"Country Boys" -- So many white people On the Dole

[Armstead]

Watching the PBS program Country Boys, it was amazing how mny white working-class people are on the dole. They're collecting Social Security or on otehr disabilities or food stamps or some otehr form of public assistance.

True this was a small slice of life in one social/econmic milieu in one region. But it is a pretty good microcosm of the larger morphing together of the middle class/working-class/poor that is occurring in the US. Not much seperates one class from the other these days. meanwhile the gap between the upper class and the lower/middle/working class gets wider and wider.

Not ragging on the people in the documentary, or begrudging them from getting help. But it does raise in very sark terms how the so much of this nation is supporting policies and values that are against their own best interests.

There wasn't much overt politics, but I had to wonder how many of these people vote for GW Bush and other Republicans. Do they rage against those awful liberals/Democrats/hippies on their way to cash their own SSI check? How many of them support the corporate values that consign them to dead-end jobs?Do they support the same right wing-Republicans who would throw them to the wolves? Do they hate Kerry and support Bush because GW is a Godly Man?

[xchrom]

1. you can bet alot of the men do.

[sui generis]

2. well they are convincing themselves that it's

evil black women in the inner city ghetto with 12 children dealing drugs and gangbanging and collecting welfare checks that's the problem.

Welfare myths. Food stamps ain't welfare!!! This is just temporary, unlike those other people "permanently" on welfare abusing the system.

No, they don't get it. They somehow think voting to reduce wasteful government spending on handouts means handouts to minorities.

I know I'm generalizing about a very few hypcrites, but it is odd that some of the poorest people are the staunchest "conservatives". I see people in Dallas every day coming out of Little Mexico and the poorer parts of the city with Bush/Cheney stickers on their car, and saw them dropped off in church buses by the hundreds to vote to keep gays from having the same legal rights conferred by marriage as anyone else.

If we as a party think that under-resourced and socially oppressed people are in the bag for the Dems, we are very sadly mistaken.

[hippiechick]

48. Bingo.

Excellent post. Thank you.

:hi:

[Nutmegger]

3. Yeah I seen this too

Only the second and third showings though. I felt bad at first trying to figure out if these folks voted / support Bush Inc; the division has gotten to me I'm afraid. If they do, then their values / beliefs are being stomped on by the Rethugs. Don't they know that the Dems "liberals" will help them? I also thought that these youths are prime candidates for recruiters.

The documentary was good though; it was interesting to see everything come in full circle. Frontline always does an excellent job.

[anitar1]

44. I was very impressed with this 6 hour documentary.

One of the best Frontline has had on. I really liked the idea of showing what happens to these 2 boys growing up in a poverty situation. I thought it gave a good picture of the only thing these people have in their lives, music and religion. I understand why they , in their sheer ignorance, support Bush. They think he is really a man of god.My heart goes out to the young living in Appalachia. So few escape. This show also helped me to have more understanding of teen boys and for that I was grateful. I was also impressed with the staff of the alternative school. But one could see the religion thing going on at the school. What kind of a chance do these kids have? Almost none.

[kentuck]

4. If I were making a documentary of the same area.... I would expose...

the Oxycontin and drug scandal that is rampant amongst those that are on SSI and Medicare. I would show how they get prescriptions for narcotic drugs at a low price or free from Medicare and sell them in the drug market from $7-$10 each. Many of them get prescriptions for 100 Lorcets at a time, for example. This is like its own underground economy amongst some of the more poorer recipients. I would expose the crime wave that is connected to this government program, robbery, ID theft, and murder. This story could get much deeper.

[hollowdweller]

37. The Oxycontin industry started about the same time as Welfare Reform

You have to work for your welfare now. But if you have some health problems folks get a medical card or somehow get a script for Oxycontin and then sell it and make WAY more than they made of AFDC and they don't have to work for it!

I review medical records all day and I see Pain Clinics that cut WAY more people off of their prescriptions for blood testing NEGATIVE for their oxycontin than for taking too much. They are selling it all.

[CottonBear]

5. Oh! There are so many poor whites on welfare and living in poverty.

I've met many when doing door to door demographic surveys and Census work. They simply are not as visible as poor black in cities or poor Hispanic immigrants. The poor whites live in rural areas and small towns. Another problem is the older population of the poor and feeble. :(

[underpants]

13. Exactly-the common impression is that "welfare" = "black"

Actually there is no Welfare anymore it is now TANF. TANF SSI and the Federal part of food stamps make up less than 2% of the Fed budget but you wouldn't know it from the complaints about "Welfare queens" and the like.

