I've never understood why so many working class white men and women vote republican.

[Scootaloo]

8. Because they're white

I'm not sure many liberals really fathom this... But that deep, ugly racial divide that segregated our nation even into the 70's? That hasn't gone away. A few rope bridges have been strung over the chasm, but it's still there, still deep as ever.

Take public education. The conservative loathing of this long American institution began with desegregation. Racists whites did not want their children being schooled with black children, so they pulled their kids out to send them to segregated private schools. They then turned around and said "why should I pay taxes for a school my kids don't attend?"

It's the same logic shown in their hared for welfare, their hatred for medicine. They see these things as their money - white people's money - being used for the benefit of brown people. No matter how much it's pointed out to them that more white people than brown rely on welfare, no matter how often you undermine or counter their argument.. .it doesn't matter to them. if ONE non-white person is benefiting, they are incensed. Period. if these programs were "white only" - as they often were in the New Deal - they would no doubt have wild bilateral support. But they're not, so the conservatives - the racists - hate them.

There are a few other defining factors, but all of them still come down to the conservative hating someone who is not like them. They hate people who do not share their religion, They hate people who do not share their gender. They hate people who do not share their sexuality. It's all hate. it's what drives them, it is the core of their outlook.