UNDERSTANDING WORKERS VOTING TRAGEDY

Someone made the comment that some people vote against their own self-interest because they do not believe they are voting against their own self-interest. To me, this may sound redundant but it is really perceptive. For example, many workers vote for Republican candidates who are against unions even though they know union workers earn more money than no union workers; this in light of the known fact that wages are stagnant while worker productivity is increasing. At the same time, they know that corporate profits are increasing out of control while their living standard is falling, which is the classic description of income disparity we read about in all the newspapers and hear on all TV news programs. Books have been written about this (What is the Matter with Kansas) and I have written about this several times asking the questions; “Why would workers vote against their own interest?” I tried to explain it away by saying that perhaps they vote way the do because they are innately conservative. I still believe that is true; however, this new dimension may be true as well. Just because this information is available on news programs and in newspapers all over the nation does not mean they read it or understand it. If it is beyond bumper sticker complexity or not on the sports page, they do not bother to try to understand it.

The conclusion that workers vote against themselves because they do not know it is against themselves seems incredible in the current era of massive communications technology but it still could be true. In addition, when they step into the voting booth;  driven by a sense of hierarchy dominance, which also an innate sense; they vote their sense of innate fear, which we all have. The driver of conservatism is the fear that someone is getting something he or she did not work for; which is the Ronald Reagan “welfare queen” definition of all welfare. In other words, they vote their genes because they have not bothered to understand the practical facts of pragmatic political life; for example, how do they justify welfare for a wounded warrior and his young family.
Add to this the craziness of thinking John McCain learned political wisdom in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. These appear to be matters of “personal” interest and not intelligence. Obviously, skilled laborers cannot do what they do if they were not very intelligent. Just because a person is more interested in a football game played by his college team than in what the political beliefs of the candidate(s) he check off on his or her ballot does not reflect intelligence. This is true but I also think that the way they vote reflect a serious lack of wisdom. Of course, the challenge is to educate voters. Do we have to wait until workers are living in dire poverty before they divert their attention from sports events and“kool” beer advertisements and start to pay attention to politics? Unfortunately, that tragic time seems to be coming BECAUSE WORKERS VOTE THAT WAY.  

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