{"id":8497,"date":"2006-09-18T13:20:46","date_gmt":"2006-09-18T17:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8497.html"},"modified":"2006-09-18T13:20:46","modified_gmt":"2006-09-18T17:20:46","slug":"they-may-want-to-reevaluate-that-party-affiliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/they-may-want-to-reevaluate-that-party-affiliation\/","title":{"rendered":"They may want to reevaluate that party affiliation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AP’s Liz Sidoti had an interesting item<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

But there was one thing that jumped out at me (emphasis mine throughout).<\/p>\n

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<\/b> and mother of three said. “The gas prices went up and the tips went down.”<\/p>\n

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<\/b> who voted for Democrat John Kerry in 2004.<\/p>\n

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<\/b> said of gas prices. “Everything’s jumping — your gas, your food and everything — but your wages don’t go up.”<\/p>\n

After a moment, she cracked a smile and chuckled: “I sound like a Democrat!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmm, working-class folks worried about wages and an economy that’s leaving them behind. Republicans all.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}