I don't have the number in front of me but the majority of such programs do go to whites but there is a concerted effort not to mention that little fact.

Pitting poor and middle class against the poor-an American tradition.

[CottonBear]

15. Well, there have to more poor whites than any other group since

there are more whites than any other ethnic group.

[hollowdweller]

38. Those areas are mostly white. Maybe 5% minorities

[meow2u3]

39. There are more poor whites--in absolute numbers

Because the white population far exceeds that of minorities.

There's a higher percentage of blacks and Latinos who live in poverty than that of whites....and a very high percentage of Native Americans living in poverty.

[terryg11]

6. good points

I wonder the same thing at times. I've met plenty of people who vote republican when it goes against their best interests. never ceases to amaze me

[Historic NY]

7. If you notices the billboards for SS Attorney's...........

in the program that might explain it a bit more.......they get to cash in if the client qualifies. That area is still pretty dirt poor. The Appalachian region got a boost under the "war on poverty" during the 60's but it slid back. It still has a lot of catching up to do and the program shows that in the schools above & beyond approach to the students and their lives. Their push to educate young people.

http://www.post-gazette.com/headlines/20001126appindex9.asp

[Debi]

9. In defense of SS attorneys

they get a percentage of the original award of the client qualifies (set by the government) and are not allowed to charge an hourly fee. Also, the SS system is incrediably complicated and there are not enough people employed by the SSA to help those who apply through the system. SS attorney's earn above an beyond their fee.

[Historic NY]

12. Not putting them down.....they just advertise more

I'm working on a disability claim myself.

[Debi]

14. Good luck!

Having a child with a disability who was on SSI until I remarried and our household income made him ineligible, I know how difficult the system is to traverse. (And he'll be 18 soon which means we'll be back in it, eeek!)

[liberalitch]

18. many times an aspect to which many vietnam era anti-war...

protestors most strongly objected was the fact that, in spite of third world like conditions in parts of our own nation, we were spending billions and billions keeping vietnam from trying to help itself.


I feel the war in iraq to be much more of a crime than vietnam.... for much the same reason....
See for yourself:

http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

[Debi]

8. We're told time and time again that the system needs to be redefined

to keep it from being abused. Those of us who have used food-stamps and public assistance for a brief period of time are told about the life-time abusers and that money is being 'thrown out the window'. If we just cut the funding we'll stop the abuse. If we raise the eligibility requirements or make reporting more difficult we'll flush the abusers.

I do believe there are cheaters, but more and more there are working poor, people at the end of their rope and those who don't have anywhere else to turn. That's why these programs have to stay intact and funded.

Why anyone who has ever used a government program (public assistance, Medicaid/Medicare, Social Security, student loan programs, SBA loans) would support someone who wants to destroy those very programs makes no sense to me. Of course, when you make minimum wage and taxes are taken out of your very small paycheck and you are told that 'welfare mother' is the reason maybe people take the bait. :shrug: Did anything I just wrote make sense?

[Gormy Cuss]

10. I shut down 'welfare abuse' rants with the right-wing people

that I know by saying I would rather have some of my tax dollars wasted on a few cheaters than think that I kept my money at the expense of people who can't afford food or heat or even a place to live.

I've had to correct the newly acquired right wing spew from some people who I know were raised on AFDC, food stamps, WIC, and Medicaid but who now are ready to condemn those left behind. It's those who are barely self-supporting who are most critical of their former neighbors. IMO it's a bit of self-loathing because they realize that all the hard work hasn't paid off as handsomely as they thought it would, and perhaps it isn't the fault of those who need assistance that they can't make it without help.

[SharonAnn]

19. Republicans take your money and give it to the wealthy.

[Gormy Cuss]

47. Non sequitur.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

11. I don't think so

Yes, many voted for Bush but remember that Kerry won the vote among the poor and uneducated.

[bleedingheart]

16. You think they vote?

bets are they aren't even registered to vote...

[SharonAnn]

20. If they have a felony record, they don't. If they don't have a current

address on file with the Election Commission, they don't vote.

And, of course, if they were never registered at all, they don't vote.

