Republican voters in our area puzzle me?

[savemefromdumbya]

I don't know if it's true where you live but around here Republican voters live in small houses, are mainly unemployed/low paid, no higher education. Democrats live in large houses are professionals business owners, lawyers, doctors etc? This has me puzzled?

[Erika]

1. Maybe Rove is offering them $20

Who knows?

[Alacrat]

2. There are rich and poor on both sides

but here,the rich, business owners, professionals, etc.. are majority rep. It sounds like completely opposite from your area, but there are exceptions on both sides, but as a general rule, money equals republican, poor Democrat.

[savemefromdumbya]

3. yes that's how it usually is

:shrug:

[doc03]

4. It's a lot like that here also, I see old rust bucket vehicles

every day with the W04 stickers on them. It seems to me here it's the very poor and the very wealty that are the Republican voters and the majority of the middle class Union workers (what's left of us) vote Democrat. Go to a Walmart the lot is full of W04 cars.

[Jersey Devil]

5. Here's how it works

The smaller the building lot the more intense the defense of it by Republicans who for some reason see themselves as defending their "castle" against the hordes. It's a home ownership thing I believe. Once ownership is achieved Republicans automatically consider themselves landed gentry who have to defend themselves against those who would want to take away their vast estates (which exist only in their minds).

So you move from a 2 bedroom apartment in Queens to a 3 bedroom house in Teaneck and you become Master of Your Doman and All You Survey! It must be defended at all costs!!

[rwenos]

7. Home as Castle

Boy, have you got something! Good explanation. I recall Tip O'Neill once saying, during the height of the Reagan Revolution, about blue-collar Republican voters, "We did so much for the working men of America, we made them Republicans."

[savemefromdumbya]

12. Margaret Thatcher did this to a certain extent in the UK

but now Tony is wearing her skirts.

[savemefromdumbya]

11. do people think they become 'posh' when they vote Republican?

[rwenos]

6. Right-Wing Populism

Populism can (generally) be defined as the politics of the mass of the population -- the Great Middle, the 60% of voters in the middle.

I'm no historian, and would love to hear from someone who can sketch the history of Populism in the US and abroad over the last 100 years. But it seems to me that populist politicians like Harry Truman and Huey Long represent the Democratic (generally liberal) version of American political populism, and George Wallace (yes I know he was a Dem), Lester Maddox and George W. Bush represent the modern Republican, right-wing version.

The European right-wing populist? Obviously, Adolf Hitler. The Nazi Party played on people's prejudices and fears, but began with a populist appeal of economic development, good roads, public works and support for universal education. But how Hitler twisted it!

Any better definitions of Populism out there?

The point being, there's a lot of right-wing populism out there right now. Blue collar guys voting for Repubs. Watching NASCAR. Barbecuing at the church picnic.

[Lexingtonian]

8. another definition of Populism

-> the Losers. You know, the guys who thought the world was built for the likes of themselves and then discovered it wasn't.

[Keepontruking]

9. Republicans

I agree rich and poor on both sides.lots of bankers and investors seem to go republican and lots of caretakers (service people) Docs, nurses, etc go Democrat. Have to look at the issues voted on here. Wear your heart on your sleeve? You're not a Republican..usually.
Circus Girl

[marions ghost]

10. that might be the image you see

but it is far from the truth nationwide. The people making the big money are likely to be Repiglicans, who find it convenient that certain elements of the working class cheerfully want to support their candidates. Where I live there are both kinds of Repugs in large numbers.

The ones at the end of the trough will get off the bandwagon first. It will take the rich Repugs much longer to realize that their party is essentially crippling the country. Their bottom line is the only thing that matters to them.