Middle class McCain supporters are voting against their own economic interests

Whew, I knocked on about 40 doors this afternoon campaigning for Obama in a middle class neighborhood in central Florida. There were lots of McCain signs out; this is a conservative little town and that apparently was a conservative little neighborhood.  Which is odd because it wasn't a wealthy neighborhood: small, modest houses, lots of late model cars in driveways.  Not people who looked like they made more than a quarter of a million dollars a year.  Unless they do, Obama's tax plan would benefit them way more than McCain's would.  And yet they are voting for McCain.  Why?

George Lakoff, author of Don't think of an Elephant, would say it's because the Republicans are good at framing their party platform in terms of values that people identify with that they've convinced them the Democrats are against: Family, Religion, Freedom.  Democrats are doing well this year for a variety of reasons but one of them is that they've heard Lakoff and have successfully countered that argument.  Democrats were obviously never against any of those things in the first place but now they're re-framing the debate.  This election is about Economic Responsibility, Community, Unity, Hope and, of course, Change.  Those are the values resonating with people this year and that's why Obama's going to win next Tuesday.

But still.  I'm amazed that some non-rich people support McCain.  Eight years of Bush's economic policies have devastated this country.  Greenspan has admitted deregulation may not have been such a great idea.  I heard today that the jobless rate might go as high as 8.5% soon.  People who had their retirement funds in 401K plans right now are screwed (great idea, eh? convince people that they don't need pensions but should instead gamble on the stock market for their retirement!)  Experts are talking long term recession and still --still!-- some people are thinking yeah, let's keep doing what we're doing!?  I don't get it.

Ok, so some people are always going to vote against their own economic interests no matter what. Maybe for the same reason poor people buy lottery tickets.  They're about as likely to ever be rich enough to benefit from Republicans' fiscal policies as they are to hit the jackpot but there's always the hope.  Joe the Plumber (who apparently doesn't make more than $250K/yr) hopes that some day he will be rich and when that day comes he wants to pay lower taxes.  hmmm...

I can understand when I pass a McMansion with a McCain/Palin sign out front but I don't understand when I see McCain signs in yards of people in the middle to lower economic classes.  Maybe they don't know...? 

Comments

[SomePoster]

Oh, one last point I forgot.

The EU has far more socialist legislation than the US. One of the downfalls to this is typically a higher unemployment rate. While the US has typically stayed within the 4-7% range, countries like Greece, Germany and France stay between 7-10%.

One of the reasons the US has a lower unemployment rate, is because we allow companies to be flexible with it's workforce. With more countries trading together, our economy needs to stay flexible and unrestrained (to a certain limit).

EU companies have to deal with unions, restrictive workforce legislation, etc... All of this reduces their competitiveness to serve the population. Sure the US might have less job security, but we offset this with a low unemployment rate. Most people in the US find jobs faster than their EU brethren because it's more of a liability for EU companies to quickly take on more staff, hence there higher unemployment rate.

[Ed Menendez]

Here's a response...

http://menendez.com/blog/why-class-warfare-is-immoral/