Why were Bush supporters portrayed as "hillbillies" and Kerry supporters portrayed as "snobs"?

[SlavicOrthodoxWolf]

Bush was overwhelmingly supported by the well-off. Most of the poor, including poor whites, supported Kerry. Support for the Iraq War and the neocon agenda was strongly correlated with higher income. Why were Bush supporters wrongly stereotyped as "poor, uneducated hicks" when this was the opposite of the statistical reality?

I think there was a similar lie during the Vietnam War, with the narrative being that supposedly the working class were the ones who were pro-war, when in reality it was the fuc.king bourgeoisie that supported it.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Are you referring to the famous South Park meme?

[doopy pants]

Are you referring to the famous South Park meme?

[darklordoftech]

Bush’s accent, Bush’s speaking gaffes, the South supporting Bush, Bush’s emphasis on his evangelicalism, guns, etc.

[US Politics Fanatic]

You can be a " hillbilly " and rich. There are rich farmers and people from the middle class with a PHD.

[jamestroll]

though it started occurring a few cycles earlier, 2004 seems to be the first presidential election in which you could saw that rural trends were 100% correct. While suburbs had not quite flipped yet, it was clear they were trending towards the Democrats.

Also even today ... Democrats may win rich counties but they are not really winning rich people.  Terry McAufflie winning places as wealthy as Great Falls and Mclean in a state level race is not exactly normal. Especially in a losing campaign.

[SlavicOrthodoxWolf]

though it started occurring a few cycles earlier, 2004 seems to be the first presidential election in which you could saw that rural trends were 100% correct. While suburbs had not quite flipped yet, it was clear they were trending towards the Democrats.

Also even today ... Democrats may win rich counties but they are not really winning rich people.  Terry McAufflie winning places as wealthy as Great Falls and Mclean in a state level race is not exactly normal. Especially in a losing campaign.

Actually most post election surveys of 2020 did show that most people making over $200k voted for Biden. Though that doesn't necessarily mean they don't vote R for other offices.

[jamestroll]

though it started occurring a few cycles earlier, 2004 seems to be the first presidential election in which you could saw that rural trends were 100% correct. While suburbs had not quite flipped yet, it was clear they were trending towards the Democrats.

Also even today ... Democrats may win rich counties but they are not really winning rich people.  Terry McAufflie winning places as wealthy as Great Falls and Mclean in a state level race is not exactly normal. Especially in a losing campaign.

Actually most post election surveys of 2020 did show that most people making over $200k voted for Biden. Though that doesn't necessarily mean they don't vote R for other offices.

True, but  they are still essentially Republicans.

I know that it was pretty much the gap between Jennifer Wexton's and Joe Biden's performance in VA-10 in 2020. At least she did not slide back like most 2018 suburban Democrats did.

[ListMan38]

Such is the rhetoric of the sixth party era; Repubs are evil smelly poors, and Dems are Ivory Tower Elites of the Western and Northeastern seaboards.

[SlavicOrthodoxWolf]

Such is the rhetoric of the sixth party era; Repubs are evil smelly poors, and Dems are Ivory Tower Elites of the Western and Northeastern seaboards.

When did the sixth party era begin exactly? I'm pretty sure in 1996 Dole would have still been seen as having a more "elitist" support base than Clinton.

[darklordoftech]

I'm pretty sure in 1996 Dole would have still been seen as having a more "elitist" support base than Clinton.

Counterpoint: Rush Limbaugh

[TheTide]

Such is the rhetoric of the sixth party era; Repubs are evil smelly poors, and Dems are Ivory Tower Elites of the Western and Northeastern seaboards.

When did the sixth party era begin exactly? I'm pretty sure in 1996 Dole would have still been seen as having a more "elitist" support base than Clinton.

Contract With America.

[SlavicOrthodoxWolf]

Such is the rhetoric of the sixth party era; Repubs are evil smelly poors, and Dems are Ivory Tower Elites of the Western and Northeastern seaboards.

When did the sixth party era begin exactly? I'm pretty sure in 1996 Dole would have still been seen as having a more "elitist" support base than Clinton.

