Poor Republicans Angry At Government Because Government Doesn't Do Enough | Addicting Info

I’ve often thought that being poor and voting Republican is like wanting to be a doctor and going to, I don’t know, blogging school. There’s nothing wrong with blogging school (yes, I’m pretty sure it exists), but a degree in blogging isn’t going to get you any closer to an operating room. For poor people, voting Republican isn’t going to get them any closer to not being poor. The sad thing, at least according to a Pew Research Poll, is that on some level, they know it, but they keep voting Republican anyway. Their reasoning? Because the government doesn’t do enough to help the poor! Doh!

According to the poll, about 25% of Republicans have family incomes of less than $30,000. Of those, 57% say the government doesn’t do enough to help the poor. More than half say the economic system favors the wealthy. 49% thinks Wall Street hurts America. A whopping 70% say that the wealthy and corporations have too much power.

Another study has shown that the federal government actually does more in Republican states than it does in Democratic states. In fact, most blue states give back to the federal government, whereas most red states are a drain on the federal budget.

As counterintuitive as that is, on one level, I think I get it. For thirty years, we have been told by Republicans that “Government is bad,” but they’ve never actually told us why government is bad. Is it because it does too much or is it because it does too little? The answer to that question, according to the poll, is it depends on how much money people are making. If they are making $75,000 or more, the government does too much, but the people who struggle feel very differently. According to the poll, they feel anger, distrust and more importantly, blame toward the government.