[AX10]

17. So many lazy right wing white men and women (Bush's Base).

The Toby Keith, Charlie Daniels, Gretchen Wilson, Daryl Worley crowd. :puke: The segregationist left overs of North Georgia (Newt Gingrich Territory) :scared:. There are many more working minorities than there are rural white southern folk (Bush's base).

There are many working class and poor whites who are much more intelligent, those who voted for John Kerry. Those who understand the need to sane and stable leadership and a strong economy. Sadly, they are in the minority.

[QC]

21. "Newt Gingrich Territory"

Newt's from Pennsylvania.

[AX10]

26. Newt was voted into power by the 'people' of North Georgia.

That is a fact.

[QC]

29. Yeah, but his district was surburban Atlanta.

His constituents were, in large measure, affluent freeper carpetbaggers, not poor mountain people.

In fact, the only income demographic Kerry won was people making under $50,000 a year--so much for the popular DU myth that poor folks singlehandedly put the chimp in office.

[hollowdweller]

40. Most poor people don't vote. That's how the GOP wins.

Look how many Blacks and poor whites are in MS and NC and they have Jesse Helms and Trent Lott.

[CottonBear]

27. Lot of upper middle class white Georgians voted for Newt. n/t

[QC]

30. Shhhhh! You're not supposed to talk about that.

A lot of people around here find it very comforting to believe that poor country people are responsible for everything that's wrong with this country. Telling them the truth--that people in their own demographic vote heavily for the GOP--tends to upset them.

[CottonBear]

33. Oops! I'll keep quiet about all these rich white Repubs in NE GA . n/t

[5thGenDemocrat]

22. Ah, DU -- the endless fount of speculation and misinformation

2004 Presidential Results, as per cnn.com:

Floyd County, KY
Kerry 11132
Bush 6612

Of course, someone could've actually looked that up before engaging in idle (and wrong) speculation -- but why should we start doing that now when it's so much easier to frame a question and answer it in the absence of any real facts?
John
Used to get annoyed at the BS around here. Now I'm just amused.

[Armstead]

24. You might noticed I framed it as a question

And tell me honestly how many born-again Christians these days are Democrat liberals?

I would love to be wrong on this, but unfortunately, this paradox is a class issue as well as a geographic one. Many people in Bush supporting "Red" areas are just a pink slip away from the same fate, and yet they still support a system and ideology that is crushing them.

But I'm glad i could provide you with some amusement. We all need our chuckles wherever we can find them, I guess.

[5thGenDemocrat]

32. Right you are

And the commentary regarding born-again Christians I've seen on DU leaves me with no doubt why most would and do refuse to vote for Democratic liberals. Frankly, I'm surprised that Floyd County went Dem in the last election (KY went 60-40 Bush, also as per CNN), but maybe they're a whole lot more enlightened regarding their self-interest than they are given credit for by the elitists. (And, n.b., Floyd County is NOT a Bush-supporting red area. They voted almost two-to-one for Kerry.)
My grandfather was from Crittenden County, KY. He had a sixth-grade education -- probably about average for Crittenden County circa 1910, and yet he wound up as a bridge engineer (a bridge he designed in 1938 still stands right here in Saginaw). He was a good man and a good Dem and he would've been insulted and patronized by all too many here. His daughter, my mother, was a long time member of MENSA -- which should tell you that a lack of education and a lack of intelligence are hardly the same thing.
Am I out of line for stating that you could've at least looked up the Floyd County election results before posting? It took me about 45 seconds to find the tallies and I suspect that the results verify that the folks in Garrett and David, KY (like those from Crittenden County) are plenty smart enough and a whole lot smarter than they are generally given credit for.
Finally, while you're grousing about class issues and pink slips, you might want to point at least one finger at the beknighted and saintly Bill Clinton, who did just as much through NAFTA to sell these folks down the river as any Republican did. His policies did a lot to damage Saginaw, Michigan, too -- but, hey, at least he gets to golf with Daddy Hitler now. In fact, George pere' regards him as a son -- which surprises me not one bit. Clinton was born into a situation very much like the one the folks in Floyd County find themselves in and I wonder why he sold his own out. What does surprise me is why Floyd County still went Dem after he did it.
No war but class war? I agree. And each day I have more and more doubts which side the Dems, just as much as the Republicans, are on.
John
You're a good person, Armstead. Don't take my comments, meant generally, as any sort of attack on you personally. I'm not laughing -- I'm pissed off. I guess I'm just tired of the deteriorating signal-to-noise ratio around here and about the growing realization that regardless of whether the Dem or the Repug wins, the poor people continue to lose.
Best personal regards.

