Jesus is too busy trying to pick a Republican candidate to care about football. Yes I know, how un-American of him.
Republicans are duping those who aren't rich into believing they are preserving "opportunity." But it's opportunity for the rich. The opportunity to make more than your parents did is higher in Australia, Canada, and Scandinavia. All have "socialized health care," higher taxes, and the social safety net that Republicans are always trying to cut. "Mobility in earnings, wages and education across generations is relatively low in France, southern European countries, the United Kingdom and the United States. By contrast, such mobility tends to be higher in Australia, Canada and the Nordic countries." http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/2/7/45002641.pdf
Charles P. Pierce on why the "What's the Matter with Kansas?" question matters in Kansas: BTW, I got to this link about what (the Left think) the Right gets right via Pierce, and I found the responses at once confounding and illuminating. The response are all reasonable, even noble, things to aim for, but they offer very little in practical terms, and found truth in this critique of conservatives, that they "cling to the comforting moral illusion that there is a sharp distinction between allowing people to suffer and making people suffer".
Seven varieties of the same flavor -- wealthy individuals get big tax cuts, corporations get big tax cuts, poor/middle class range from small tax cuts to small tax hikes, deficit is massively increased.
Besides, when you talk to Jesus about football, he assumes you're talking about football/soccer. Tebow: "Lord, help me beat New England in football so I can advance in the playoffs" Jesus: "New England? Funny, I thought they didn't make the playoffs this season" (discards request)
The answer to the original question is simple. Fear. The republicans are excellent at selling fear. Anyone with more than 3 brain cells can see that republican economic policies are abject failures so the republicans need a good smoke screen so the lower middle class and poor won't notice. During the civil rights era they played on the fear that these black guys were going to take the white man's jobs and screw their daughters. It is the same now. If we allow those flag burning homos to get married it will destroy the fabric of marriage. Those dang Mesicans are going to take your jobs. If you don't pray to Jesus you are going to hell. Stupid people buy that crap hook, line and sinker. They are too scared and stupid to know they are voting against their own interests.
Republicans also use, oh, I don't know what this logical fallacy's called, but they can always rely on their "Cut taxes because the economy is struggling/booming" message. See also: get tougher on crime because it's out of control/it's going down.
How the Democrats vote is completely irrelevant to the point, which is, for their pet issues, Republicans will cite completely opposing reasons to justify tax cuts, tough on crime, etc.
Krugman has an amazing graphic in his blog today. It's the most dramatic graph on the subject I've ever seen. The subject is "nonfinancial debt, public plus private, as a percentage of GDP." That is, how much the country and its companies are going into hock. The result of course is EXACTLY the opposite of what Tea Party supporters believe. And massively hugely so. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/20...bubbles/?gwh=9539A3D3BC12A3C59CA32BADCFA4387F The upshot is that there have been two regimes in the past 50 years. Most of the time, under Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush the First, and Clinton, the figure has been flat. But overall debt levels have soared for the half century due exclusively -- exclusively -- to monstrous growth during the Reagan and W administrations. Oh and after rising sharply in 2009 during Obama's first year, the figure has declined in 2010 and 2011 under Obama. It never once declined in 16 years under Reagan and W. So the lesson is simple: All the Dem Presidents and half the Republican Presidents are sober, responsible stewards. The other half of Republican Presidents juice their economies with massive debt bubbles that the next generation ends up paying for. Then the Republicans blame the Dems for what they created. I saved the graphic. It's all you'll ever need to show somebody who's prating on about fiscally irresponsible liberals. I can't figure out how to paste the picture onto this post, though.
not even close. first the formatting...a classic ITN post starts with a bolded title The Muslimification of 1600 Pennsylvania then you have to launch into the hyperbole etc.. using catch phrases like Dear Leader etc.. then you close with a jibe and a "I'm with Fred!"
Somewhere in there you'd also have to mention your deeply-held Catholic faith and then a sentence or two later point out that you're an alum of Bob Jones University.
Oh come now-- I cant remember him ever mentioning those last two in one post. Consecutive posts, sure, but not the same post...
Great question. On the flip side, why do people that are hurt by Democrat's policies, vote Democrat? Or. Here is a great one... When Obama was running for President and there was a concern among the media that he "was too white" for the black vote, why were people not outraged at the implied racial connotations? Are whites smarter than blacks, or are blacks smarter than whites? Either way you slice it, someone is getting shafted.
Krugman is an amazing fellow. So amazing, in fact, that despite what he says he is always correct. Seriously. He constantly contradicts himself.
Kid from shitty little town in nowheresville, goes to an unreknowned school, studies hard, graduates, gets a job, works hard and ends up earning mid 6-figures. That's basically me. Or replace the middle part with black kid, raised in projects by single Mom goes to school, studies hard, gets job on Wall Street and now pays more in taxes than I make in a year -- that guy and I worked together when we were younger. Hugely different backgrounds, but made the most of the opportunities provided by this country. The USA is still the land of opportunity if you're willing to get off your ass and make something of yourself.
What part of the Democratic base vote against their interest? "What's the matter with Kansas?" is the question that gets asked on the Republican side, because clearly, there's no reason other than pure ideology and "social" issues that should be driving these votes. There is a clear contradiction in how these people think and how these people vote. "There was a concern", eh? Was this "said by many"? From whom, specifically? You're trying too hard to create equivalency where there isn't, or you're totally missing the point.
America, where anecdotes trump numbers. The question isn't whether social mobility exists. It's the difficulty of that mobility, and the myth of "equal" opportunities.