What Causes Poor Uneducated White People To Vote Republican?

[liberal N proud]

According to a recent article by Quiet Mike, “Republicans like to say they are all about responsibility.” Then they turn around and support things like the SCOTUS decision in favor of Hobby Lobby, which takes personal responsibility away from citizens and places it in the hands of the corporation.

Their politicians lied to engage our country in a war justified by a search for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. Now they are trying to blame the entire Iraq war on President Obama.

The Republicans advocate cutting food stamps, unemployment, education, and health care – all while cutting taxes for the wealthy. The GOP has a long history of demonizing poor people. The relatively new Tea Party crowd and the Libertarians have the reigning attitude of “go fend for yourself” when it comes to providing any type of assistance to the poor.

Republicans consistently garner a large chunk of their votes from poor, white, uneducated voters. Why? What causes poor uneducated white people to vote Republican?

Some of it may be attributed to the many gerrymandered districts. Some is due to the active voter suppression tactics the GOP has been employing not only in the present but historically as well. But those are not the only reasons for this trend.

Paul Weyrich has been labeled as one of the founding fathers of the modern conservative movement. Weyrich often proclaims that he doesn’t want people to vote. It is his contention that the fewer people who vote, the better the GOP chances are of winning elections. In this writer’s view, some of this desire to limit voting is due to racism.

http://www.liberalamerica.org/2015/05/18/what-poor-vote-republican/

[B Calm]

1. Sadomasochism?

[hoosierlib]

2. Wealth worship, racism and common social beliefs...

Economics is a back seat issue as they believe hardwork will get them there, not knowing / believing that the system is rigged...

[Elmergantry]

4. Mostly Social issues

For many of them, manna is a secondary concern.

[beachbum bob]

5. in my view, the seething racism and bigotry in poor whites fuels their voting

against their own interest because when they hear "cutting programs: for things like welfare, food stamps they don't see it cutting "THEIR" benefits but cutting it for all the blacks, hispanics and other minorities....some how they believe they are immuned to cuts because they are white...I believe this to be the primary reason

[fleur-de-lisa]

19. ^^^ THIS ^^^

I agree completely Bob.

[Jim Beard]

44. Our thinking is close

I am in one of those small towns in a very "red" area. What I see, especially at the grocery store, is the person who works two minimum wage jobs and does not qualify for benefits, is seething waiting in line behind a person with a lot of kids getting all kinds of food stamps.

Its the cut off line that causes the problems. Both are poor but one gets benefits but the other doesn't because of the structure of the system. The republicans know how to rig it to keep that anger alive.

If these benefits were prorated but then they say the amount is so small, they don't mess with it.

[clarice]

29. That's a petty broad brush you're painting with. nt

[underahedgerow]

120. Hello? Lack of IQ, intellect and anything resembling the common sense that comes along with a

3 digit IQ.

These people are not bright. They're genuinely not capable of being any smarter than they actually are. Their parents weren't bright, their siblings aren't bright and they just are dimmer bulbs than the rest.

This is the ordinary person, thriving on mediocrity and mass hysteria. They're easily manipulated and the best target for the kind of person that understands this and how to use it to their advantage.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. Mostly, the scary idea of a Clinton presidency.

[liberal N proud]

8. And they have voted republican for 70 years because of this?

Just think what they could do with that kind of talent, determine from the 1930's that in 2016, they would need to vote against a woman running for President. WOW!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

18. yeah, well she is 72.

[liberal N proud]

22. So who is going to run in 2024?

[brer cat]

24. 68

[ChairmanAgnostic]

75. (mine was snark. Both of them.)

[DBoon]

88. Same as with Obama

He hopped into his tardis to plant a fake birth announcement in a Hawaiian newspaper.

Hillary did the same, traveling back in time 70 years just to rile up poor whites.

Beware the time lords.

[liberal N proud]

89. You really should use the sarcasm smiley

[DBoon]

112. Yes, nothing is too obvious

I bet there are CT folks who think a tardis is real, and that the government has one in area 51

[LeftishBrit]

117. As I understand, most poor people, white or black, do not vote Republican

Some do (for reasons I mentioned below); but, as I understand, the biggest problem is not that poorer people vote Republican, but that many of them don't vote at all - and indeed obstacles are sometimes put in the way of their doing so.

