Addictinginfo.org has distributed the following question on Facebook that deserves our attention:
What sort of person thinks there is nothing wrong with asking the folks tasked with teaching our children to take a 20% cut on a $50,000 annual salary, but thinks it’s a terrible idea to ask millionaires to pay an additional 3% more in taxes?
The title of the question is: “Republicans are Idiots and Arguing with them is a waste of time.”
Perhaps. But it is still worth asking and answering the question raised by Addictinginfo because I suspect the answer is not quite so straightforward as the title suggests. Because if only the 1% voted for Republicans, then the game would be over. As it is, roughly 50% vote for the 1% who guarantee that they will remain among the 99%, if that makes sense. That is to say, somehow 50% of the 99% are eager to stake their future with the 1% who is screwing them.
Now, unless you believe that this is simply a matter of self-loathing or sadomasochism, then something else must be going on when the 50% vote for the 1% who hate them. Tom Frank offers one answer in “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” (Frank’s answer—I simplify—is that the 1% appeals to the 50%’s innate conservative moral values—which the 1% feel are foolish—to trick them into supporting the 1%’s economic and social policies.)
But I am interested in what you think. What sort of person . . . ?