToqueville mistakenly thought the opposite would happen in our young democracy. The lower class, which you would assume would revolt, is alienated from the power structure and tends to ignore it (by not voting or becoming politically active). They feel that the rulers have ignored them and they are returning the favor.

Thomas Frank did a good job explaining this in his book but I, for one, would appreciate a historical reference that goes back further than Thomas Frank. Any DUer out there have one?

[Richardo]

15. Sounds like the proles in 1984, don't it?

Distracted with drink and cheap entertainment while the Party apparatus worked above them.

[CTyankee]

16. I'm not so sure that's what this professor had in mind

I think it was his thinking that Americans had a mindset, a kind of optimism in a future they certainly could not predict (remember, it was a new country then). But now, we know that people have had a different experience so why not a different mindset? I guess Thomas Frank has the answer: it's the whipping up of difference on "values".
I suppose that's an okay answer, but to tell you the truth, I just don't know!

[Poiuyt]

14. It's like a battered wife who keeps going back to her husband

He's going to treat her like shit, but she can't help herself

[ClassWarrior]

20. That's a facile, and false, analogy. It sure looks like that...

...from the outside, though, donnit? As several have suggested above, read "What's the Matter with Kansas?"

NGU.

[aspberger]

19. It's the religious right

they don't want to go to hell for voting democrat.

[Deja Q]

22. Nominated and kicked.

This is front page material. :thumbsup:

[nookiemonster]

23. Damn cognitive dissonance!

And the koolaid!!!!

[Celeborn Skywalker]

24. The working class and the poor

are the only groups who voted for Kerry. It's the rich and middle class we should be mad at.

[CTyankee]

27. Not so fast

what about the rich liberals (and there are some)? Plus, lefties like me and my entire family who are not rich (except perhaps in our dedication to Englightenment values).

[Celeborn Skywalker]

32. Sorry for the generalization.

I didn't mean that as a blanket statement. I'm just saying there's no point blaming the working class for Bush's win when ignoring the role the other groups played.

[bribri16]

26. Basically because they are mostly racists and sexists. n/t

[Totally Committed]

28. "Why do the working class persist in thinking the Pubs are on their side?"

For a lot of the same reasons a battered wife cannot make herself leave her abusive husband, imo:

Republicans are good at lying. "But they'll change, and then they'll keep their promises. They just hit me for my own good. I probably deserve it."

Republicans are wealthy. "They have all the money. What will happen to me and my kids if I leave?"

Republicans own everything. "If I'm good and do everything I'm told, maybe I can keep my job (position). Who would support my kids if I left?"

Republicans control everything. "They must be right and I must be wrong. Everyone agrees with what they say and do. Who would protect me if I left?"

Republicans are good at communicating their power. "I will be out here all alone, and have no protection or security at all if I leave."

Republicans are good at "terrorizing". "I'm too scared to leave. The beatings are bad, but they'll be worse if I try to leave. And, really scary people who don't love me or my kids will hurt us even worse."

The Republicans are good at winning. "Besides, even if I do get away for a little while, the beating I'll get if I have to be hunted down and dragged back will be worse than anything I've gotten so far."

[HughBeaumont]

29. I don't freaking get it, and I READ "WTMWK".

It's like he said though - it would be the same illogical scenario as the sans culottes in France storming the streets demanding for more power for the Aristocracy.

With the working class, they again are voting with their hatred of cultural elements that have absolutely NOTHING to do with politics or economics, and they're obsessed with these meaningless elements. Even if it means shooting their own foot - Repukes have placed these wedge issues at the forefront as clever but effective distractions to the real issues and the less intelligent/more irrational members of the working/middle class fall for it hook, line and sinker. This is common when propping up candidates that have zero real accomplishments to praise . . . such as First Term Reagan or Lancelot Link, par example.

Said earlier - they're better at selling bullshit than we are. When you look at their real record, they HAVE to be.

[sendero]

31. Personally...

... I think a much better question would be "why do they ACTIVELY dislike Democrats"? Because that is why they vote against their own economic interests, they DON'T LIKE US.

The reasons are not simple, and I'm pretty sure that 99% of the folks here don't have a glimmer of a clue what they are.

Maybe I don't either. But it is a fact. The "big middle" doesn't vote for Republicans, they vote against Democrats.