[Orrex]

13. If they're afraid, then they should simply read DU

I'm sure they'd be greatly comforted by the 20 or 30 threads per day screaming that Clinton is an evil Republican.

[bigwillq]

7. God,Guns,and F the Gays (nt)

[SammyWinstonJack]

119. Pretty much and don't forget ABORTIONS.

[Botany]

9. Guns, God, and the Gays

Among some poor to middle class whites they only want to see a few things
and can not or will not see the big picture and it doesn't help that their pastors,
media outlets, family and friends re-enforce their views 24/7. Even now after
7 + years of President Obama doing one of the best jobs in history as POTUS
you still have dumb asses pissed off at him for him just being in the White
House. It is no secret that the rich and powerful like to keep some people
angry @ non issuse like, "Obama just won because he gives free stuff to the
blacks."

[Red Knight]

10. Yep.

People are hitting the nail on the head.

Just mention abortion. They're voting Republican.

Just mention the 2nd Amendment. They're voting Republican.

Just mention God. They're voting Republican.

Cruz understand this better than anyone. Listen to his speeches. Look how quickly he jumped all over the Supreme Court vacancy.

These guys know their audience. They have them trained.

Mention economic inequality and they blame taxes and deficits. They are ignorant on so many important issues and easily led by certain buzz words. They are "trainable" and talk radio does just that. Fox does more of it.

So they vote against their own real interests again and again.

[farleftlib]

48. + billion

They have been trained that these social issues are the most important thing to consider. It makes them feel powerful to be able to discriminate against, and sneer at, people with whom they differ. Bigotry is not only tolerated, it's encouraged. Divide and conquer. The republican base will go along with any stripping of their rights and interests for that feeling of power.

[Angel Martin]

81. they don't believe that the Dems

offer anything different for them economically (in terms of bringing back the well-paying blue collar jobs)...

and they are closer culturally to the Pubs, esp. on 2nd Amendment.

[Populist_Prole]

91. That's an observation I've had in lots of people I know

The spirit of your post sums it up. Also, I don't see race as a factor, at least in the observations of my peers.

[Angel Martin]

93. I don't think race is a significant factor either

when a company like Carrier shuts down and moves to Mexico, I didn't see anyone blaming racial minorities.

I did see them blaming Carrier for doing it, the stock market mentality for making it profitable, US tax law for encouraging it, US politicians for not standing up for American jobs, and Americans generally for buying cheap foreign crap instead of buying American.

Democrats need to get on this issue or they are going to get steamrollered by Trump.

http://fortune.com/2016/02/18/sanders-and-trump-give-union-hope-in-fight-for-jobs-at-carrier/

when Sanders says "this proves NAFTA was bad" and Trump says "I will put a 45% tariff on Carrier Mexico", who are people who want action on the issue going to vote for ?

[Thinkingabout]

11. It's simple, the GOP platform says they are against abortion, enough for

Many, of course they do not want to overthrow Roe vs Wade, their voting base would leave.

[TexasProgresive]

12. President Johnson said it best

LBJ in 1960: "If you can convince the lowest white man that he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket."

[pampango]

35. In one sentence, that about sums it up. And the presence of a Black president, rather than

causing them to see the error in their 'logic', has seemed to just drive them further off the deep end - and their pockets continue to be picked.

[treestar]

114. Yes

at least the white people I was raised among, have to feel superior to somebody. And that includes their fellow white people. It's all they live for

[hatrack]

14. Magical Thinking

"Hey, this guy's really RICH, so if I vote for him, someday I'll be rich too!"

[NeoGreen]

15. Fear...

...fear that some day in the future they may actually be treated like the proletariat and not the elites they have been told they are all their lives.

Voting Democratic and accepting progressive ideals means having to live in a pluralistic societal environment where everyone regardless of skin color or apparent continent of origin or apparent sexual/gender orientation, is treated with respect and dignity not just by the state, but by all individuals within their day to day social interactions.

Their incipient racism, fueled and fanned by ignorance (race is real not just a human cultural construct, evolution and Global Climate Change are false) and fear (as spewed by Rush), blinds them to the the true source of the power that keeps them poor (the 1%) and drives them away from institutions that are actually working to raise their living standards (unions) and turns their fear into hate for those neighbors or fictional nemeses (welfare queens) who are different or who might need a helping hand.

Fear + Ignorance -> Hate -> vote Republican.

