I had a really interesting conversation with my mother the other day. We were talking, as we frequently do, about current events. She was wondering why there are so many people in mostly red states, but all over, who consistently vote against their own self-interests. It had brought to mind an instance I have talked before about a conversation with a conservative friend in the west who was railing against the passage of ObamaCare while it was being debated. When I pointed out to my friend that her family needed something like ObamaCare as it would provide benefits to her grandchildren they otherwise would not be entitled to, her response was to tell me she would pray they would not get sick.
Anyway, Mom was musing about why people would vote for politicians who would push legislation that would deny them health care, or that would indeed prevent them from getting proper care, such as vaccines or just outright make them sick, as in refusing to impose common sense mask mandates. In times of crisis, we both wondered why anyone would vote for a politician who would approve tax cuts for billionaires who do not need them while denying a raise in the minimum wage, that even if passed would not completely allow some people to afford basic rights such as decent housing and a meal. We will not even get into the fact that nobody denies that ordinary people may need a lift nowadays, such as the stimulus payment that not a single republican in either the house or the senate voted for, and then decried as a "partisan bill".
Yet folks out there voted these people into office, and will undoubtedly vote them in again. Steven King may be gone, but Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz and their ilk are still there, and will remain after the next election cycle, or be replaced by others of the same mindset.
And this happens over and over again.
Why?
Why do those who clearly do not believe that government should stand by and do virtually nothing in a crisis vote for those who will do exactly that and will not lift a finger to help anyone but themselves and their rich benefactors?
I think the answer is in the fact that if nothing else, the modern republican party has become the masters of distraction, This hides their true intent, their intrinsic evil. While George Floyd is being smothered to death, these are the guys who are pointing to the skies and yelling about Halley's Comet.
So you end up with an unemployed, uninsured white male in Kansas voting for somebody who will deny him any benefits or assistance, because that candidate will vote to prevent late term abortions, even though our Kansan friend and his family and friends, will never get an abortion at all, and will likely not know anyone else who will.
And you end up with a low wage fast food worker in Iowa who will vote for somebody who will deny her the right to an increase in her take home pay, because that candidate will vote against allowing Central Americans fleeing violence in their countries from entering the United States and seek asylum, even if she has never met anyone who speaks only Spanish in her entire life and will never be at risk of such a person "stealing her job".
And in more recent turns of events, you end up with people getting hysterical over Mr. Potato Head, Dr. Suess and the Dallas Mavericks decision to eschew playing the National Anthem before basketball games, instead of asking how Texas could freeze and utilities in the state charge thousands of dollars PER WEEK to provide basic heat to their citizens.
So why do voters on the right do this over and over and over again? I have known many of them over the years, and on the surface they seem like decent and very likeable people. I have called many of them friends.
I believe the answer lies in what has been referred to as American's Original Sin, and others refer to as "fear of the other". In the most crass and brazen terms a politician has ever used to explain how Americans vote, Lyndon Johnson crystallized the entire mess, when he explained:
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you".
And there you have it.
And there it is and will always be until we address this first.
And you can bet that the GOP will be out there calling the rest of us racists when we bring this up and scream instead about Colin Kapernick and the Dixie Chicks (ok, "The Chicks") instead.
