From Pine View Farm

Voting Your Pocket Book (Updated) 0

Or not.

Sadhbh Walshe writes of counter-intuitive voting in the Guardian. A nugget:

The Republican party recently unveiled their “Pledge to America” in which they outline their plans to address the economic anxiety of the majority of Americans by awarding a $700bn dollar tax cut extension to the wealthy who are thriving and cutting spending on programmes that benefit the rest of the country who are not. What is surprising about this is not the lack of imagination (or shame) displayed in the GOP’s approach to improving prosperity for all Americans, but that so many people who are not themselves well-off support this generous gift to the rich.

(snip)

The generally accepted explanation of why many Americans, even those that are poor, are opposed to raising taxes for the rich is the enduring belief in upward social mobility or that they may one day be rich themselves. We still believe America is the land of opportunity. You can be born in the ghetto and rise to super stardom. A welfare recipient from a broken home may become president. But the truth is, for the vast majority of people, these dreams are out of reach and, in fact, the US actually has the lowest social mobility of any industrialised nation.

Follow the link and read the whole thing, especially the penultimate paragraph.

Afterthought:

“Penultimate.” Hee-hee.

Addendum:

Via The Booman.

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