Add some spin like "Job Creators" while ignoring that these so called Job Creators are nothing more than "market exploiters" who merely have excess/sufficient capital to to organize the labor of others to extract a profit from a market opportunity that arose from market demand of which these so called market creators did not create.

Apologies for my rambling, I live in a very rural/red area and the ideas that my friends/neighbors embrace and espouse make me feel like I am standing next to an abyss of ignorance.

[4Q2u2]

37. First Word

That is the first word that popped in my head as well. The non-stop drum beat of hate and fear mongering that is being consumed.
Trump himself on live TV has stated that he believes wages are TOO HIGH in this country. Well were the hell is he going to cut wages? On them and Us.

[bbgrunt]

103. ^^this^^

[meow2u3]

16. Racism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry

Repukes' animosity towards women and minorites tend to trump (no pun intended) the economic issues that help keep poor, uneducated white repukes above water. In other words, they hate blacks, Latinos, LGBT's, and strong women more than they love the safety net that keeps them from becoming totally destitute. They'd rather die a miserable death by slowly starving and wasting away on the streets than share a little with women and minorities.

[raccoon]

17. Racism. nt

[Initech]

20. The word "uneducated"?

Republicans can't keep getting elected with an educated populace. That's why they keep gutting education funding and relying on a news network to tell their voters what to think.

My question is what causes educated, salaried people to vote republican? They are mainly voting against their best interests.

[liberal N proud]

26. This is true

[Risen Demon]

21. Sadly, its bigotry and

the "if it weren't for (labeled group) i'd be living the dream!" mentality.

Also i see too much bottled up anguish being masked by pride.

[ladjf]

41. I totally agree with your post.

People tend find anyone that can can be considered inferior be that racial , financial, regional, cultural, and other criteria.

I once lived in a small town , population 2,000. There was a nearby town about half the size. Many people in the larger town made fun of those in the smaller town for being from such a small town.

If one race of people in a certain area can sell the idea that another racial group truly is inferior, then the ones "on top" have efficiently eliminated and entire racial group from various types of competition, i.e. jobs, money,social standing and other opportunities.

[Risen Demon]

45. Yes!

This is how the KKK leaders were able to manipulate the white citizens of North Carolina into supporting their cause. The wealthy Caucasians looked down at them as "poor white trash" and made an entire group of people(farmers, wage workers, or working poor) feel inferior. This was used as a ploy to turn their aggression towards a seemingly "inferior" race: the blacks. This group of lower-income Caucasians banded together as a mindset that they were superior to the "uppity negro" in their area, and it was this racial group causing their griefs instead of the upper class robber-baron types who exploited them for every penny. With the new sense of superiority, the "poor whites" felt they had a purpose. Realistically, they were being manipulated by big money as we still see today.

[ladjf]

51. There is a lot more details in the history of this topic that both of us

have chosen to leave out.

You obviously have a thorough grasp of the psychology of prejudice.

[phylny]

23. I hate to be so cruel, but really, you can't fix stupid.

A woman I knew during the last election (Obama versus Rmoney) was so excited that she got to see Mittens at a rally in Virginia. Thrilled. He would be the best president ever.

She and her family received WIC, SNAP, and her son received Medicaid for his health needs, and she had a very low-paying job at a gas station convenience store where she made minimum wage. I asked her if she thought Mitt would continue to support the programs that were helping her family.

Blank expression. Blank stare. Blankness. Devoid of any understanding.

You can't fix stupid.

[Nay]

38. Better yet, ask the woman if she is ready to convert to Mormonism,

because she'd have to if she wanted any help with food, medical care, and housing, cuz that's how they run things in Utah.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

56. Unreal

You're right, can't fix dumb.

[Act_of_Reparation]

25. I'm more interested to know what causes educated people to vote Republican.

Voting Republican because you don't know better is one thing; voting Republican when by all accounts you should know better is something else.

[liberal N proud]

27. That is the other unexplained phenomenon

[mnhtnbb]

40. That's my brother. We grew up in a very Republican family

Both our parents were staunch Republicans. My mother used to have a framed photo of Ronnie in her kitchen. When I'd go home--as a 30 something adult in the 1980's--I'd want
to throw up when I went in the kitchen.

My brother never broke away from the family. He's very well educated--MD/Ph.D--and he's worked for Big Pharma for the last 15 years. At one time he was faculty in
the Med School at a major university, but he left that for the chance to make big$$ working for Big Pharma.

