This is what we are dealing with ...
My boss is a teapartying, 46 year old, white, female with 2 adult children (19 and 21). She has been employed by the state courts for all her working life ...
She is for smaller government.
When her children were 5 and 7, her husband left her because she wanted to pursue the Bachelors Degree that was required for her job. (Her, now, ex-husband told her "Don't let our marriage get in the way of you getting a degree."
For the next 7 years, she received some form of public assistance, e.g., food stamps and educational grants) to make ends meet ...
She is anti-entitlement.
Her older son works as a minimum wage security guard. He is trying to get on with the state Department of Corrections as a Corrections Officer or the Sheriff's Department as a Jailer, but he has a learning disability (dyslexic) and can't pass the test. Although he answers the questions that he answers correctly, he falls short of the passing score because he runs out of time ...
She has convinced her son that he should not ask for an accommodation for his disability, e.g., having the questions and answer choices read to him or being allowed more time for the test, because it would give him "special treatment." ("Special treatment", mind you, after 10 years of schooling in "Special Ed" classes.
Her youngest son is enrolled in an Union sponsored electrician's apprenticeship program that pays him $30.00/hr (with benefits and a 401K) and he is (pretty much guaranteed) a union job upon completion of the program. She told me her son told her that he was glad that he was in the apprenticeship program because on some of his jobs, he works right next to non-union electricians (with 10+ years in) that are paid less than half what he makes and are provided no benefits or retirement.
She is anti-union.
She re-married about 4 years ago, after living with her (now) husband, for 5 years.
She is a "deeply religious" Catholic that condemns "living in sin" and single parenthood.
Despite her youngest son having healthcare through his apprenticeship, in 2010, she placed him and his brother on her insurance, along with her husband who suffered a heart-attack followed by a mild stroke back (I think one was in November, 2008, and the other in January 2009) ...
She is Anti-(President) Obama and anti-ObamaCare.
She, now, lives in a up-scale community on 5+ acres of land. Because she works 50+ hours/week and has a 45 minute commute and her husband works 60+ hours/week (from home ... I don't know what he does, but he is "self-employed" , they don't have time to maintain their pool and grounds ... so they contract out the work to "a guy" that charges them $35/day (cash).
She is virulently anti-illegal immigration.
This is the type of working class person that will vote for romney.
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Another characteristic of this same thinking are the ones that get interviewed on virtually any environmental documentary or article you read (my most recent was "Coal Country" .
The ones who say "I used to think environmentalists were whackos" or "I'm not an environmentalist I'm an activist", etc.
So many republicans are republicans until the bad stuff happens to them. Then they don't understand it. But for most, they are still only interested in fixing the problem for them.
So ultimately it is a problem that has been documented, a pathological lack of empathy.
