Scientific explanation of how the GOP has convinced the Tea Party base to screw themselves

[ehrnst]

"People near the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder often oppose policies that help those below them, according to a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The phenomenon is called "last-place aversion."

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/04/140116142/avoiding-last-place-some-things-we-dont-outgrow?ft=3&f=1001,1003,1004,1090

""The way I thought about it was, were really important for relatively poor whites so they could have permanently — and sort of officially — a group they could always look down on," Kuziemko says."


This story could also serve as exhibit one in the GOP case against NPR...

[hedgehog]

1. I'm wondering how many in the Tea Party are spending beyond their means -

they feel entitled to spend that much money, and it's the government's fault they can't afford it! The focus on eliminating deficit spending may be a projection of their own situation!

[rrneck]

2. Two books

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060973331/ref=aw_d_detail?pd=1&qid=1315174873&sr=8-1

"From Library Journal The "central character" in this breezy foray nto popular sociology is the "professiona middle class," a loosely defined group the author castigates as elitist, self-absorbed, and selfish. Other players include the lower and working classes, the New Class (the iberal wing of the middle class), and yuppies, who are passionately denounced and, oddly, spoken of only in the past tense. Ehrenreich, an active socialist and author of The Hearts of Men ( LJ 7/83) and For Her Own Good ( LJ 8/78), concludes that the middle class needs to become more caring and inclusive ("welcoming everyone, until there remains no other class"). An interesting but ephemeral book. The Hearts of Men ( LJ 7/83) and For Her Own Good ( LJ 8/78), concludes that the middle class needs to become more caring and inclusive ("welcoming everyone, until there remains no other class"). An nteresting but ephemeral book.- Kenneth F. Kister, Poynter Inst. for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, Fla. Copyright 1989 Reed Business"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0061965588/ref=mp_s_a_6?qid=1315175078&sr=8-6

"Zinn views the Bill of Rights, universal suffrage, affirmative action and collective bargaining not as fundamental (albeit imperfect) extensions of freedom, but as tactical concessions by monied elites to defuse and contain more revolutionary impulses; voting, in fact, is but the most insidious of the "controls." It's too bad that Zinn dismisses two centuries of talk about "patriotism, democracy, national interest" as mere "slogans" and "pretense," because the history he recounts is in large part the effort of downtrodden people to claim these ideals for their own. Rights, universal suffrage, affirmative action and collective bargaining not as fundamental (albeit imperfect) extensions of freedom, but as tactical concessions by monied elites to defuse and contain more revolutionary impulses; voting, in fact, is but the most insidious of the "controls." It's too bad that Zinn dismisses two centuries of talk about "patriotism, democracy, national interest" as mere "slogans" and "pretense," because the history he recounts is in large part the effort of downtrodden people to claim these ideals for their own. freedom, but as tactical concessions by monied elites to defuse and contain more revolutionary impulses; voting, in fact, is but the most insidious of the "controls."'

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. This is one of those "no shit, Sherlock" studies.

It's been obvious for a very long time that the racism often seen among low-income white people (particularly, but by no means exclusively in the South) is because they needed someone to feel superior to. I guess that's a basic human need - not to be the bottom guy on the totem pole - but this psychological need was exploited by the moneyed classes during and after the Civil War. They used poor whites to help them keep the blacks down, and at the same time this kept the poor whites from realizing they were being exploited, too. And it continues to this day.

[gordianot]

4. So if you get health care through Medicare it is all right to complain about those with no heathcare

Just do not let the Government touch my Medicare. Wonder if the teabagge turf largely in the South poor get more government assistance than in more affluent States?

[RadiationTherapy]

5. Bob Dylan 1963

(excerpted)

A South politician preaches to the poor white man
“You got more than the blacks, don’t complain.
You’re better than them, you been born with white skin,” they explain.
And the Negro’s name
Is used it is plain
For the politician’s gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game

The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man’s used in the hands of them all like a tool
He’s taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
’Bout the shape that he’s in
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game

From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoofbeats pound in his brain
And he’s taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clinch
To hang and to lynch
To hide ’neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain’t got no name
But it ain’t him to blame
He’s only a pawn in their game.

[applegrove]

6. My little female cat was low man on the totem pole in this household. She started

acting really aggressive towards neighbour cats.... afraid she'd loose her "status", lowly as it was, if she didn't attack them I am sure.