May I Attempt to Predict America's Political Future?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

27. Given that surveys show that people tend to favor

the liberal/progressive stand on many issues (choice, health care, job protections, and so on) a lot of thought needs to go into figuring out why so many vote so consistently against their own self interest.

Just some of the reasons:
They are persuaded by their religious leaders that what Democrats will do to them or their children is the greater evil.
They don't really believe that Republicans will take away hard earned rights.
They think that they will magically benefit from tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthiest. A corollary to that is that they do not understand how taxes work and what they pay for.
They honestly believe that a black or woman President (especially if that woman is Hillary Clinton) is an evil far, far worse than anything any Republican could possibly do.
They don't have a clue how things like foreign trade work or how tariffs can impact their jobs. Or how free trade can impact their jobs.

Most people just muddle along, going to work, sending their kids to school, watching TV in its many forms, playing video games, never reading a book or thinking about the causes of anything. None of that is going to change in our lifetimes. Indeed, it will only get worse.

A personal note here: I'm staying with my sister, and three of her grandchildren (ages 9, 5, and 2) stay here during the day (parents not married to each other, but share custody. Mom works day job, Dad, her son, works evening shift) and the kids do NOTHING all day long but watch TV. The father is completely unengaged, never talks to them, never takes them out for a work or to the nearby public swimming pool, never initiates a board game, nothing at all. Ninety percent of the time he's simply in his room. If he's down in the living room with them he's got his eyes on his cell phone and barely monitors squabbles. I'm appalled, but it's not my place to say anything. The kids would be vastly better off in a decent day care or in a camp program now that it's summer, but nope. I realize money would be an issue here. Meanwhile, the kids are learning absolutely nothing new and are forgetting whatever they might have learned this past school year. They are reasonably bright kids whose potential is simply not being developed because they're allowed to do nothing at all, all day long. And they're probably a pretty common example of how too many kids are growing up these days.