fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3596 ]

[ SECRET POST #3596 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3596 ⌋

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Tell me, why do poor voters vote for a rich guy who wouldn't give a shit about them if they were laying on his doorstep? Do they think that his wealth is going to magically transfer? Hey folks: if he just won a presidential election by not giving a shit about anyone or anything other than himself, why on earth would he change his game for you?

because he's promising to fuck with the establishment and they hate the establishment / mainstream

also, race

^ poor white people will vote against their own interest if a white man is there.

Because nobody knows where the fallout from Trump's crazy will land, but they already know that Hillary is only going to help the upper levels of the middle-class and corporate donors. They do not believe they will get any help from Hillary, but there is a slight chance that Captain Crazy Cuckoo Pants might accidentally cause enough of a ruckus that some of the wealth shakes down.

The stratification of the American class system, which neither party has done enough (or much of anything) to address, is the major problem of our age. Things are getting better if you are already well off, but worse if you are not. Hillary promises more of the same from the Democrats and the mainstream Republicans are in ivory towers; but Trump is nutso. He is the only game in town for the white poor.

I dunno, the same reason they'd vote for a rich woman who doesn't give a shit about anything but her own self-aggrandizement. Because if you think Hillary cares about you, you're delusional.

I don't think the analogy is very good, in the sense that I think Clinton voters are mostly people who are pretty comfortable with the status quo and expect Clinton to continue it. They're not voting for change in the way that Trump voters are.

"a rich woman who doesn't give a shit about anything but her own self-aggrandizement."

That's like, one vagina away from applying to Trump, though.

Yeah, but he's just a sleazebag. She's a rapist-apologist crook.

He is an Actual Rapist, and if his accuser hadn't dropped her suit claiming he raped her when she was 13 due to the death threats she received from his supporters, we would have learned whether or not he is an Actual Child Rapist.

Yeah, still only a vagina separating the two.

He was accused of raping a kid at a party hosted by his friend and actual convicted sex offender.

It's complicated, but:

1) Divisive, ultra conservative social issues that the GOP has been pushing for decades and decades.

2) The belief that rich people "earned" their wealth through their smarts and all round superiority, which is proof that the American Dream is still possible. (The implication is that it's still possible for the poor voters.) It ignores the fact that Trump's wealth is inherited, but eh, logic isn't really part of this.

Afgreed, but I'd add to your first point that Republican politicians haven't done enough in conservative voters' eyes to address those social issues they championed. Primary voters felt betrayed and did not, by and large, vote for "establishment" candidates (Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich) even though they were all fairly conservative.

Of course they didn't. They never intended to do anything about most of the hot button social issues that election campaigns yammer on about; those hot button issues are there solely to inflame the hardline voters, not because candidates genuinely intend to do anything about them.

And for many years, this strategy worked just fine. But with the rise of the Tea Party and politicians whose platforms are highly sympathetic to them, politicians like Palin and now Trump are grabbing a lot more of the vote than the GOP planned. This outcome is definitely not what they wanted, but they made their bed decades ago.

Read "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis".

No. Seriously, read it. It'll help you understand why.

da

Another book I'd recommend about people voting against their own interests is "What's the Matter with Kansas?" It's less sociological than "Hillbilly Elegy" and it's a little bit dated, but it dives into why a state that used to be quite progressive is now almost completely the opposite.

Because they want to believe they, too, will be rich someday, and therefore it's important to live in a society that benefits rich people so they can benefit when they inevitably become rich.

nayrt - Yep. It sounds insane, but it's not wrong. Even people who are broke as a joke often still believe that a government that benefits rich people will benefit them in some way. Maybe it's that "trickle down" nonsense, maybe it's because that deep down, they believe that because they're smart, good people that wealth is inevitable, but... they believe it.

"Believing that a government that benefits rich people will benefit [you] in some way" is not at all the same as believing that things that benefit rich people are good because you believe you'll be rich some day.

There is a huge difference between those things.

If you'll read my comment carefully, you'll see I'm not equating them but that the latter does fit beneath the broad umbrella of the former and I accept that this may well be some peoples' unconscious motivation.

I'm increasingly confident that this is not actually really a thing. Like, 90% sure. I know "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" is a great line but it just does not line up with the observed beliefs, rhetoric, and behavior of working class conservative voters.

Look up "prosperity gospel" and get back to us.

I accept that the prosperity gospel exists but I still think it's a very simplistic explanation

Perhaps not all working class conservative voters, but there is in the U.S. a very deeply rooted belief that if you work hard, you'll be successful, (i.e. rich) and that wealth is tied to morality in many peoples' minds. That's why you see the rhetoric of poor people = lazy, welfare cheats and rich people = smart, business savvy leaders. So therefore people who are rich are rich because they deserve to be, and likewise people who are poor are poor because they've fucked up somehow. Nobody wants to be the fuckup, so people root for the successes... which in this case, are rich people.

I think it's less about that and more about the fact that a lot of these people feel like even a middle class existence is a distant dream, and they think government handouts mostly go to blacks and Muslims and immigrants and those Mexican bastards sneaking over the border. They have practically nothing and they're being asked to pay taxes so their hard earned money can support that black welfare cheat with six kids. Meanwhile, the only representation they get in the media is redneck jokes with bad teeth and banjos. All the good jobs went overseas thirty years ago, or the mine closed down because of those damn environmentalists (and maybe everybody's got cancer from the mine tailings, but they'd have it from smoking anyhow.)

Trump's promising them jobs and that those other bastards will stop taking their money and jobs and start getting what's coming to them instead.

Re: Nervous about tomorrow...

(Anonymous) - 2016-11-08 05:33 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Nervous about tomorrow...

(Anonymous) - 2016-11-08 13:47 (UTC) - Expand

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