They may want to reevaluate that party affiliation

September 18, 2006

The AP’s Liz Sidoti had an interesting item today about how many working-class Americans hear the Republicans’ talk about a vibrant economy, but for them and their families, the rhetoric rings hollow. It’s a pretty straightforward idea, which we’ve all seen repeatedly of late, about people who are constantly struggling to get by.

But there was one thing that jumped out at me (emphasis mine throughout).

At a nearby diner, waitress Jeanine Gordon, 32, who makes the minimum wage, mused about her latest trouble — her van has been in the shop for a week because she and her husband can’t afford to fix it. “This is the least I’ve ever made in my entire life,” the Republican and mother of three said. “The gas prices went up and the tips went down.”

In Butler, Ky., business could be better at Thaxton’s Canoe Trails and Paddler’s Inn, where a six-mile trip on the Licking River costs $15.95 per person and a one-night “cozy cabin” stay for two goes for $59.99. “People don’t want to spend money, and the ones that do want to spend money do it sparingly,” said Glen Thaxton, 25, a ponytailed Republican who voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004.

To the south, in New Castle, Ky., Debbie Brewer, 50 and a deli owner, rattled off her biggest complaints about the economy as she counted change while closing her register for the night. “We’ll never see 99 cents again,” the Republican said of gas prices. “Everything’s jumping — your gas, your food and everything — but your wages don’t go up.”

After a moment, she cracked a smile and chuckled: “I sound like a Democrat!”

Hmm, working-class folks worried about wages and an economy that’s leaving them behind. Republicans all.

I don’t know any of these people personally, so I have no idea why they affiliate themselves with the GOP, but I can’t help but wonder just how much more it’ll take for Americans like these to give up on their party.

From my experience (and having lived in the Midwest for 34 of my 35 years, I have a lot of it), most people are Republicans not because they think the GOP does a better job or truly represents them. They vote Republican because of one or two issues.

We have a friend who is anti-abortion — but disagrees with EVERYTHING else the right does.

There is a co-worker who thinks businesses should do damn near whatever the hell they want — but disagrees with the GOP’s environmental issues.

There’s a college friend who thinks the government should be smaller — but disagrees with the Christian’s right take over, Iraq, the environment …

It really does stun me that there are so many who vote a certain way because of a single issue, or just a few, and ignore the remaining 95% and stuff that actually effects their every day lives.

I’m sure there are those on the left who do the same thing. I just have yet to meet/read/hear one.

  • ***…but I can’t help but wonder just how much more it’ll take for Americans like these to give up on their party.***

    Unlike many other affiliatory practices, once you’ve done a deal with the devil—it isn’t easy to break free. And once a person begins to forget what “real” freedom tastes like, it isn’t easy to desire that taste….

  • Who knows what particular apect of Republican ideology these folks find attractive. Some issues, for some people, override all others (e.g., abortion), and they’re okay with that. Then again, It could be that liberals have been so demonized over the years that changing parties is flat out unthinkable, come hell and high water.

  • Speaking of conventional political wisdom, we need to bring back the truism that Democrats are for poor people and Republicans for rich people and that the middle class is now in the poor category.

  • Unholy Moses, exactly. The one party issues is what keeps Republicans alive.

    They take the issues and make them so enduring to these folks, that the rest does not matter. Here in Texas, the gun owners will never vote anything but Republican. They are convinced Democrats want nothing more then to take their guns. I try to explain that although I am not a gun owner, I think one should be able to defend themselves. Plus, has anyone made any sort of serious gun control attempts after 9/11, not that I know of.

    I don’t know how they do it, but the right does it with precision and although the elections are looking good, they have a base far more loyal that ours. Which is sad, because if Dems started doing the stuff the Reps have been doing, the party would be empty, and rightfully so

  • I strongly agree with Dale’s point about poor/rich representation. For decades that was the case, and for decades Democrats won by living up to their billing. I also agree that “liberals” have been so demonized and caricatured that there is deep resistance to voting Democratic in much of the country.

    Please excuse my repetition, but the problem of changing Republican dominance is defined by a long-ago observation by a Republican consultant: “The rich vote Republican because they’re rich. Others vote Republican because the think they’re going to win the lottery.”

  • How pathetic it is to be anti-abortion. Rabid about something that is just none of your business. I mean you don’t get second-hand abortion or hit by a driver under the influence of abortion, or tempted by abortion pushers. What you get are corrupt politicians making empty promises.

  • I hear ya, Alibubba, I’m just thinking that maybe the evidence to the contrary that middle class is going to rise to rich class may have reached a critical mass.

    I have some friends who are one-issue Republicans because they are “for” small business. You can be sure I sent them the article about the Bushies classifying Kellog’s (?) as small business.

  • I think this is a case of people seeing that the deeds of the GOP do not square with the words on the campaign trail. Today’s Republican party is not about smaller government, it is not about libertarian freedoms, it is not about free market capitalism, it is not strong on defense. The GOP has had 5 uninterupted years of total control and they have implemented thier vision. The results of their vision is not very rewarding for working people.

