Why are there poor people who vote republican?

[Mike J]

I mean most of these poorer people utilize social programs such as welfare, Medicaid, college pell grants, etc and would benefit more from the democrat's social ideas(universal health care, more money towards education, etc.). than the republican's stances on social issues. I do know that the republicans are more conservative on the moral issues(gay marriage, abortion, etc.) but wouldn't social issues be far more important to the poor?

[colossalrabbit670]

Racism, homophobia, and the fact that bombing other countries makes some people who are hard on their luck feel better about themselves.

[reality 5000]

because they are real americans. not blood sucking welfare queens and kings. they consider it embarassing to be on welfare.

[sillychannel876]

They are too busy committing incest and looking for their teeth so the "good ole toot fairy' will give them a dollar to concern themselves with educating themselves about political parties...

[inkboi]

because it was stolen from hillary so we letting obama know we dont want him or like him

[scrooge]

they like to get the shaft.

[Scott]

first off, the poor due not handle wellfare well. They have begun to feel that it is their right. In reality it is a privilage. If the United States did Universal healthcare than all the people who were wise with their money would be ripped off while all the people who like going on spending sprees would get free stuff.

Poor people vote for Democrats because they want to have a more socialistic country

[Paladin]

even some of the people who get money from the government realize that it is not in the best interest of the country for such programs to continue forever growing

[Mike]

Converting Republicans to Democrats is one of my specialties.

I have been doing that for over 40 years.

One of the big issues that I run into is national security. Many Republican voters who logically should be Democratic voters tell me that one of their big concerns is national security and they consider us to be weak on issues of national security.

When I point out that the Republican Party is the Party of the rich, they often counter with examples of Democrats that they consider to be rich and pompous.

Examples of some of the Democrats that these potential Democrats consider to be rich and pompous are Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barabara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi.

We need to do a better job on the issue of national security and we need to do a better job of not permitting our national candidates to look and sound like rich and pompous people.

George Bush has made a huge mess of things. I have found it much easier to recruit new Democrats from the Republican Party than I have in the past. However we still need to work on the national security issues and we need to move some candidates up to national status level who are not rich and pompous.

[Meg]

If you look at the income distribution you can see that most people are not poor or rich but low middle. Most do not get much help from the government, but have a hard time making ends meet without two incomes and don't like people who work less hard than they do getting help. So far we don't have many programs that really redistribute income to people under 65, most are means tested and are aimed at the poor. Universal heath care and could be such a program but the democrats have not sold it to the public yet.
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2006...tribution/