Voting Conservative/Republican

I've pondered before on the question of why some people's political preferences are as they are. Three of my archived posts, with interesting commentary beneath, from 2011, 2012 and 2014:

Political Preference - Brain Differences? Astrology in there anywhere?

LEFT-RIGHT

All in the Mind

Astrology apart, I can understand why the wealthy, and better-off land-owners, farmers, ranchers, lesser aristocracy (in the UK), or well-heeled professionals etc would vote conservative/Republican. I have never understood why everyday people of modest means at best, ranging to those in virtual poverty, would even consider voting conservative/Republican. They do. They vote conservative/Republican in droves.

I lived in various locations in the UK for more than 60 years, and in south-west Oklahoma for the past 11 years. Same thing happens in both countries, though I do believe it's more obvious here in the USA where, in certain areas, there exists more severe poverty.

Googling around the net, realising that many others must have puzzled over this same question, I found a few suggestions, which boil down, in a few words to:

Pursuit of aspirations, a bit of mild social climbing - mistakenly assuming conservatives will help lift them "up" to join, if not the golden ones, at least the rhinestone crowd.

The "I'm alright, Jack!" syndrome (well-known in the UK) prevalent in those who have secured a decent job and could not care less about other unfortunates, so vote conservative to ensure their taxes remain at lowest possible level.

Propaganda from radio, newspapers and TV (I'd add churches too, for the USA). Misguiding gullible, trusting folk whose knowledge of politics is skimpy, if any at all, and they lack or energy time to pursue more information, being hard pressed to work enough hours to feed their families.

A feeling that "liberals", who are often seen as "the elite" in the USA, look down on the less well-off and the poor, who then group together and vote "the other way", not realising that voting conservative/Republican is not going to change a darn thing - only make it worse!

Personally, I could never ever, ever, ever vote conservative/Republican - nor for any Democrat who is not truly of the left-wing (most of 'em here in the USA are really not of the left). Whether this is due to something in my astrology, or in my ancestral DNA of generations of serfs in feudal England, I know not.

Trump ?

 At least someone had  the right idea!

Trump. I can easily understand the thinking behind the divide between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side, but Donald Trump's runaway lead on the Republican side remains incomprehensible. At first I did, kind of, understand his appeal. In the early days of his candidacy he came across as someone who had definite leadership potential, certainly more of it than anyone else who stood on that first debate stage. As time has gone on though, what at first was a novelty with some appeal to those who like to hear what they consider to be unvarnished opinion, is now distinctly unpleasant - dangerous even, coming as it does from one who aspires to lead a nation with as much at stake as the USA.

There's the fact that Trump seems to have little knowledge of how government works in the USA. Leading huge business enterprises (at which he's not as brilliant as he likes to portray) is a whole lot different from leading a country as large, diverse and important (if hardly exceptional) as this is. Then there's the question of that "3 a.m. call". Remember that from the 2008 go-around? Who, in their right mind, would prefer to have Donald Trump answering that call rather than Bernie, or even Hillary or Rubio? (Cruz? -NO! Shhhh don't go there either!)

We drove around parts of our medium sized south-west Oklahoma town yesterday, after voting in Super Tuesday's primary. We saw around a dozen Trump lawn signs, all in some of the poorest areas of town. No other candidates' signs were on show anywhere. Those people, so proudly supporting Donald Trump, are surely not hoping that he, as president, would try to do anything to ease their situation?

Most weird I do get - this I do not!

Husband took a couple of photographs yesterday - one of them might give a hint of hope, others not so much.

UPDATE ~ The above was prepared Tuesday afternoon. We now know that Oklahoma Republicans chose Ted Cruz over Trump. Not sure if that's good bad news or bad bad news! But in the rest of Super Tuesday states Trump held his own... so what's written above holds good.
:-(