Contract With America.

Is that true? I was under the impression that the 1994 Gingrich Revolution was seen mainly as a "tax revolt" of middle class suburbanites and not some kind of "redneck hick white trash" thing. I get that the South trended a lot more Republican at the state level, but that was still much more driven by the Suburban South (like Gingrich's own district) than the Rural South, and half the South still went for Clinton in '96.

The current system seems to have really started in 2000, which also happens to be when the parties stopped using Atlas colors.

[TheTide]

Such is the rhetoric of the sixth party era; Repubs are evil smelly poors, and Dems are Ivory Tower Elites of the Western and Northeastern seaboards.

When did the sixth party era begin exactly? I'm pretty sure in 1996 Dole would have still been seen as having a more "elitist" support base than Clinton.

Contract With America.

Is that true? I was under the impression that the 1994 Gingrich Revolution was seen mainly as a "tax revolt" of middle class suburbanites and not some kind of "redneck hick white trash" thing. I get that the South trended a lot more Republican at the state level, but that was still much more driven by the Suburban South (like Gingrich's own district) than the Rural South, and half the South still went for Clinton in '96.

The current system seems to have really started in 2000, which also happens to be when the parties stopped using Atlas colors.

It's true that Clinton did well in the South in 1996, but it's also true that Obama won comfortably in WI, PA, MI, IA and OH in 2012, and was actually quite popular overall when Trump was elected. Neither backlash was really about them as individuals. 1994 was caused in significant part by conservatives dwelling in the Limbaugh bubble, which eventually (d)evolved into the social media bubble. 1994 (which ended, let's not forget, forty years of Democratic control of the House) had George W. Bush first being elected to office and California (not at that point seen as the quintessential liberal state it is now) largely holding out against the wave.

[Thank you for being a friend...]

There was a lot of anti-French sentiment in the country that year.  John Kerry was effectively portrayed as basically a French elitist snob, sipping a latte, while cowboy Baby Bush was the guy down at the old bar with the beer that just came back from hunting.

Kerry was scared that voters would think he was not just French but also very wimpy (remember there's also a lot of homophobia out there too) and they told him to go to Ohio a few days before the election to go duck hunting.  I'm not joking...  it was very laughable.

Bush made him out to be the Alpha Male and Kerry was the Weak Beta... one billboard posted on a rural Pennsylvania highway said, "Boots or flip flops?"

[TheTide]

There was a lot of anti-French sentiment in the country that year.  John Kerry was effectively portrayed as basically a French elitist snob, sipping a latte, while cowboy Baby Bush was the guy down at the old bar with the beer that just came back from hunting.

Kerry was scared that voters would think he was not just French but also very wimpy (remember there's also a lot of homophobia out there too) and they told him to go to Ohio a few days before the election to go duck hunting.  I'm not joking...  it was very laughable.

Bush made him out to be the Alpha Male and Kerry was the Weak Beta... one billboard posted on a rural Pennsylvania highway said, "Boots or flip flops?"

I think there was some kind of an attempt (presumably from people within or sympathetic to the Kerry campaign) to point out that Kerry's initials are J.F.K. and that he was a Senator from Massachusetts. Maybe it was to counter the French elitist thing and make Kerry more popular (as the other JFK had been) with working-class voters. The Edwards (a telegenic young rising star at that point) pick also might have had some of this reasoning behind it.

I was once looking up favourable ratings of past presidents (as you do) and Kennedy's favourable were noticeably a bit lower in 2004 than at other points, perhaps due to association with one of the presidential candidates that year.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

Such is the rhetoric of the sixth party era; Repubs are evil smelly poors, and Dems are Ivory Tower Elites of the Western and Northeastern seaboards.

When did the sixth party era begin exactly? I'm pretty sure in 1996 Dole would have still been seen as having a more "elitist" support base than Clinton.

It was a slow transition. A part of Nixon's and Reagan's electoral successes involved winning over culturally conservative working-class whites who usually voted D for class reasons (see: Reagan Democrats). A lot is made of how Trump won the WWC in 2016, but that was part of a very long and very gradual process that is still ongoing.