    Unholy Moses has very good thoughts here as well. People identify with the party then ue one or two issues as reason for that identification even if they are 90% on the other side of the issues.

    One more thought. There seems to be a tradition of policital piling-on when the majority switches parties. People like to say they supported the winner (even if they spend the next 4 years bitching about it). The GOP’s star is sinking and I think these one issue people are looking t oback the new majority.

  • ***…but I can’t help but wonder just how much more it’ll take for Americans like these to give up on their party.***

    Maybe they stick with the GOP because the other party hasn’t figured out how to deliver a fresh, direct, coherent and unified platform other than simply combating everything the party in power does these days.

    You all may have hated the Contract with America idea but it was a very effective marketing campaign by the GOP in the ’90’s which offered enough substance for people like those that are referenced above to sign on with the GOP. So my guess is until the Dems have a platform with real ideas and solutions (including a real strategy to fix the Iraq mess) many GOP moderates aren’t comfortable simply using their vote “against the GOP” in the hopes that the Dems offer them something better.

    I think this is all evidenced by the following: Despite the GOPs’ many faults, transgressions, and even some scandals over the last few years, the Dems are still having trouble securing enough races in this election to guarantee them even the House majority… and the Senate is probably a long shot at this point. Go figure.

  • JRS Jr.,

    Despite the GOPs’ many faults, transgressions, and even some scandals over the last few years, the Dems are still having trouble securing enough races in this election to guarantee them even the House majority

    Gerrymandering has made the vast vast majority of seats safe for incumbants. Blaming the Dem’s for this is naive.

    You all may have hated the Contract with America idea but it was a very effective marketing campaign by the GOP in the ’90’s which offered enough substance for people like those that are referenced above to sign on with the GOP. So my guess is until the Dems have a platform with real ideas and solutions

    If you are citing the Contract with America as having “enough substance” then Howard Dean’s and the Dem’s similar list already exists. If you haven’t heard about it, then you are an excellent data point for the fact that the MSM is not liberal. As for the “real strategy to fix the Iraq mess” the Dems have every bit as solid a strategy as the GOP does. Again if you don’t know what it is, the MSM clearly has no liberal bias.

  • How pathetic it is to be anti-abortion. Rabid about something that is just none of your business. I mean you don’t get second-hand abortion or hit by a driver under the influence of abortion, or tempted by abortion pushers.
    –Comment by Dale

    Good points.

    The problem with the abortion issue is that the right doesn’t really want Roe v. Wade to be overturned. Sure, they may talk about it (or very rarely pass horrific legislation, like that in South Dacoathanger), but they need abortion as a wedge issue.

    IMHO, it shouldn’t be decided by a bunch of primarily rich white guys (Congress) or even 7 white guys, one African American and a woman (the Supremes). I say put it to a national, general election vote of the American people for three reasons: 1.) it’ll remain legal (at least in some form); 2.) we can put the issue to rest once and for all; 3.) the will of the people will finally, truly, be done.

    Of course, that assumes Diebold machines aren’t allowed …

  • I hear encounter single-issue logic from my fiancee’s family. They are very liberal on lots of other issues but so long as they think Republican means anti-abortion (which I will forever more think of as the second-hand abortion affect, thanks Dale) that is how they will vote. There are none so blind…

  • JRS Jr.,

    Edo, then Dean needs to learn how to sell that substance better b/c I really haven’t heard it.

    Understood. And thanks for being yet another great data point proving that the MSM has no liberal bias.

  • Why do low income working class (if they haven’t lost their jobs yet) families identify as Republicans?

    Starts with a J and ends with an esus.

    Contract with American, my ass. Should be called The Big Lie.

  • I don’t know any of these people personally, so I have no idea why they affiliate themselves with the GOP

    I do.

    There are thirty to fifty million people in this country — and a lot of them vote — who would volunteer to live in a cardboard box under a bridge and toast sparrows on an old curtain rod provided that they were guaranteed in advance that the black guy, or gay guy, or Mexican living in the next box over doesn’t even have a sparrow to toast.

    That’s a decent basis for a governing coalition right there.

    Resentment is not pretty, but it’s common and it works..

  • The Republican voter has a problem. They’re misinformed. We have to work to overcome the misinformation campaign being waged by the right.

    http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1201-13.htm

    …A massive University of Maryland study found that most who get their news from commercial TV held at least one of three fundamental “misperceptions”: that Iraq had been directly linked to 9/11, that WMDs had been found in Iraq or that world opinion supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

    Not unexpectedly, Fox News viewers were the most misled. But strong majorities of CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN viewers were also confused on at least one of these points. Among those informed on all three questions, only 23 percent supported Bush’s war…

    …The key is to reach swing voters in swing states with information and arguments about Bush and the GOP they won’t be getting from mainstream outlets — and to counter the misinformation they will be getting.