Therein lies the key to him: he's all about the money. I tried to get him to vote for Kerry in 2004--appealing to his scientific mind--and got nowhere. One of his grown
kids has told me (4 out of 5 of his kids are Dems) that they can't get him to vote anything other than Republican because he doesn't want to pay higher taxes. That's it.
That's the sum total of why he votes Republican.

He should know better but all he cares about is $$ in his pocket.

[Risen Demon]

47. It's the mantra of the entire party

If you have money, it's about money.

If you don't have money, it's about Jesus

[Depaysement]

28. Many things

But foremost is the strongly held belief that the "Corporate/Professional/Educated" Democratic Party doesn't have their backs.

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

33. Which is somewhat true unfortunately

I mean, Christ, DSW voted to legalize racial discrimination for car loans.

[yourpaljoey]

30. In th case of Trump: yam worship, pure and simple

[CommonSenseDemocrat]

31. Honestly: The Democrats do a poor job delivering services to them

The rural poor are not beneficiaries of mass transit. The rural poor potentially have high deductibles to pay with ACA. The rural poor are legitimately worried about losing their minimum wage job if the minimum wage rises. The rural poor have not seen proposals that expand or increase welfare eligibility from the poor, especially when Democrats also support low wage immigration expansion, and know that the Democrats also supported welfare reform.

Being upset at the rural poor for not voting Democrat is similar to being upset at a potential love interest after a rejection. It's not healthy and doesn't get to the heart of the question why the rural poor won't vote Democratic.

The Democrats right now are being co-opted on economic populism by Donald Trump. We need to get back to the roots of FDR if we want to get those votes back, even if it is at the expense of partially losing the rich urban vote.

[Angel Martin]

86. +1000 !

they want the blue collar jobs that paid better to come back.

The Dems have had no advantage on the blue-collar jobs issue since Clinton passed NAFTA.

And now Trump is outflanking them on both trade and immigration.

[WhiteTara]

32. Hatred for other. nt

[blm]

34. Constant exposure to propaganda. BushInc's concerted effort in the 80s and 90s to gain control of

all available media outlets, broadcast and print, by their cronies.

For over 3 decades the GOP's base voters have been spoon fed RW propaganda from the media empires developed by a Korean cult leader and an Australian extortionist. The Left Behind series of books that became a must read for every evangelical was political propaganda - Timothy LaHaye, a once self-described 'expert' on mind-control technique, was being funded since the 70s by Rev Moon. Rev Moon, one of GHWBush's longtime 'intel' cronies. It is no coincidence that RevMoon began developing his propaganda empire in the US in concert with Bush's PUBLIC elevation in national governance. Bush already had a long time role behind the scenes in the 60s and 70s, mainly in the intel community.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bad-moon-rising-john-gorenfeld/1102623743


Sad to say, some of the newer members of DU seem to be mostly unaware of the Moonie News media and the extent of its influence. I see articles being posted that are pure propaganda meant to disrupt Dem unity. Sometimes its directed at Sanders, and sometimes at Clinton, but it is ALWAYS aimed at the Dem party, itself.

[Nay]

39. ^^THIS^^ -- propaganda works, folks. nt

[blm]

43. Thank you.

I've been getting a lot of backlash lately here at DU from posters who don't want to believe they posted propaganda from Moonie News.

I appreciate when someone is familiar with how they operate. In DU's earlier days you couldn't find anyone who wasn't aware of the propaganda networks. Now, this place gets used to spread it.

[nruthie]

36. Because they are poor and uneducated.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

42. They want to please their,

abusers!

[Person 2713]

46. Hate. Voting with their anger .

Propaganda by the media

[One_Life_To_Give]

49. Their Micro-Environment reinforces their world view

Cops are helpfull and friendly.
The well off guy running his own construction firm, drives his own heavy equipment. And is at work before first light. Ditto for the Plumbing and Electrical contractor. Likewise the towns Muff Potter is a lazy drunk that can't hold a job and looks it. Wears an Army jacket but was unfit for service, etc.

Just like us the World View is shaped by what we experience all around us each and every day. But every neighborhood is not identical to every other neighborhood. What messages we take from our environment is a product of both how we are raised and the specific environment. Perhaps a better question is why is their life experience teaching different lessons? But that would require us to first consider them Human.

