There is something important I have learnt from this election

[La Lioness Priyanka]

and that is that policies directed specifically toward the very poor, backfire.

Not sure if you guys read the Sarah Kliff's Obamacare piece, and it seems that the middle/lower middle class consistently feels that the poor have gotten in better (not least because of race).

Other articles have also pointed out why some people are voting against their better economic interest and it boils down to this, we think that the middle and lower middle class will get upset with the 1% but really they get mad about people poorer than them getting 'free' things

http://www.vox.com/2016/12/13/13920916/woman-obamacare-explains-why-voted-trump-repeal-change

Going forward democrats need to address this. Our theory of the case is that the working class should be mad at the 1%, whereas the reality is that the working class is mad at those they think are the lazy poor, getting rich off medicare and food stamps.

I want to add this caveat: I think it's wholly immoral not to support the poor, but it seems in order to support the poor we have to ensure that other classes of people get equal amounts of 'free stuff'.

[guillaumeb]

1. All about the framing:

To a white conservative, everything that he/she receives is an earned benefit. Everything a non-white gets is welfare.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. yup

[JHan]

2. Which is why higher taxes on the middle class will never fly.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. yup.

[orwell]

5. When I defend aid to the disadvantaged...

...I hear this comment a lot.

It's not just framing, there is a real palpable anger about this.

When I point out to people that aid represents a small portion of the budget it falls on deaf ears.

When people feel that they are hurting, they do not feel generous...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. also, when people are racist, they are not generous to other races

who they perceive benefit more than them

no one talks about how FDR purposefully excluded blacks, to pass massive welfare state programs.

[LaydeeBug]

6. Like addressing all the free things the top 1/10th of 1% get

They only pay partial ss taxes.

Loopholes.

write offs.

etc

[tblue37]

7. That is why Social Security is structured the way it is. nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

9. and medicare for all seniors too.. nt

[kcr]

19. Winner, right here.

That is exactly why you don't means test. You don't have resentment issues and there's a solid safety net safely in place.

[PotatoChip]

10. R's have always behaved this way toward the poor.

But you are just learning this now?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. it's not just republicans. read the vox article

it's democrats too

[PotatoChip]

12. Bull.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. ok then. nt

[mcar]

14. It was an amazing look into the "minds" of

people who regularly and willingly vote against their own interests.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. yup

[brer cat]

16. I agree, LLP.

The absolute worst ones to me are those who would deny food and healthcare to infants and children because they think the parents don't deserve it. WTF!? Beyond the fact that they don't know the parents and are therefore making shit up, do they really think children should be punished for their parents' failings?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

17. all of it sickens me.

[ymetca]

18. The stronger baby bird pushes the weaker one from the nest to die...

You'd think we humans would be more evolved, more "humane" than that, but it's been a long, long, climb.

I try to tell my conservative friends that their boss doesn't just live in a bigger, nicer house anymore --the one they see behind gated walls in a luxurious neighborhood, with perfectly smooth asphalt roads, with lawns ever green, and water fountains a-billowing even in the dead of winter (their heated!). No, that turreted mansion is only one of dozens they own all over the world, along with yachts with built-in heliports, and fleets of private jets.

My conservative friends can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that if 99% of the population was completely on welfare, the entirety of that money would not add up to what a handful of plutocrats have. They can't comprehend it. They cannot understand that there is nothing anyone anywhere on Earth could ever do to "earn" that much money. They still think that brass ring could've been in reach if only they worked harder, or were smarter, more beautiful, talented, or just plain lucky.

When I tell them that their boss probably has a "peasant policy" on them, and will even benefit from their death, they just look at me dumbly, faces ashen, crestfallen.

Then they go out and buy more guns.

[JCanete]

20. we worked with the insurance companies and had to screw some people in the 99% to help others.

That's the problem.

They get mad at the poor because the Democrats have done a shitty job of taking up class warfare. Sanders was popular and is, for a message that did champion that.

As a lone voice in the wilderness, would he have ever be able to achieve more than the success he got? Not enough probably, but if the whole democratic party stopped playing nice with corporations that would amplified.

It isn't about whether people want to shit on the poor more than take from the rich, its that they are greatly confused about who it is that is actually fucking them, and that is the corporate media's fault first and foremost, along with the expiration of the fairness doctrine that Bill Clinton can at least own in part, and Democrats fault second, because they have accepted the mantle as the less corporate party for the last 30 years.

[andym]

21. This was Reagan's doing and it continues

He explicitly played up the idea of the undeserving poor taking money from the middle class and it was worked very well for the GOP ever since. Lower taxes and less government is their mantra. Pay for the tax cuts by cutting money for the poor is their solution. That is one reason why so many are against the federal government helping the poor. It is one reason that the GOP is doing so well in rural areas who somehow feel it is the poor in the cities that are taking more of the money. It is one reason beyond gerrymandering why the GOP controls 2/3 of the statehouses.

[Amishman]

22. the solution is to expand aid programs to be available to all

expand foodstamps/SNAP to be available to everyone who wants it. X $ per adult, Y $ per child. No eligibility requirements.

Maybe adjust it a little bit to stop people from using it for soda/junk food.

Pay for it by reducing military spending or a transaction tax on wallstreet. Or up the tax on the top 1%.

[JI7]

23. the racism is too strong

the thing about this video is that it's not just that one woman but it looks like there are others who agree with her. and NOBODY defending the hispanic women being attacked by her. AND i have watched various links to this video and articles with comments sections and there are wayyy to many claiming this has nothing to do with racism. that the woman was upset over line cutting. so they ignore all the bigoted crap she is spewing and try to claim it has nothing to do with that.

and the line cutting is bs also since they were already in the line and being helped. one woman just left to get a couple other things to add on to the other items being checked out. this happens all the time. it shouldn't get any reaction other than some groans over having to wait a few seconds longer.