Why is the Republican party so content with denying healthcare as a human right, and trying everything they can to harm people who need any sort of assistance? Like… How do they do it? How much are we talking here when we speak about tax savings for them?
Pretend I am rich? Like how much money am I getting back by Republicans kicking men off healthcare or destroying insurance for those who need it most. It must be alot right?
My brother’s a CEO of a hospital. He makes over $400,000 a year. He told me that he votes for whatever candidate lowers his taxes. He cares about nothing else. Which is strange considering he’s in the healthcare industry. But, he broke down the numbers for me and he voted for Trump over less than $10,000 a year. That’s how much less tax is he pays. Like I said he cares about nothing else. He has a trans son, who he supports, however he will vote against his interest for under $10,000 a year. Year. I don’t know that this is the answer you were looking for it is just the personal experience. Edit: for typos
I’ve been trying to find an answer on that question myself for years. A lot of the other comments so a good job of scratching the surface but there just isn’t enough text to really explain the full concept completely. If you really want to really dig deeper, here are some books that might help. They helped me. Bottom line is it’s smart for conservatives to do this based on their end goals because it’s effective.
The All New Don’t Think of an Elephant! by George Lakoff, covers the strong father theory which is much of what’s described in other comments.
The Dictator’s Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, talks about the principles of authoritarianism and helps understand how the authoritarian structure in nearly every major company has lead to this.
The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama, explains why stability at the cost of equality is what political machines often evolve into.
The Revenge of Power by Moisés Naím, explains how authoritarianism works and why it needs us vs them to thrive.
Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam, a good view of blame based politics, why and how it works.
Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) by Tavris & Aronson, helps explain why people are attracted to the conservative message.
Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti, explains how capitalists exploit the view that poverty is a personal falling so they can continue wage theft and rent seeking.
The Coddling of the American Mind by Haidt & Lukianoff, a deep dive of the modern conservative mindset and helps answer how and why we got here.
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen, shows how this has been going on for longer than we’ve been alive along with the attack on education and sort of shows why that’s effective.
The Progress Paradox by Gregg Easterbrook, helps explain why “the sky is falling” narrative conservatives like to use is attractive to us.
I agree with most comments when applied to Temporarily Embarrassed Millionaires.
I think the ruling class (aka the rock that does not need this cope) needs the threat of homelessness (aka the hard place) to squeeze the proletariat against.
Because we humans are social animals that like seeing others happy and dislike seeing others unhappy. Same goes for seeing animals.
Conservatives have convinced themselves or have been convinced by others that everyone is solely responsible for their own success. Or they pretend to believe this.
When they see pain in the world the only thought they can have is: This person did something wrong.
In reality meanwhile things aren’t so easy. People have responsibility in achieving a happy life. But there are a myriad of factors that make life easier or harder. But you all probably know that.
America was founded on the ideals of personal freedom and lack of class structure. The idea that literally ANYONE can become President was a totally unique concept in the 18th century. National leaders were either Royalty who inherited the role, or Authoritarians who grabbed the role.
Freedom should be empowering, but Conservatives weaponized it by deliberately suppressing opportunities for many, while then blaming those same people for not taking advantage of America’s unique promise
In order to truly understand this, you have to tear yourself away from the Republicans and start looking at conservative ideology itself.
At the core of conservative ideology is the very American idea of “pulling oneself up by their own bootstraps.” This is essentially the idea that, no matter the circumstances of one’s birth, one can achieve anything. Historically, this was a rebellion against the classism of old Europe, which was structured around a class system. So, in that context, it was a very liberal idea. The problem comes in when you start to recognize that people are not actual born on a level playing field, financially, culturally, educationally, etc. Today, the idea that everyone can “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps,” foments the lie that we are all born into equal opportunities in life, which is demonstrably false.
So, the core of conservative ideology is based on an untruth, and it has never reconciled this. Conservatives thus blame disparities in achievement in society on lack of individual effort, and don’t take into account differences in opportunity by birth circumstances. As such, when they see people who haven’t done as well as others, they attribute that to personal failings rather than circumstantial inequalities. When you see all outcomes as a result of personal effort, you can dismiss bad outcomes as the result of a lack of effort, and thereby justify denying the less fortunate help under the notion that it is unfair to the more prosperous because it rewards those who didn’t try as hard with the same outcomes who had to work for them.