[Matrosov]

50. Over 50 years of hatred

Many poor white people come from a cultural background where anybody who isn't the stereotypical WASP is the enemy. It's not just about race but also extends to religion, sexual orientation, and so forth.

They're happy to keep voting Republican, the party that consistently wants to cut benefits for the poor and cut taxes for the rich, because those poor white people would rather remain poor than share prosperity with people of color, immigrants, followers of other religions, members of the LGBT community, etc.

[tabasco]

52. Non-stop corporate propaganda over the mass media

Yes, the primary issues are god, guns and gays, but it takes the mighty Wurlitzer to convince working class people that republicans actually care about these things - when all they really care about is looting the Treasury.

[BillZBubb]

53. Easy: RACISM.

That's why the south is solidly republican. It was solidly Democratic until the Democrats passed all sorts of civil rights legislation. Then, presto, the south turned solidly red. What changed? That's right racial policies. It is the one common denominator.

[6chars]

54. i don't know any uneducated white working class people so i'll just speculate

never mind.

[jeff47]

55. It's really not at all complicated. They're pissed off.

They see "the American dream" slipping away. They know they are doing worse than their parents. They know their situation is continuing to degrade.

Along comes a Republican. He says "I'm also pissed off!!". That piques their interest. Then that Republican says "It's THOSE people's fault!! Not ours, and not yours!!"

And so now they rage against THOSE people.

If only another party would notice the seething rage of the country and respond to it instead of pretending minor technocratic tweaks that can never pass Congress are enough.

[tk2kewl]

57. Rich well educated democrats that offer them nothing

[liberal N proud]

59. Rich Educated Republicans

Who all want to cut welfare, social security, education and send them off to fight their wars.

I don't think that Democrat meme flies.

[tk2kewl]

60. if you don't give them anything positive to vote FOR

they'll vote for the guy appealing to their fears

[JI7]

62. bernie sanders isn't giving them anything to vote for ?

Why are they supporting trump over Sanders ?

[tk2kewl]

63. not all of them are

[JI7]

64. It's never all. But many of them are

[tk2kewl]

66. and for a change many of them have found someone on the left that speaks for them

it's been a while

[JI7]

67. And many are still voting for Trump

More than they are for sanders.

[tk2kewl]

68. if you don't want to acknowledge that the democrats

bear some of the responsibility, so be it

[JI7]

69. yeah. support for civil rights

[tk2kewl]

71. so all poor whites are racists... that's the sum of your argument?

way to go

[JI7]

73. not all. the ones supporting trump

[tk2kewl]

82. no argument from me there

but for 50 years in the middle of the last century most voted dem b/c we were the party of working people... now?

[JI7]

83. racism

[tk2kewl]

84. i will not discount the other factors

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

58. RACISM. Period.

[JI7]

61. Support for Trump show it is Racism

Why didn't they vote for sanders ?

[Cleita]

80. Yes it is racism because I have run across Trump supporters who are educated and well off,

so it seems his appeal is just bigotry. I even told one woman, who isn't talking to me anymore, if Donald really closed the border, whom would she get to be her housekeeper, nanny and gardener? All of her help have Spanish names.

[Glassunion]

65. GMOs?

[pokerfan]

70. Delusions

&quot T)he trouble was that we didn’t have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist.

[maveric]

72. Gullibility. n/t

[Cleita]

74. Some Republican politician told them that those other guys were going to take

their jobs and their stuff, but they wouldn't let it happen to them, so vote for that Republican. Then after the Republican gets into office, he does nothing for that person, other than to tell him more lies why he can't keep his promises this time around. It's scary how well this works.

[LittleBlue]

111. +1

Yep :/

[Rex]

76. Fear, hatred and anger.

3 things.

[ieoeja]

77. Stop smartsplainin' to us!

Listen to us. Don't talk to us. Just shut up and listen for a change!

We've been telling you for years that DU doesn't listen to us. You keep trying to explain our problems to us. Well, we know our problems. We live them! If you really wanted to understand you would shut the fuck up and listen! So just stop it already. Sit down. Shut up. And ask us instead of trying to smartsplain everything.

[ThoughtCriminal]

78. The "Uneducated" part -nm

[ohnoyoudidnt]

95. Ding!

I clicked on this thread to say the same thing.

[Iggo]

79. What causes uneducated people to make decisions in ignorance?

Hmm...