  • Someone once said that the Republican party is the party of the privileged and the party of the ignorant. GW and the boys do a pretty good job of taking care of the privileged, and the MSM manages to keep the ignorant ignorant. Voting for a president because you hate abortion is pretty foolish because it is impossible to legislate a personal moral choice. What are you going to do? Ban all knitting needles? Such issues are matters of the heart and have very little to do with the law. I think the only thing to do is inform the ignorant, and it’s very hard because the MSM is sold out to the privleged.

  • ” I think the only thing to do is inform the ignorant, and it’s very hard because the MSM is sold out to the privleged.”

    That’s where town-hall type meetings come in handy. I think more and more people crave straight answers from their employees (elected officials) and informal meetings where anyone can go and ask questions would be a welcome change and a great opportunity to inform the public. The fact that it is a Democrat giving straight answers would be a bonus.

    Maybe that could be a campaign slogan: No B.S. in 06.

  • I think many republicans don’t take the time to become more informed. But even some who are are still republicans. I became a republican 30 years ago b/c, well……..almost my whole family is republican. I stayed republican b/c I believed in the smaller, less instrusive federal gov’t and open markets which I thought were aligned with the republicans. Most of the republicans I know (who are most of the people I know) are pretty liberal on social issues (pro-choice, pro stem cell, pro gay marriage, etc) but still believe democrats will tax the hell out of them and give their tax dollars to “people who don’t want to work”, drug addicts to buy heroin, etc… I now stay a republican so I can push and argue and inform fellow republicans (actually some pretty heated arguments with family members) about the atrocities of the republicans in power and provide information as to why the current republicans are not what they thought they voted for. And I think that informing them as a fellow republican might carry more weight with them. I’ve been trying hard for over 6 years! I saw a significant shift in 2004 in my area. Primarily blue collar areas were solidly republican where they hadn’t been before – the fear factor at work. And the wealthier area had a suprisingly high Kerry following in primarily republican communities – more informed?

  • If people vote Republican because of a single issue they agree with the Repubs on, then why doesn’t it work the other way? And why are the Dems so often told that our biggest problem is that we don’t have a uniform platform, but are a coalition of single-issue people, each pulling in a different direction?

    BTW. I have a friend — rabidly anti-abortion on religious grounds — who votes Democratic all the time. Her rationale? 9 out of 10 times she agrees with the Dems and that 10th time “maybe God will forgive them”

  • “…but I can’t help but wonder just how much more it’ll take for Americans like these to give up on their party.”

    I said that last election about the Dems and their supporters. Doh!!
    Sorry kids, I went to the polls and Ralphed.
    When it comes to the working class,(me!) any party that caters to big , multinational corPirate interests cannot represent us. Foxes running the henhouse! As I was chastized for pointing out yesterday, Corps donate almost equally to both Dems and Repubs, thus neither have my interests at heart,( although the Dems do screw you with lube and a kiss.) Only a worker-led party can truly bring tangible change.
    Hey liberal republican…you think Liberal is a bad word, use Socialist. Try selling that one!
    Kerry did well amongst the educated wealthy ’cause he , uh educated and wealthy.
    It is just the brainwashing we Americans have grown accustomed to, that we cannot see what needs to be done. In an age of hyper-mega-fear, the mention of an American Labor Party spins into Stalinism instantly, with no real discussion of the merits.
    I have been given my fair share of grief for voting Nader, but the Dems should give voice to smaller parties on the Left, That’s how to consolidate a base. Don’t marginalize them. Marginalizing is how W plays, be better than that.

    If The Dems truly want to wins these conflicted, working Republicans support, they have to take the issues of real world economics, and how corporate greed is ruining our Democracy, seriously.

  • In your next point you quote someone – Donkey Rising – that said emotion trumps reason. This is a prime example. The fact that the GOP is pretty hostile to working class needs is papered over because Republicans talk a good game to the more conservative elements of the working class and appeal to the “family values” concept. This talk and obsession over “family values” trumps economic concern – hence the continued support of the GOP. They feel the GOP speaks more for them on social and economic issues, all evidence to the contrary, and they continue to vote for GOP candidates even though it may hurt them more personally. Emotion trumps reason.

  • A number of Republican State Officials have been switching parties recently, particularly in Kansas. (The Democratic Governor Sebelius — can’t remember her first name — is the daughter of a long-time Republican Congressman, and many of the people running on her ticket are ex-Republicans.

    But my favorite story is the candidate for the Iowa legislature, Kevin Wiskus, who was so disgusted at an unasked for and vile attack ad againsy his opponent (accusing him of being ‘soft on child molesters’ because he’d defended one as a Public Defender and actually got him a lenient sentence) that the candidate immediately and publicly “disavow[ed] any allegiance to the Republican Party of Iowa and declared [him]self an Independent.”

    (I have trouble putting links here, but Google Wiskus for the stories.)

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