The vast majority of people who attend political rallies are likely middle and lower income class. There will, of course, be some who are upper class, but assuming that attendees are roughly in the same proportions as in the general populace, most would be lower to middle class.
The past couple of weeks have seen McCain mocking Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment to “Joe the (not quite) Plumber”. McCain smugly says that Sen. Obama wants to “spread the wealth” with “spread the wealth” in air quotes.
So let’s break this down.
Here we have a guy and his wife who are worth somewhere around 40 million dollars. Yikes.
This rich guy is speaking to a group of people (fellow Republicans) who are almost to a man poorer than he is, and who are being hit hard by a recession. He’s also indirectly speaking to the American people, the vast bulk of whom aren’t rich and who are hurting and scared by the economic turmoil.
And this rich guy is making fun of the concept of raising taxes on the wealthy to benefit the lower and middle class. In other words, McCain expects his followers to laugh at the idea that the rich (McCain) might pay more in taxes to lift the burden on poorer Americans (themselves). What, ask the rich to pay a larger share? Pish tosh. We need to give them further tax breaks, you socialist!
The fact that many of his supporters do cheer him on, despite his emphasis on policies that are directly against their own economic interest, is a surreal sight and a terrible indictment of the sophistication of the American populace. Or at least the conservative part that goes to McCain/Palin rallies.
Let’s hope the rest of us are smarter than that.
1 comment:
I will never understand the working man voting Republican. It seems to fly in the face of what they need to have better lives. It must be the social conservatism that attracts them, combined with fear. They are so scared of things that are different than them, that they would rather have continued failed policies than allow gays to marry. The Republicans are also really good at appealing to these folks' desire to not have the guv'mint mucking about in their lives, while totally downplaying the fact that they (the Republicans in power) simply want to muck about in different parts of their lives. "You can take away a woman's right to choose, like God intended, but don't take away my gun!" It's insane, and antithetical to what would truly improve their lot in life, but they're too stupid/uneducated/religious/set in their ways to see it any other way. I am really hoping that enough people are fed up with this attitude that they actually come out and vote this time, because that's the only way we'll wrest control from these hateful bastards.
It's troubling, though, that McCain can just keep spouting the same lies over and over again, and that people believe him. "Obama's going to raise your taxes" is the mantra, and even though it's NOT true, people buy it because it's all they hear and they're stupid and scared. It is heartening, though, to see that a lot of Republicans are coming out against McCain, mostly because of the fabulous selection of Sarah Palin. Let's hope there are enough of them to offset the idiots.
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