Why would poor and working class americans vote against their interest ?

Question

why would poor and working class americans vote republican ?

Answer 1

People believe in promises by politicians that are said to be broken.

Answer 2

How is refusing to place my future in the hands of an incompetent government (social security, health insurance, etc) voting against my interest?

I would rather put money into a COMPETENT system for my retirement. I would rather pay for COMPETENT health care, not some wait-10-months-for-my-wife's-ultrasound-... bureaucracy.

And on top of that, I plan to have a lot of money someday. Only if I do something they government disapproves of, I don't want them withholding any of my benefits (hence the whole private route, makes me less dependent on the government, gives them less control). They have a history of doing that, you know.

On top of that, I don't feel the rich owe me anything beyond the terms of my employment. They pay me for the hours I work, and I'm fine with that. The whole "He's got more money than me, let's get him!" witch hunt mentality has got to go.

Answer 3

Of course, the premise is nonsense.

Tell me, which is more in the poor and working class's interest?  A candidate that promises to hike taxes on the rich and re-distribute that wealth, at the price of slowing down the economy?  Or a candidate that promotes tax cuts aimed at helping the economy grow at an even faster rate?

I don't know about you, but I have always done better when the economy was growing well, rather then waiting for some gov't program to help me.

Answer 4

Those are two completely separate questions. First, most people won't vote against their own best interest. Second, there was a time when voting Republican was basically voting for government run according to the US Constitution. Nothing wrong with that. However for the past seven years or so that hasn't been the case.

Answer 5

This will be the second presidential election in a row that has no good candidate.  God help us, we are really in a downward spiral.

Answer 6

Because they have been brainwashed by slick politicians and the media.

Answer 7

Looking at the answers above I can identify three major themes:

1 They despise the people below them in the class system.

Their assumptions are that those on welfare are guilty of poor decision making and being lazy, and therefore deserve no empathy.

Baffling! They turn a blind eye to of the effects of globalization on blue collar jobs, the great inequalities within the education system, the economic use of immigration to maintain an over supply of workers, social prejudice, and even their own venerability to these socioeconomic pressures.

2. They see government as a tyrannical enemy but employers as their benefactors.

Their assumption is that government takes and employers give.



Baffling! They don’t see that both governments and employers exchange - and both abuse their power in the bargain. They fear being enslaved to the government but accept the legitimacy of wage slavery and the totalitarian power of employers. They also turn a blind eye to the close connections between the corporate and political elite. They question political power but not the legitimacy of economic power.  

  

3. Greed.

Their assumption is that somehow they will become rich one day, or at least move up the economic ladder - at least two respondents clearly stated this as a reason for supporting policies that favour the wealthy.

Baffling! They don't know that the United States has significantly less economic mobility than Canada, Finland, Sweden, or Norway - that in countries with greater economic and educational equality their chances of climbing up the economic ladder would be better.

I wonder which factor is the most important?

Answer 8

I don't know...maybe some of them actually like the idea of freedom and don't want to be slaves to government?

Answer 9

To answer your first question, it's because the Democrats spend a lot of effort in fooling people into believing that they care about the peasants (slips such as Obama's "bitter people clinging to their guns and religion" and Kerry's calling US servicemembers stupid and lazy reveal their real intentions).

To answer your second question, they often vote Republican because, if you're paying attention, the Democrats' lies are pretty transparent.

Answer 10

Because some of us believe in personal responsibility and would rather work for what we have than to rely on the enslavement practices of a Nanny Government.  My employer owes me nothing more than my agreed upon wages for a job well done.  It is not in my best interest to pay more taxes for others to sit on their duff.

McCain '08

Answer 11

well....let me put it to you this way.  The sharpest tools in the shed get the cheese and get it over and over again, while the dullest tools in the shed are easily fooled and suckered over and over again.

Answer 12

B/C the poor of America are notoriously religious (Christian) and generally will vote on wedge issues such as abortion and g*y marriage over issues that will actually affect their lives.

Answer 13

NEITHER PARTY AS IT CURRENTLY SET UP HAS THE WELFARE OF THE POOR AND WORKING CLASS AS FIRST ON THEIR SEPARATE AGENDAS. ASK THE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS AND LOBBYISTS WHO IS FIRST, LAST, AND ALWAYS NUMERO UNO.

Answer 14

The concept of class is flawed.  Classes are not monolithic.  The members of any so-called class have different interests and priorities.  One working class person may feel strongly about national defense, another may feel strongly about abortion, another about illegal immigration.

Answer 15

After George Bush, why would ANYONE vote Repub?  Obama '08, Save America!!

Answer 16

Guerilla provides an excellent analysis of why anyone would vote against their own interests.  The problem is there is so little choice; voting Democrat is no better.  The Democratic Party parades around, pretending to be a working class party while doing little for the workers.  Democrats often openly campaign for right-wing votes, while ignoring the left-wing voters who identify with the Green Party, Socialist Party, and so on.  If the Democrats win, they can ignore the American Left, because they made no promises to them, while still being the "working class party."  What it ultimately comes down to is the lack of freedom in the United States, and more to the point, the lack of the ability to express this state of "non-freedom."  We are told we can select whoever we choose to be president, as long as we choose a Democrat or Republican.  The Parties themselves select the candidates and ensure that the candidate they want to win comes out on top in the ridiculous farce known as the Primaries.  The media plays along, focusing on a few candidates, so that certain candidates never have a chance of winning.  With Republicans specifically, these candidates often use scare tactics; "You either support freedom or terrorism," they say.  How can anyone not choose freedom? but it is freedom by the Republicans standards, not the peoples'.  The freedom to choose a president, the freedom to choose what ideas we support, have become tools used against, to oppress us, to make us bend to the wishes of a small group of wealthy people who only have their own interests in mind and the rest of the population be damned.

Answer 17

Well I am working class and I vote Republican because it is in my interest to do so.  In fact voting for the democrats would be against my best interests because I don't like my tax dollars being taken from me to simply give to others who didn't earn them.

The real question is why would the poor or working class who ever hope to move up economically EVER vote for the party who intentionally trys to keep you broke (Democrats)

Answer 18

Many of the poor are that way due to bad decision making. This is just another example. But it isn't just Republicans; there are Democrats I wouldn't vote for either.