Why working-class people vote conservative
Across the world, blue-collar voters ally themselves with the political right – even when it appears to be against their own interests. Is this because such parties often serve up a broader, more satisfying moral menu than the left?
Why on Earth would a working-class person ever vote candidate? This question has obsessed the American left since Ronald Reagan first captured the votes of so many union members, farmers, urban Catholics and other relatively powerless people – the so-called "Reagan Democrats". Isn't the Republican party the party of big business? Don't the Democrats stand up for the little guy, and try to redistribute the wealth downwards?
Many commentators on the left have embraced some version of the duping hypothesis: the Republican party dupes people into voting against their economic interests by triggering outrage on cultural issues. "Vote for us and we'll protect the American flag!" say the Republicans. "We'll make English the official language of the United States! And most importantly, we'll prevent gay people from threatening your marriage when they … marry! Along the way we'll cut taxes on the rich, cut benefits for the poor, and allow industries to dump their waste into your drinking water, but never mind that. Only we can protect you from gay, Spanish-speaking flag burners.
Why do Progressives support privileges* for the banks and thus, by extension, for the rich, the most so-called creditworthy of what is then, in essence, the public's credit but for private gain?
ReplyDelete*E.g. the government insurance of privately created deposits/liabilities.
The answer is that Progressives themselves are class-conscious elitists, in my experience.
ReplyDeleteQ. Why do working class people vote conservative, when it is not in their economic interest?
ReplyDeleteA. Because conservative is all they have to vote for.
Leading Democrats / Labour Party politicians have nothing to offer except endless war, austerity, neoliberalism, political correctness, and social justice warrior madness.
Not all Democrats are this way. A handful of Democrats / Labour Party politicians oppose austerity and neoliberalism, but they are too few and too junior to make any difference.
"Don't the Democrats stand up for the little guy, and try to redistribute the wealth downwards?” ~ Jonathan Haidt
A handful of Democrats do, but senior Democrats do not. Leading Democrats (i.e. those that control the party) are as hostile to workers as are Republicans. When senior Democrats controlled the U.S. House (2007 to 2011) they used austerity to crush average Americans. Senior Democrats have vowed to do it again if they gain a House majority in Nov. 2018. Indeed they have vowed to make austerity their top priority. (Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer, Cory Booker, Steny Hoyer, Joseph Crowley, Ben Ray Luján, etc.)
In the U.K., Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn likewise favors deficit reduction (i.e. austerity) which means continued cuts to social programs and the NHS.
Among average registered Democrats, some are social justice warriors, but most are not. Some push militant feminism, gay rights trash, trans-rights idiocy, etc., but most don’t care about those things. Some are anti-Trump, but most only care about what politicians can offer them personally.
In November 2018, flaming liberal Democrats will vote, but most Democrats will stay home. Therefore Democrats will not retake the U.S. House.
In November 2020, Trump will be re-elected for the same reason. Senior Democrats have nothing to offer, and genuinely progressive Democrats are too few in number.
Bogus question based on bogus assumptions that completely ignores the money-corrupt voting system from any angle.
ReplyDelete