More poor support GOP

ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis offers an explanation for why many of the country’s poorest areas, traditionally Democratic strongholds, are becoming more and more Republican:

Some of his points:

  • Recipients of safety-net programs aren't voting.
  • The people who are voting in these economically depressed areas of the country are lower-income workers (motel clerks, highway workers, coal miners, etc.) who harbor resentment "against the guy across the street who is collecting disability payments but is well enough to go fishing, the families using their food assistance to indulge in steaks."
  • The GOP says the shift in voting shows that Americans perceive that government assistance is stalling the economy.
  • Democrats have their work cut out for them to reduce resentment among the working poor and create economic growth in the nation's poorest regions.

Thoughts? Email connie.post@coxinc.com

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