[Armstead]

43. I agree with you more than you might think

Personally, I would much prefer the Democrats to put a lot more emphasis on economic populism (the positive kind of populism) and less on the peripheral social (wedge) issues.

I agree with you that the Democrats have basically sold the American people down the river by allowing the national debate to shift from the real issues of wealth and power, and by being too much like the GOP in regards to things like NAFTA, corporate abuses and economic justice (injustice)issues. Losing focus on the bread-and-butter issues is what stole much of the soul of the current Democratic Party IMO.

I'm old enough (and live in a very blue collar area) to remember what Liberal Democrat used to mean, when it was considered a party for the working class. Where I live is still a lot like that. A lot of diehard and proud liberal Democrats who are also salt-of-the-earth types.

But, Floyd County Ky. aside, frankly I am also pissed and/or frustrated at the large number of working class people today who refuse to look at things close enough to realize on a gut level where their own damn self-interest is, as well as what is best for the nation as a whole. And at those who swallow the distractions and GOP's appeal to their worst instincts to lead them to the political dark side.

Call me elitist if you want, but I really don't think there are a lot of ways to rationalize the support for crappy policies and values that too many people in the middle and lower classes have taken on in many parts of the country. And who have swallowed the poison pill of Right Wing religion.....(I'm not talking about all religion. Just the narrow minded, liberal-hating bogoted exclusionary type.)


I'm not going to be a reverse elitist and claim they should be exemptd from their share of the responsibility for that.

[5thGenDemocrat]

46. Well, Armstead -- I'm 49, so I can relate to days and ways gone by

My definition of "liberal Democrat" probably isn't the prevailing one any more, either. We've both been here long enough that you know I've faithfully kept my avatar of LBJ beside my posts forever (in DU terms).
Yes, he is most responsible for our getting dragged through the horror of Vietnam and he should rightly be criticized fiercely for that.
But LBJ also gave us The Great Society: Medicare, Medicaid, Aid to the Cities, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Clean Air and Water legislation, Head Start and so much more that bettered our country. He, to me, was the greatest liberal President ever and should be remembered as such -- both as a paragon of liberal virtue and as a cautionary icon. I've never seen another like him since. He is my personal ideal of a true liberal -- as unpopular as that view might be here.
Saginaw, like where you live, is a blue collar area. It was sad to hear from my friend, Mike B, that in the Delphi plant he works in here half (half!) of the workers voted Republican in the last election (but not Mike -- like me, he'd be considered quite conservative by DU standards even though, like me, he votes a straight Democratic ticket). He and his colleagues are well-paid workers who owe their prosperity to the UAW and to a Democratic party which doesn't really even exist any more. I suspect the loss of our principles has led to the loss of these voters.
I don't think I called you an elitist (again, I was speaking more generally than personally), but there is an elitist streak here. I contend, as did LBJ and FDR before him, that the poor and the uneducated can only have their lives improved by a truly liberal agenda such as LBJ championed. This should still be a core Democratic belief and it isn't any more. Yes, the Republicans are selling these people poison and appealing to their basest instincts -- but what are we selling them and what is our appeal? You tell me, because I don't know.
Let the right-wing religionist bigots -- Falwell, Robertson, Reed and their followers -- go their own way. Though admittedly well-organized, they represent a small minority in this great country. As you note, they are exclusionists and so rightly belong with the Republicans. The GOP will choke on them. But Jimmy Carter subscribes to that old-time religion, too. We cannot turn our backs on people of faith (as a side note, I am a Catholic. I am sure all too many here would be delighted to see us Papists leave "the big tent" as well. I'm not ready to do that yet, but I promise you, push come to shove, that I will abandon the party before I abandon my faith).
There has never been more minority representation in the US House and Senate than there is today and every single black Representative and Senator is a Democrat. Yet our inner cities are as hopeless as ever. How much longer do we expect black support when we don't support them and fight for them? How can we spend our wealth rebuilding the infrastructures and the schools in Baghdad and Fallujah while letting our own cities die and our own children, not just in Detroit and Philadelphia and Chicago but, yes, in Floyd County, Kentucky, too, waste away without hope and without support?
I expect Republicans to turn their backs on the poor and the working class. But what are we doing for them? A Democratic senator or representative gets the same perks and same pay as a Republican. What are we doing to earn it?
Bill Clinton sold us NAFTA. He should have stood with the working class instead of wining and dining with the corporate class. The Dems did nothing when food stamps and other aid to the poorest and least fortunate Americans were cut. Yet another billion dollars in such help was chopped from the federal budget just recently to help pay for the Iraq war and yet his wife and closest cohort, Senator Clinton -- one of the biggest supporters of that debacle -- is the front-runner to represent our party for President in 2008.
Something is wrong here, and I fear terminally. The mid-term elections are just ten months away and the Democrats should have a golden opportunity to take back both the House and the Senate. The economy is weak. The country is bleeding jobs. The war has cost us lives, billions upon billions upon billions of dollars and any respect we once had in the world. The Republicans, personified by Tom Delay, have shown themselves to be corrupt to their core. Opinion polls show that the voters in this country ARE aware of all of this, and yet the Democrats don't offer any kind of coherent alternative.
We expect America to magically come running home to us. But, really, why should they? Why should the poor and the disillusioned, the religious faithful and the blue-collar workers support us when we have abandoned them?
Point your finger at the Republicans if you want. But three more are pointing right back at us. Yes, the GOP is chock-full of "crappy policies and values" as you note. But what policies and values do we hold? Can we even say any more and, more importantly, can we enumerate them so the "salt-of-the-Earth" types (you, me, us) can understand and line up behind them?
I hope so.
John
Time is running out and there's never been more on the line. Maybe it's impossible to save the world, but I'd kind of like to stop Bush and his cronies before they destroy it.