[Agnosticsherbet]

85. It is a belief system, like religion nt

[ymetca]

87. Because

misery loves company, I'm thinkin'.

Come join us, if you dare... Jesus did. Circular logic like that.

Or faintly wishing you lived in the Book of Eli, or Mad Max, or the Postman movie worlds, because of life-long boredom and despair.

Or when you know you aren't the cleverest, the prettiest, most talented, or the most ruthlessly privileged, you tend to want to drag everybody else down to your level.

Or maybe it's just that we can't stop collectively playing King of the Hill.

Or maybe it's knowing that the cure is worse than the disease. For if money is god, then god is nothing, and that opens up into the Lovecraftian chaos of the universe. For if Einsteinian Relativity is actually, demonstrably true (which it is), then ...

"Nothing is true, all is permitted", and "reality is what you can get away with".

Like Marlon Brando, in Apocalypse Now, whispering "the horror .. the horror ..."

Or maybe it's just Janis Joplin, swiggin' whiskey, singin' "freedom's just another name for nothin' left to lose".

Perhaps I am thankful that I do not know.

[bbgrunt]

107. some days it sure feels like all of those at the same time.

[KamaAina]

90. The 24/7/365 propaganda machine.

[jwirr]

92. Hate and fear propaganda. "Whites are going to be a minority."

"They are taking our guns away." "The banks are going to crash again." "Islam is coming to get us."


When you are uneducated you will believe anything they tell you.

[NobodyHere]

94. Is it the condescending attitude from liberals?

Imagine if I started a thread titled "What causes poor uneducated black people to vote for Hilary?"

People would be waiting in line to whack me over the head.

[liberal N proud]

96. You misspelled Hillary

[AngryAmish]

97. It is kinda frustrating to read this because it really exists because of the way humans think

Everyone likes to think they look at all angles of a political issue then decide, dispassionately, what to support.

Only autistics think this way.

Humans are creatures of emotion. Our "logic" is post-facto reasoning to justify our decisions. Once our minds decide something it almost physically hurts to change it. Your amygdala tells you what is right and wrong...and changing right and wrong hurts. You are punished for changing your mind.

Political parties exists because we cannot know everything about the world. We use a set of rules (heuristics if one wants to be fancy) that are socially driven. Since we identify with the Democratic tribe, we adopt their platform as a set of moral goods and we look at the world through that prism. Think about pre-fall Constantinople. One side of the Bosporus ate pigs. The other side did not. And both sides felt passionately about it. But one's feeling on the morality of eating pigs depended on what side of the Bosporus one sat. But after Sultan Mehmed's cannon spoke the morality of eating pigs on the north side of the Bosporus changed really quick.

So why do poor whites vote Republican? Because that is their tribe. There should be no moral judgment since we act the exact same way. Because we are all human.

[liberal N proud]

98. Yes, I think the Republicans have perfected the passions

Democrats try to play to the intellect, yet passions still play a big part.

[nadinbrzezinski]

110. Democrats play the fear card more often now

Intellect, my ass

[OnionPatch]

99. I agree that "uneducated" has a lot to do with it.

Along with what others mentioned, I also think part of it is that they don't teach the history of working people in school. Anyone who has read much about the history of working people should be terrified by the GOP, who are blatantly trying to take away the gains the working class has made over the last hundred years. Too many people don't understand that things like weekends, minimum wages, workplace safety, etc. are not just given to workers out of kindness.

Sadly, the Dems haven't exactly been the champions of working people either, lately. So that's probably part of it. And the GOP are good at making their assaults on working people sound helpful. ("Right to Work" for example.)

[malokvale77]

100. It's not that hard.

The Democratic Party abandoned them. Their needs aren't glamorous enough.

[ffr]

101. Republis like things to be easy. The uneducated do too.

Just tell them who or what they should vote for. Ah, thank you. Wasn't that easy? No more anxiety over making a wrong choice or bad decision.

Fox Entertainment is all about broadcasting a message the helps uneducated people feel good about not making decisions on their own. It works on educated people too. Want to watch someone get uncomfortable? Pose a question to a Republis that has an answer with some gray area in it. They'll do all they can to avoid answering. They want black and white, yes and no, this way or that way kind of questions to answer. Make it easy on them or they're out!

[bbgrunt]

109. there is also the different "authoritarian" tendencies of different people.