Conservative ideology is simply outdated and uninformed by modern sociological research.
modern sociological research or… basic common senses? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you start with 10x as much money as everyone else in a game of monopoly you’re almost certainly going to win that game.
My ex MIL is great in a lot of ways but I think a good example of a middle income conservative person with a disdain for the poor. She personally used welfare to go to school and become a nurse but in her mind this was exceptional - welfare she thinks holds people back (just not her, somehow). She doesn’t hate the poor, she just thinks they are doing it to themselves. Because she managed to make it.
I think that’s the fundamental difference between conservative and progressive, honestly. She thinks she personally should get whatever advantage, but if someone else gets it that’s cheating, basically. Even though she was IN that situation she blames others who are.
For me (and I think most people) the life experience of being poor and homeless have me perspective and empathy for those who are in that situation now, and Is like them to get more than I did so they can get established.
I heard they love the poor when they vote against their own interests.
You can’t hoard wealth and distribute it too.
The average republican is not super wealthy, of course, but they are manipulated and controlled by those who are.
I’ll just repost this comment I made on a similar question earlier: That would be because most wealthy people believe that they did something to “earn” their wealth and that poor people just need to work harder. They refuse to admit that their wealth is built off of the backs of others and a good amount of luck. This also explains a good chunk of Republican policy decisions.
Adding on to that: Republicans see the government as a zero sum entity. If they are paying money into it, they should be receiving an equivalent benefit. If someone else is receiving a benefit that they are not, that is unfair and is effectively equivalent to stealing, since that person doesn’t pay as much into the system. The primary and largely singular motivation of the Republican party is to mold the government to only serve them and increase their “ROI” for their taxes. They do not care about the societal good that social programs do, nor about the massive boon that these programs typically are for the economy in the long run. They care that the poors are getting something that they didn’t work for because they perceive themselves as paying for it personally.
Tl;dr: republicans are selfish myopic people that are absurdly bad at cost benefit analysis
Seriously. I hear a lot from the right that public transit, bike routes, and social programs need to be profitable or they shouldn’t exist. With no mention of the roads they drive on every day.
With no mention of the roads they drive on every day.
They want toll roads too…
When you have a shit ton of money, you want everything taxed on use, not earnings.
Because you earn a lot and spend a very small percentage of that.
They view any individual that “gets” more than they personally pay in as a “taker”. Despite the entire reasons we have safety nets is statistically someone will need help.
But once no one anywhere benefits from it more than they paid in, it’s easy for the wealthy to convince us we don’t need it at all. Because it’s not benefiting anyone and has really becomes a waste.
It’s very basic manipulation.
You can’t argue “what about roads!” Because they’re argue for toll roads everywhere or a tax on actual miles driven. Don’t let them set the argument, point out how no one knows who will need it till they need it, so we all pay in and hope we’re fortunate enough to not need it. But if we do, we don’t have to die in a gutter.
Don’t tug on heart strings, explain it as risk management and they might start to see the value
Nah, every conservative I know hates toll roads with a passion. They want the roads to be taxpayer-funded because that’s what they use as an upstanding member of society, while social programs and public transit should be profitable or shut down because those are for the poors who need to get their act together.
Basically, they think everything conservatives and billionaires rely on should be taxpayer-funded, while everything they don’t need is “for the poors” and needs to either turn a profit or be cut.
Yes to all this, but I think there is also a lot of psychopathy and innate cruelty. “Hurting people is fun!” types. You know the ones who started out as kids hurting animals and graduated to humans, but found that under the guise of “conservatism” they could do it openly and legally while fulfilling their urges.
Nah, that’s what we say out loud because even though is wrong, it is not racist wrong.
America is a caste system, like in India where we all are assigned to a caste level we cannot escape. Whites, even poor ones are going to always be at the top and blacks, even rich ones, always at the bottom.
But we cannot say that out loud, so instead Whites, from the lowest form like MAGA all the way to educated ones, use terms like equity and what one or another group deserves, etc.
Republicans (mostly white and some wannabes) believe they deserve the benefits of society first and everybody else by rank of color the rest.
