A poor man who votes Republican is a fool

Taken from an article in the San Francisco Gate

Cultural wedge issues

In 2004, author Thomas Frank wrote in his bestselling book “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” that Republicans had convinced working-class whites to vote against their economic self-interest by appealing to them with cultural wedge issues like abortion, gay rights and gun laws.

Viessman’s neo-redneck take on that: “My dad used to say, ‘A poor man who votes for a Republican is a fool.’ ”

But McCain supporters say opposition to Obama goes deeper than race in rural Missouri.

“Race is absolutely an issue to some people, and that is unfortunate,” said Missouri state Rep. Jason Brown, a Republican legislator from suburban Kansas City and a McCain supporter who was wounded while serving a tour of duty in Iraq during his legislative term. “But what people should be focusing on is that Barack is too liberal for many people in Missouri, particularly those outside the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City.”

K.C. Morrison, a professor of political science at the University of Missouri, said Obama has copied the political playbook of his top Missouri surrogate, Sen. Claire McCaskill, in directly appealing to rural voters with economic and health care issues. Nearly 18 percent of the nation’s rural residents didn’t have health insurance in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Tags: Rednecks for Obama