[The Right Honourable Martin Brian Mulroney PC CC GOQ]

You can be a " hillbilly " and rich. There are rich farmers and people from the middle class with a PHD.

Rich people in rural are usually more culturally similar to poor people in rural areas, than rich urbanites. Your average Texas oilman doesn't drive a Tesla, shop at Whole Foods, and enjoy European and Asian culture the same way a Silicon Valley millionaire might. I think Trump was kind of an exception in that, despite being a New York billionaire, he really doesn't seem like the average rich New Yorker (compared to someone like Bloomberg - conservative on economics and crime, but liberal on most other issues).

You can even see this difference in HW vs W. HW may have spent most of his adulthood in Texas, but he was raised in the wealthy WASP bubble of New England, so he was always going to come off as a snobby elitist. But Dubya grew up in West Texas, and it showed in his accent, mannerisms, and appeal

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

You can be a " hillbilly " and rich. There are rich farmers and people from the middle class with a PHD.

Rich people in rural are usually more culturally similar to poor people in rural areas, than rich urbanites. Your average Texas oilman doesn't drive a Tesla, shop at Whole Foods, and enjoy European and Asian culture the same way a Silicon Valley millionaire might. I think Trump was kind of an exception in that, despite being a New York billionaire, he really doesn't seem like the average rich New Yorker (compared to someone like Bloomberg - conservative on economics and crime, but liberal on most other issues).

You can even see this difference in HW vs W. HW may have spent most of his adulthood in Texas, but he was raised in the wealthy WASP bubble of New England, so he was always going to come off as a snobby elitist. But Dubya grew up in West Texas, and it showed in his accent, mannerisms, and appeal

Plenty of rich people in the New York area aren’t culturally that different from working class New Yorkers. Maybe it was different a few generations ago but given how many New Yorkers with wealth now are second and third generation immigrants the affectations and tastes (and more often then not political views) aren’t necessarily more stereotypically elite. I think that Trump was an enigma among the wealthy of New York in more ways then one, he’s a WASP but not an old money WASP but the New York rich that aren’t old money are more likely to be Jewish, Irish or Italian and he isn’t that either. So in some ways he’s just someone that fits in culturally with middle America then with any strata of New Yorkers, a new money WASP with pretty banal tastes. He’s basically how poorer middle American white Protestants see wealthier versions of themselves, just without the funny New York accent.

[darklordoftech]

The messaging from Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and Bush’s campaign was, “Us real Americans support the Iraq War, oppose same-sex marriage, think abortion is murder, and own guns, unlike those snobbish college students”. There was a lot of discussion about how those issues were leading redneck evangelicals to vote against their economic interests.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

The messaging from Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and Bush’s campaign was, “Us real Americans support the Iraq War, oppose same-sex marriage, think abortion is murder, and own guns, unlike those snobbish college students”. There was a lot of discussion about how those issues were leading redneck evangelicals to vote against their economic interests.

I remember this, it was discussed then as if it was a new phenomenon in the same way that the Latino swing to the GOP is discussed now.

[Хahar 🤔]

1994 (which ended, let's not forget, forty years of Democratic control of the House) had George W. Bush first being elected to office and California (not at that point seen as the quintessential liberal state it is now) largely holding out against the wave. 

I don't think that this assessment is accurate. In 1994 Republicans won five of seven statewide partisan elected offices in California (including the governorship). They have never since won more than two at a single election. Republicans picked up nine seats in the Assembly to gain control: 1994 was one of two elections (the other being 1968) after which Republicans have held a majority in either house of the state legislature since the end of the Republican ascendancy in 1958. 1994 was the last election where California seemed to look like the rest of the country. The profound divergence was immediately after that.

[darklordoftech]

I'm pretty sure in 1996 Dole would have still been seen as having a more "elitist" support base than Clinton.

Not sure about Dole or Gingrich, but Phil Gramm definitely was seen as elitist. However, the fact that Gramm didn’t get anywhere in the primaries makes me doubt that the GOP as a whole was like that.