I just don't get it. Seriously.

[theHandpuppet]

Okay, I just don't get it.

While on my way to pick up a couple of coffee this morning I had the radio tuned to NPR, where two older voters from Louisville, Kentucky were being interviewed regarding the senate race in Kentucky; specifically, the question was about Conway's ads so the men interviewed weren't asked just WHY they supported their respective choices. One of the men was described as 83 years old and was a determined Rand Paul supporter. My question is, WHY?

Why would a man old enough to have lived through the great depression and most probably benefitted from the New Deal and the Social Security Act want to vote for someone who would just as soon see our elderly put out on an ice floe? How could someone who may have fought in WWII not see the same type of corporatist fascism in Paul's rhetoric?

I've seen this reactionary mindset among many of the older folks I know. I'm over 55 myself and know if my father -- a working man who served in both WWII and Korea -- were still alive he would vote for someone like Paul. Why are so many who themselves have benefitted from Democratic policies so angry and determined that no one else should benefit as they did?

Yes, I don't get it. And I especially don't comprehend why so many voters in Kentucky and West Virginia, whose people have so long been oppressed and abused by corporatist greedmongers, would even consider casting a ballot for men like Rand Paul or John Raese.

[lunatica]

1. Because they believe what they hear and don't understand it's corrupt propaganda

Lots of people still believe everything they hear. And unfortunately most of what they hear nowadays are lies fabricated by the media and the organizations behind the teabaggers.

[Ineeda]

11. I think you're right.

My parents (both deceased but of that generation) lived in an era of media integrity. Cronkite, Murrow, etc. and newspapers reported facts. The editorial aspect of reporting was clearly labeled as such. Today, it's the opposite and ethical, unbiased media is rare, if not impossible to find.

[liberalmuse]

2. Most of the folks I've met that age...

are awesome people who see right through the likes of Bush and the Republicans. I don't understand why anyone making less than $2 million would vote for a Republican. The conservatives I encounter are against social programs, but let me tell you, when they hit hard times they are the first in line to collect. After all, they are hard working while everyone else is a lazy freeloader.

Honestly? I think we are from different tribes or realities.

[olegramps]

15. There are too many who believe that they were solely responsible for their prosperity.

They are delusional in believing that they survived because they were hardworking, honest, Christians. The fact of the matter is that millions would have starved to death if it hadn't been for our blessing the FDR was elected. The policies of the FDR administration are solely responsible, against the determination of the wealthy Republicans, for creating the middle class. The Teabaggers are nothing more than a pack of fools that are cooperating in the own destruction.

[babylonsister]

3. Simple; they watch faux. How many of the "journalists" on there

actually formulate what exactly Paul is for? I don't watch, but I imagine a lot is left out of their discussions.

Oh, and they hate Democrats. And black people, or anyone who isn't like them.

[AngryOldDem]

4. Because it's what they know.

It's what they grew up with. It's what they've been told. It's what they believe.

My mother, who turned 90 this year, is a perfect example. She was a teenager during the Depression and her father managed to find steady work thanks to the WPA, after losing his streetcar conductor job. She married a man who had a government job from roughly 1938 to 1972. Yet, she was definintely a product of her upbringing, where liberal policies, race issues, and especially the Democratic party in general were always suspect, even though in a lot of ways she benefited from these liberal, Democratic policies. I don't believe she has ever cast a vote for anyone other than GOP candidates, ever, even though it definitely hasn't always been in her best interests to do so. She is a product of a time when you did what your family did, no questions asked. That is perhaps a good reason why I am the skeptic that I am, especially when it comes to politics. I've seen her robotic dedication to the status quo complete with all the biased, stereotypical reasons why she is that way.

(My father, though, was a staunch Democrat and used to get a big kick out of it when I would needle my mom about Richard Nixon. :D )

[CanonRay]

5. When you can explain Log Cabin Republicans

you'll be able to get your answer. I personally have no idea.

[theHandpuppet]

9. I gave up trying to explain them a long time ago

Though I always thought the photos of their annual conventions in Palm Springs, CA were very telling about the demographics of the LCR.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. Some members here on DU were recently hinting at becoming Log Cabin Republicans.

Claiming that because DADT and DOMA haven't yet been repealed that Republicans were more welcoming than Democrats. With that in mind, all I can say is that our mental health care infrastructure sucks in this country, and that's about the only explanation I can offer.

[soryang]

6. Feelings v. critical thought

Mob psychology is what the republican/corporate/fundamentalist marketing machine mobilizes. It is Bernay's group id, Arendt's mass mind, the Southern Baptist/fundamentalist (John Hagee Mossad/CIA)meme, you don't need no godless socialism, just git rite with Jesus. See Kevin Phillip's book, American Theocracy. It is the volk zeitgeist of white racism that Hitler and his military industrial complex mobilized so well and so catastrophically. The corporate right is mobilizing all of the id's destructive forces, resentment, recrimination, fear, jealousy, hatred, insecurity, and the lust for revenge.

There's nothing reasonable about it.

[sadbear]

7. Old people get scammed all the time

Move on. Nothing to see here.

[xchrom]

8. an irrational fear of modernity for some -- for many it's about getting in the face of

imagined liberals and saying 'fuck you' and that's all it is.

[GTurck]

10. Faced with the same....

question here in central Texas. This week would have marked my father's 90th birthday and he opined that he was a Republican. He died almost 2 years ago but I have met a lot of people his age and they are fairly brittle in their thinking. So many came of age in the Depression or early WWII and their medium of choice was the films of the time. I have found how many of them were really propaganda pieces for an America at war that never existed. After the war when the threat from the USSR began to rise they were going to westerns and war films that glorified this country beyond all reality.

I think that has had more impact on their waning minds then the reality that they lived.

They isolated themselves behind those images and stories. Now they think they remember that as a real thing or deeply wish that it were the real thing so that their lives won't seem so ordinary.

[Tsiyu]

12. These poor "dears"

it's hard to feel sorry for the old dummies, because I hang around older liberals so age isn't the problem.

The problem is, many of these elderly folks have personality disorders/dysfunctional family relationships. They're lonely as hell.

And they LOVE Glenn Beck and FUX News for making them feel like they belong, for helping them feel it's alright to "punish" the younger generations.

A Fairness Doctrine would be the antidote.

[OHdem10]

14. This could be part of it. The CatFood Commission is seen as

potentially cutting SS and privatizding it. Early on
Obama had said SS is on the table.
The Seniors moved away from Obama wholesale.

Since then he has tried to walk it back. The Republicans
are promising that the people on SS now will be protected.

The Democrats on the Hill do not go on TV and fight back
against Republicans.

I do not know the real answer to your question, there could
be some older white people who have a problem adjusting to
idea of a Black President as well.

[BeFree]

16. Why?

They are scared of the hippies.

All that hippie LOVE jazz just freaks them out. Love makes them think, and they damn sure don't want to have to think. Thinking is not congruent with their animal nature which is 'dog eat dog'.