[kentuck]

50. These people are the canaries in the coal mine....

Government policies affect them first. Look at the condition of Appalachia and you can ascertain how we as a nation are treating the rest of the nation...

[Armstead]

51. I'd echo most of what you wrote with a few exceptions

You've hit the nail on the head on many levels. Even though I may sound judgemental towards the working class and poor who have bitten into the poisoned apple, I agree that our side is also responsible for the mess we're in. Maybe more responsble, because we haven't really offered people a choice anymore....I can;t tell you how many times over the last 25 years when I felt like NO ONE in political power was protecting the interests of the average person and the disadvantaged.

Two of my own political heroes are Bernie Sanders and Paul Wellstone. Although they are often labeled "radical left," if you look at their records and positions, they are actually simply representing traditional liberal and Democratic values. They only seem "radical left" because the Democratic Party has moved so far from its trditional principles and values. More importantly, they can relate progresive/liberal values to people from all walks of life, in part because people respect their gutsiness and political integrity. I see Sanders as one of the few actual representatives of "the people" in Washington these days. (I live near Vermont, and I know how much support Sanders gets among ordinary grassroots people, because he fights for their interests and they know it.)

There are other Democrats in Congress who are cut from the same cloth as those two. The problem, IMO, is thatthey get drowned out and ignored by the Beltway Establishment, in which too many Democrats are sleeping in the same bed as the GOP.

I think social issues are important, but they should NOT be along partisan lines. Same thing with religion. I believe it would be perfectly possible -- and desirable -- for the Democrats to build a liberal/progressive coalition on economic issues of wealth and power, while leaving it to the individual consciences and belief of both politicians and voters to deal with issues like guns, God and gays individually. (Although I do believe that democrats should continue to stand strongly for the notions of protecting individual rights, privacy and diverity.)

[kentuck]

53. A hundred years ago, the British were mining coal in these mountains...

and not much has changed. Nobody has been offered choice or opportunity. Millions have left their homes in the mountains to go elsewhere.

[Armstead]

54. It's sad to see so many regions where the "best and brightest" leave

That's probably an underlying cause of our larger national problems today. Too many peolpe with talent and initiative feel they have to leave their hometowns. Thus, instead of contributing their vitality and abilities on a more local level, they become cogs in the big machines centered around a few hubs scattered around the country.

[QC]

23. There's always been lots of poor white people.

What you are seeing is nothing new, though many people are quite unaware of it.

