When you look at the strange coalition that makes up today's GOP, I think it is easy to understand why certain elements are there. Clearly the banksters and unscrupulous corporatists have their agenda... The "limited government" faction is there and have evolved into an "all-taxes-are-bad" position, so I understand where they come from.... The fundamentalists are understandable jumping on the anti-choice and anti-rights bandwagon... There is even a faction of died-in-the-wool fiscal conservatives holding onto their old worn out theories on debt and trickle down.
The two factions that don't make rational sense are the libertarians and a sizable block of blue collar. Given the social and economic positions of the GOP, reason would say that these people have no business associating with the republican party. But these two groups are there because they've been convinced that our side is all about giving handouts to freeloaders. They've bought into the "welfare queen" meme, and the "poor by choice" meme and every other anecdotal bullshit argument of the theme.
When I talk to folks in these two groups--seemingly selective libertarians and some hard working middle class people--and try and understand why in the world they seem to want to vote against their own interests. This is the overwhelming reason. They've bought into the idea that the democrats just want to "give away their money" to people they believe don't deserve it. Of course, if they are collecting benefits, they believe they "earned" them. Such is the cognitive dissonance.
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