Authoritarians want strong leaders to make decisions for them. Non authoritarians rebel at strong leadership. Estimates are that 20-30% of any population is authoritarian.

see wikipedia:

Bob Altemeyer conducted a series of studies on what he labeled Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and presents the most recent analysis of this personality type.[11] The focus of RWA research is political preferences as measured through surveys, that suggest three tendencies as noted in attitudinal clusters. These are: 1) submission to legitimate authorities; 2) aggression towards sanctioned targeted minority groups; and 3) adherence to values and beliefs perceived as endorsed by followed leadership. McCrae & Costa (1997)[12] report that the big 5 dimension of openness to experience is negatively correlated to RWA (r=-0.57) as measured by the NEO-PI-R Openness scale.

More recently, Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, and Sulloway (2003) have proposed that Authoritarianism, RWA and other similar constructs of political conservatism are a form of motivated social cognition. These researchers propose that conservatism has similar characteristics as to authoritarianism, with resistance to change, and justification for inequality as the core components. In addition, conservative individuals have needs to manage uncertainty and threat with both situational motives (e.g., striving for security and dominance in social hierarchies) and dispositional motives (e.g., terror management and self-esteem). Despite its methodological deficiencies, the theory of the authoritarian personality has had a major influence on research in political, personality, and social psychology.

[womanofthehills]

102. Remember all the psychos at the Malheur refuge

It was guns for them and mad they weren't getting free grazing (even thought most were getting government assistance). Hate right wing radio is gobbled up by the paranoid.

In my small town, I've had Republicans complain big time to me about food stamps - they would rather see the little children starve.

[pansypoo53219]

104. divide & conquer. the GOP w/ cut off blacks from freebees. BOOTSTRAPS!

govt BAD!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

105. Fox News, pathetic tabloids hate and bigotry

[Zynx]

106. Using condescending labels like "uneducated" doesn't help.

"Hey, you're kinda dumb. Why don't you vote for us?"

[ffr]

113. Good point, except that it's far less condescending because it's the truth.

If the uneducated continue voting for them the GOP, A) they won't get any smarter and B) neither will their children. Whereas, if they choose to take the chance to help make our country better and vote for Democratic candidates, at least they and their children will be more likely to receive better education, as well as, a better healthcare system. It all adds up to a stronger future with better prospects for everyone.

That's an upside to saying it like it is.

[nadinbrzezinski]

108. There is a video of Missisipi where people are interviewed

It will partially answer that question.

A somewhat easy answer is fear...of multiple things. But politics is just as rational as religion. Some vote that way because dad and grand dad told them to...like many Dems do as well.

It would be worth it to search for it, and no, I don't have a link. I saw it on FB. Occupy Democrats put it out. The guy getting SNAP and just snap is a perfect example. He votes republican, is poorer than a church mouse, would like to blow the safety net (for others) but it is his right to get snap since that is his only income. That be under 7000 a year, by the by

[LeftishBrit]

115. Some poor people vote for right-wing parties because they think they may be rich some day

Some because they are blaming minorities and social nonconformists, rather than the real rulers, for their plight. Divide-and-rule tactics by the media encourage this.

Some in America, I imagine, because they go to churches that encourage them to equate Christianity with conservative politics.

And some people just do genuinely believe in right-wing ideology, even if it is against their economic interests, just as some rich people believe in left-wing ideology despite the fact that it may deprive them of some of their money and privileges.

[DemocraticWing]

116. Most poor whites don't vote at all. Many who do vote Democrat.

I think the latest data I saw suggested that Democrats did far better with poor whites than they did middle and upper class whites. Which is surprising, since we don't do as much to inspire them to vote; they think both parties are bad. The reason Republicans have made inroads is because the nutty Republicans who are always going to vote that way have kept coming out to vote on religion or whatever, while most sane poor white people are staying home at higher rates every year.

[Amishman]

118. Judging by my neighbors; guns and god

I live in a rural conservative part of PA.

Judging by those around me, the only things that keep them voting republican is guns and god

guns are a huge deal to some of them, more than a hobby. They will not vote for any democrat because the idea that 'the democrats want to take your guns' is burned into their brain. Feinstein's 'turn them all in' comment from decades ago has probably cost the party millions of votes over the years.

others are completely twisted up with religion. Whichever candidate mentions 'Jesus' the most gets their vote.