A poster by the handle of jjowens on Atrios’ blog wins the “Nail on the Head” Award for the week. I’d credit his blog or webpage but he didn’t leave any. jj, if you’re out there, sorry for cribbing, but this just needs to be spread all over the blogosphere:
Out of all the dozens of “reasons” I’ve read about why Kerry lost, I don’t think a single one of them opined that it was because he was rich.
You’d think it would be the most obvious reason.
Consider it from the viewpoint of Johnny Rural, good ol’ play by the rules traditionalist Johnny Rural.
First and foremost Johnny Rural always wants to be farther ahead in life than he is – but he wants to work for it; he doesn’t want it given to him. So, of course, he resents anyone whom he perceives has had advancement given to them.
Thats a very fundamental truth about the Republican voter. That’s why they resent populism. That’s why the republican media machine has been so successful. They broadcast to the hardworkin’ Johnny Rurals and repeatedly tell them that everyone getting anything from the State is just a lazy freeloader. Johnny Rural, however, works hard and plays by the rules but doesn’t get anything from the State. Nope, in fact the State takes from him and gives it to the freeloaders. No amount of debate will convince him otherwise.
The only thing that could possibly change his point of view, of course, would be for him to be in a position where he actually *needed* support from the state; but he honestly doesn’t envision that ever happening – because he has “Personal Responsibility”.
So you throw a candidate up there like John Kerry, someone who has born to wealthy parents and who married a wealthy woman and you really think that Johnny Rural is going to vote for him?
No way. These mentally narcissistic Rurals are thinking “Well if I was born rich, and married rich, I could be a John Kerry too, no problem. If I had had it that easy.”
I know this from discussing politics with my father and his friends (all voted for Bush). They didn’t dislike Kerry because of the issues or because they thought Bush was the better man for the job. They disliked Kerry because he was an “entitled”. They simply saw him as a variant of the welfare class that they had been trained by Rush and Bill and Sean to despise. They called a “Multi-Millionaire” with vitriol in their voices. They would claim things like “The only reason Bill Clinton won was because he tricked people into thinking he was poor.”
And you know what? They may be exactly right. Compare Clinton’s image to Kerry’s. Noone thought of Clinton as being a wealthy elite. But Kerry was labeled as a wine drinking caviar eating fancy pants.
Johnny Rural is never going to vote for someone like that, no matter how bad the Republican candidate is. Their spite for “entitleds” is ingrained as deep as their spite for communists.
Of course, I would explain to them that Bush was the same as Kerry, born to a wealthy family, sent to an Ivy League school, and rich in his own right. But they don’t buy it. For several reasons, they perceive Bush not as having been entitled, but as having earned his own.
By living on a ranch instead of a Manhattan estate he is perceived as being hard working.
By appearing to be of only average intelligence he relates to the Johnny Rural’s of the nation who didn’t go to a big fancy college or graduate high school.
Being married to a librarian instead of a wealthy heiress gives him bonus points to Johnny Rural, who has no illusions about marrying above his station.
Even Bush running companies into the ground gives him appeal to Johnny Rural – because he bounced back without the governments help.
I believe it was Chris Rock who said it best (even though he was expanding on an idea in Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse 5”), “Poor white people are the craziest people in the world. Poor black people are fine being poor, but white people think they’re supposed to be rich so they’re always gonna be mad that they’re poor and they have to find someone to hate because of it.”
That was heavily paraphrased, but you get the idea. Johnny Rural doesn’t realize that money is the hardest thing in the world to come by. Johnny Rural believes that he should be rich, and if he isn’t then its someone’s fault. And since its pretty difficult to blame yourself, they blame someone else; usually the government that taxes them (not the party in power, but simply the system) and people living off their hard earned tax money. Thus they love people they perceive as having earned their way, and resent those who they perceive as having had it given to them.
As the dumbing of America continues, you’ll see more and more Johnny Rurals and therefore more and more Republicans in office. Unless, the Democrats find a way to appeal to Johnny Rural not just on the issues, but also the image.
Preach on, brother!