They don’t hate all poor people, only the ones in the wrong color.
Capitalism is built on the notion that wealth is virtue.
If you are rich, you made good decisions and the invisible hand has guided money to your pockets. You’ve created things that contribute to the comfort/progress of society as a whole, and your reward for it is to be held above others.
If you are poor, you have not been actively contributing to society. You have instead been a drain, and the invisible hand is punishing you got this. Your inability to find meaningful ways to contribute is a vice, which should be looked down on. Ultimately, if you cannot afford to live, that is survival of the fittest, and the world is better off without you.
If you believe any of the above to be true, you are delusional scum of the earth, and you are the reason everything sucks. You’d also feel right at home with the right-wing chuds currently undoing decades of progress.
Capitalism is built on the notion that wealth is virtue.
That’s one of the excuses. Whatever period and place, there is a different ideology provided to explain the concentration of wealth.
Details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_and_Ideology
Pretty fucking spot on imo.
I see a lot of people answering what the Republican leadership seems to believe and do. This is very different from what the average Republican voter believes.
Let me cover just a couple issues that drive an otherwise functional person to vote Republican:
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abortion. There are a shocking (and tragic) number of otherwise reasonable people who get a strong ick response to the idea of abortion. They rarely research the issue. This is an opinion so immediately visceral that they believe it is a moral law (and there are many communities that strongly reinforce this belief). I know of many folks who see the Republican corruption and the damage it’s doing, but can’t get through their anti-choice gut feeling to vote blue.
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economic interest. There are a nontrivial number of people who could lose a lot of money depending on how democratic policies are implemented. The left is a fractured mess, so no particular implementation is guaranteed. But if you keep the system around, historically you won’t get harmed specifically (we all get leeched to death slowly instead). Think rent control for a family whose retirement depends on 3 rental properties. The grandkids will vote Republican to, they believe, keep Grandma solvent. (This wouldn’t be an issue if large sweeping reforms were on the table. They aren’t. Also these calculations are often vibes based, because who has this kind of data.) See all the incentives around NIMBY Democrats. Some previously union areas fall under this; globalization policies felt like they destroyed their communities.
There are more. And polling will tell you about them. No need to ask other leftists (we call this an echo chamber).
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Why do Republicans hate the poor so much?
For the rich: money reduces empathy. There a a few funny studies on the matter, including one on lottery winners. Plus the very wealthy live in their own bubble.
For the poor: propaganda. Lack of education in logic, sociology, macroeconomics, human relationships. A complete education is not all math and literature and hard science.
trying everything they can to harm people who need any sort of assistance?
The power-hungry want power, control, coercion. Through media power, cronyism they allied with the ultra rich who have power and want docile workers.
The dominated Republicans are fighting the ghost of people abusing the system, afraid of change, hiding in conservatism, backing into 1930s racism. They didn’t think the powerful Republicans would cut their help, only do something about their fears.
Pretend I am rich? Like how much money am I getting back by Republicans kicking men off healthcare or destroying insurance for those who need it most. It must be alot right?
It’s not about economics: healthcare and general welfare have a net positive impact, up to the point of housing homeless people costs globally less than having them on the street.
Personal gain is really at stake only when said service is repurchased by friends of the government, e.g. medical research, police, military, roads anything can go. Helping the poor can’t really be sold. Policing them, yes.
Does money reduce empathy or is lack of empathy just a serious advantage in acumulating money?
Yes.
But foremost, money makes you an asshole, as measured with people who had little/no control over their wealth (e.g. lottery winners.)
Or those were previously just assholes without money? Nice people who win the lottery likely don’t stay rich for long because they use that money to help people they know.
One of several studies:
So I read the study, first of all the paper aknowledges that there’s a several point swing in voting preference between non winners and people who won less than £500 which strongly implies people who play the lottery are more likely to vote right wing to begin with. Secondly even for large wins the swing was only around 18%. At worst money does not make everyone a bad person, more like 1/5 people.
So you read one study, and didn’t know social science are about mean changes overe a population and not absolute changes on individuals.
Good start, now I’ll let you dig some more on the issue.
In my experience most poor people are their voting base who the fuck knows why
To feel better about their own pathetic life.
They weren’t raised right.
