I Can't Figure Out How Anyone In The 80% Could Be Right Wing [View all]

[Butch McQueen]

Is it a fear driven inability to acknowledge the precarious nature of their own security? "It will never happen to me" narcissism? Just plain old being dumb? I just can't get my mind around it!

I have an elderly (mid 70s) acquaintance who is constantly posting right wing themed bumper stickers on her facebook page (No Work, No Eat... that kind of crap) and I frequently have advised her to be careful what she wishes for. She has a daughter who because of health issues hasn't worked in years. Her daughter receives a disability check, food stamps, rent assistance, and has had Medicaid and state programs pay for what is easily over $1,000,000 in costs for medical needs over the last couple of years. When I remind her that her daughter would literally be dead if it weren't for these "welfare" programs she tells me "oh no I'm not talking about people like her"! I've tried and tried to explain that the people trying to reduce or eliminate all these programs are talking about people exactly like her daughter it falls on deaf ears. I ran into her a couple days ago and she was complaining about the fact her daughter's food stamp benefit was being reduced. Rather than say "I told you so" I once again tried to draw the causality between right wing viewpoints and her daughter's situation - which proved to be a waste of time.

I have a friend who is in his 60s who is on Medicare. He has had coronary by-pass surgery twice. He despises "Obamacare" with every breath he draws. He refuses to understand that the ACA isn't about "free" healthcare, it is insurance. I ask him what he would do if Medicare was reduced or eliminated. He says "I'd get back all the taxes I've paid and buy a private insurance policy"! I can not make him understand that, A: Without the ACA his pre-existing condition would guarantee no insurer would ever touch him with a 10 foot pole. And B: Without Medicare he would be up the creek because even if he could get insurance the policy would cost tens of thousands a month. His only response is to repeat the mantra of "the government is bad".

I have another friend who is in his 40s. He was raised in a single parent home by an alcoholic mother. Without "welfare" the family would have been living under a bridge somewhere. He has a daughter who is a single mother raising five children, without "welfare" they would be living under a bridge somewhere. He is employed in a very cyclic industry where periodic layoffs are a fact of life, so he himself has benefited from unemployment and food stamps. In spite of all this he is a total "Dittos Rush" right wind zealot. When I point out to him how many times "welfare: has saved 3 generations of his family all I hear back is the "I pay taxes I've earned those things". Being persistent, I actually start running the numbers... what he has paid in taxes vs what 3 generations of his family has received and demonstrate that from a accounting perspective he is way in the red to society as a whole. His response, "If I hadn't had to pay the taxes in the first place I could have invested the money and become a millionaire"!

The sad thing is these people I've described and the attitudes they have are not a minority amongst my acquaintances, they are a large majority (maybe I need to start hanging out with a better class of people!). As my wife described it the other day, "Their being Republicans would be like African-Americans joining a pro-slavery group".

So, back to the original question... Are they scared, narcissistic, or just plain dumb?

thanks for tolerating my rant!

Butch