[Armstead]

25. That's true but more people are slipping backward into that morass

Where I live, 25 yers ago if you went to high school you could get a blue collar job at one of the large manufacturing companies here and have some measure of job security and a decent paycheck and benefits. Not extravagent, but enough to live a decent middle class life.

But those companies have moved to cheap labor areas. Today, many of those same people -- or their kids -- have to take whatever crappy low-wage insecure job they can get, and/or they get sucked into the working poor and/or unemployed.

[hadrons]

28. Democrats abandon these people ....

yeah, there a fair share of 'God, guns, and gays' morons and those who are too stupid to realize that giving a tax cut to the CEO who laids them off doesn't help them in Bush country, but really the Democrats aren't giving a reason to believe they'll do anything for them ... people go on about how great Clinton was and I admit I did better $$$ when he was around, but there were a lot of these poor rural people left behind economically

[Jeffersons Ghost]

31. shhhh

This kind elderly lady asked me to whisper this, cause she doesn't want to stand in a Cuban bay:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

and like reasonable people from every walk of life, she's a DEMOCRAT

[XOKCowboy]

34. Nope it's GUNS

What I hear most is "The Democrats want to take our guns". Abortion is a distant second.

It's a very clear threat to every Red Blooded UhMuriKan.

Is it a true threat? Do we want to take their guns?

[benEzra]

35. I don't think most Dems do...a quarter or more of Dems are gun owners...

Is it a true threat? Do we want to take their guns?

I don't think most Dems do...and a quarter or more of Dems are gun owners...but a handful of gun-prohibitionist Dems in influential positions have tried their best to steer the party as a whole in that direction.

During the 2000 and 2004 elections, the candidates promised to outlaw half the guns in our gun safe...over-10-round handguns, rifles with protruding handgrips, and such.

You want to know why the gun issue is such an albatross around the party's neck in states like mine, where half the Dems and indies own guns, look no further than Feinstein et al, their anti-self-defense crusade, and the "assault weapon" bait-and-switch.

[XOKCowboy]

42. I don't either

We've got to rid the Dems of that stigma though..

[hollowdweller]

41. Wrong! These people don't vote unless somebody pays them for it.

[hollowdweller]

36. In my experience doing SSI claims.

There are two types of claimants basically. The working poor, some of them might vote GOP, but I'd say just like the country they are split 50/50.

But a lot of SSI recipients don't have it together enough to vote. They move around so much that they can't keep their registration up to date. We have a real hard time just getting them to exams even though it is in their best interests to attend. They are used to immediate gratification and anything that involves planning, or forward thinking, or having to be somewhere at a certain time is really beyond a lot of the recipients. Especially the mental ones. I can't tell you how many people get denied who might be allowed because they fail to keep multiple rescheduled appointments, or just can't set down and fill out the forms that they have to send in. Now if they are out of smokes, or beer, or need to go see their girlfriend or anything that immediately brings gratifiction they can remember it. But anything that takes time between effort and result is hard for them.

I'm not ragging on them, just saying the way it is. Also many of those areas had the mines. Then when the mines shut down, most everybody that had something on the ball left. With the exception of fast food and some gov't jobs which are few, the only people that can live there are people on the check. So they marry and produce more offspring that have the same disabilities and they can live there. It's kind of like survival of the fittest, but the fittest in this instance are the disabled who can draw a check.

As far as them being white, I don't know where you live, but I live about an hour from where those guys live, maybe 90 minutes, and there aren't any black or latino folks in that area. The lowest tier is white. Poverty is color blind.

So don't think a lot of these folks think about politics. They don't. Too abstract.

[sandnsea]

45. Two things

Well, maybe one. They have absolutely no faith that the system is going to come through for them because nothing they believed in has ever worked out for them in their lives. Or, they get a job or some opportunity and try to work that out so they won't have to be on SSI. It isn't as simple as instant gratification. And as that pertains, some do think about politics in very concrete terms, and have their opinions which may include politicians are useless so why bother with it. Some of the smartest and richest people in the world are political cynics, I don't know why you wouldn't expect some of the poorest to be.

[kentuck]

49. How many people did you see "on the dole" ?

Or do we assume that every person in the movie was "on the dole". I don't think that is true. I think the majority probably do vote Republican.

[Armstead]

52. In that movie, a lot

I don't want to base life on a movie, but inthat film, both the protagonists were receiving public assistance, as were many in their families.