Voting against your interests...

SFGbob said:

One of the favorite criticisms that leftists have of conservative/Republican voters is how they vote against their "class" interests. Now libs usually drop the word class but when they talk about voting against your interests that's what they mean.


Their argument is essentially that middle class Republicans would be better off if they voted for the Rats because the Republican only care about the rich people and the Rats want to give you all kinds of "free" shit paid for by the rich people that would benefit the middle class Republicans.

Putting aside that this is a completely Marxist world view, I've always wondered how liberals think it's in a middle class family's interest to support something like the Green New deal which is going to screw middle class families with higher energy costs, and tons of dislocation and pain while we transition to this new Green utopia. We've just seen California pull the plug on the their high-speed rail project after wasting billions of our tax dollars. How does trying to duplicate that boondoggle all across the nation benefit the interests of middle class voters. And before you claim that AOC and company will do it smarter and better than California did, what's your basis for making that claim? A complete Federally funded high speed rail system will face the very same corruption, land use issues, environmental hurdles, not to mention that people don't want to ride trains when they can fly, just like they did here in California.

How is it in the middle-classes interest to pay for this?

I think you are taking a very general statement and observation and putting a fairly sharp point on it that serves your underlying motive for making the observation: that liberals are dumb and say dumb stuff. Before you go all ape shit on me, it's not a normative comment. It's just a fact. That's why you are posting it, which is fine.

And before you go bananas about citing evidence and proof and all that happy horse shit, let's level set and say this is all anecdotal. There's no big data study out there validating this point one way or the other. I will concede that it is a talking point of those who are politically sympathetic to the left. So be it.

But, I'm one person who has made that very statement. And I've heard it made several times over. In each instance, we? were not talking about truly middle class people. We? were talking about old people on limited fixed incomes and others who rely on government subsidy of one kind or the other for various reasons. And, able bodied people who are unencumbered but just don't make a lot of money ... low education, low whatever. They're poor now and they'll be poor when they're old. A lot of those people, right or wrong, are in Trump's base. A lot of other people are in his base, too, but we're not talking about those people.

The basic reason for the comment is that, from a distance anyway, it would appear that a McConnell-led senate would be at least slightly more hostile to entitlement and safety net programs than would the other side. I'm sure there are 50,000 counters to that admittedly very generalized claim, but there you have it. So, for example, I made the comment to my in-laws, at least one of whom will no doubt wind up on my door step. I like their odds better under a Democratic regime, at least for the medium term, than under a neo-populist Rep. regimen. My in-laws have nothing to gain by being pulled in, as they are, to imaginary border emergencies and other loaded calls to patriotism for the purpose of supporting a bunch of shit that has little or nothing to do with their well being. They need strong SS and Medicare benefits. That's what they need. Not protection from Mexicans.

I'm all ears.

SFGbob said:

One of the favorite criticisms that leftists have of conservative/Republican voters is how they vote against their "class" interests. Now libs usually drop the word class but when they talk about voting against your interests that's what they mean.


Their argument is essentially that middle class Republicans would be better off if they voted for the Rats because the Republican only care about the rich people and the Rats want to give you all kinds of "free" shit paid for by the rich people that would benefit the middle class Republicans.

Putting aside that this is a completely Marxist world view, I've always wondered how liberals think it's in a middle class family's interest to support something like the Green New deal which is going to screw middle class families with higher energy costs, and tons of dislocation and pain while we transition to this new Green utopia. We've just seen California pull the plug on the their high-speed rail project after wasting billions of our tax dollars. How does trying to duplicate that boondoggle all across the nation benefit the interests of middle class voters. And before you claim that AOC and company will do it smarter and better than California did, what's your basis for making that claim? A complete Federally funded high speed rail system will face the very same corruption, land use issues, environmental hurdles, not to mention that people don't want to ride trains when they can fly, just like they did here in California.

How is it in the middle-classes interest to pay for this?

Man that was some long winded bullshit just to say you had nothing.