The GOP to the Working Class is Like Colonel Sanders Promising a Good Life to Chickens

[MrScorpio]

STEPHEN PIZZO FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

I was there when it happened, but I'm still not entirely clear why it happened. I am speaking of the late 1970s when working Americans became Reagan Democrats... Democrats who voted for Republican Ronald Reagan, and have since largely voted for GOP candidates.

I suspect a big cause was because establishment progressives... you know, the Ivy League bunch who'd never done a lick of physical labor in their entire lives -- lost touch with the real lives of real working Americans. Instead of tending their working-class base, these guys and gals spun off onto one highfalutin tangent or another, until the policies they poured their energies into had little to nothing in to do with the lives and struggles of average Americans.

That's not to say that Republicans stepped up to lend working Americans a hand. But, like hyenas they knew an easy kill when they saw one. They wasted no time poaching that lonesome working class flock. Democrats, the GOP told Americans struggling with Carter-era stagflation, have failed you. They've become arrogant snobs who think they are smarter and know better than working stiffs. And, unlike most of the nonsense that now pours from the GOP, there was truth in that claim.

And so this new voting block emerged; Reagan Democrats, the oxymoron of all times. Since that hijacking, Republicans have kept these wayward voters in their grasp by convincing them that the rich are really their true friends, because the rich are "the job creators." And, they are warned and warned again, that the last thing they should want are taxes because taxes supposedly prevent the creation of jobs.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12861

[AndyTiedye]

1. Repigs Have Kept These Voters Because They Control the Media

Once Reagan did away with the Fairness Doctrine, our side was effectively silenced.

[dawg]

2. Pssst! Come over here. I've got a deal for you.

I can give you an extra $100 a month in your paycheck. All you've gotta do is vote for me, and I'll cut out all that wasteful spending on those lazy blacks and Mexicans. You hardworking salt of the earth people just *know* that's where all your tax dollars are going. We're going to cut that out and give the money back to you. After all, you *earned* it. You're a real American. Not like them.


That is why working class whites started voting Republican. It is shameful how the Republicans preyed on their prejudices. And it is shameful how easily they let themselves be duped.

[pacalo]

3. Mr. Scorpio, they don't even TRY to hide it anymore -- they represent corporate interests ONLY.