I just had to thank you for the laugh.
Edit: I suppose I can reply to this too since I came from a low income household in a semi-rural. I am/was conservative in some ways, although depending on the topic I may be liberal as well.
So basically it is a few things.
- People don't necessarily vote based on how something directly affects them, they may believe that something else is good for the country. A lot of people buy into the "trickle down economics", although I never really have, and they think that the economy will improve as long as the wealthy have low taxes. That somehow, despite low demand, the rich will create jobs to satisfy this non-existent demand.
- People have more a philosophical position on the issue. They simply think it is wrong to tax people differently because of their status/wealth. A lot of these people support things like a flat tax or a sales tax.
The posting above seems more like some may vote Republican, rather than why they might rant against a jobs bill though. And a lot of people indeed do place social issues above economic ones, yet others place economic ones above social. I have my own priorities as well, which unfortunately are not ones promoted by either political party.
Some of voting is just ignorance too. People oppose or support something because they don't know the entire content of it. Like the health care issue or the jobs bill or whatever. It is interesting if you look at polls on what Americans want and then their position on a bill that does what they want, they'll have opposite positions.
So should someone vote based on their economic interests? Is that somehow noble?
I can understand why some people do, but I don't think that should be your motive for voting a specific way. You should vote based on what you believe is best for the nation, not yourself. And that could be voting for a more progressive tax or a flatter tax, just depends on what you feel would be better. Too many people place themselves above others, so despite having moved away from some right-wing thinking on economic issues, I still quite dislike when people use "voting against your economic interests" as if that is a bad thing. Last I checked, it was greed that was the bad thing.
