Why Americans Vote Against Their Interest: Partisanship

[elleng]

'Working-class Americans who voted for Donald J. Trump continue to approve of him as president, even though he supported a health care bill that would disproportionately hurt them.

Highly educated professionals tend to lean Democratic, even though Republican tax policies would probably leave more money in their pockets.

Why do people vote against their economic interests?

The answer, experts say, is partisanship. Party affiliation has become an all-encompassing identity that outweighs the details of specific policies.

“Partisan identification is bigger than anything the party does,” said Frances Lee, a professor at the University of Maryland who wrote a book on partisan polarization. Rather, it stems from something much more fundamental: people’s idea of who they are.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/upshot/why-americans-vote-against-their-interest-partisanship.html?

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. The second sentence is an attempt to do "both sides", which is nonsense

Highly educated professionals tend to lean Democratic, even though Republican tax policies would probably leave more money in their pockets

BECAUSE

the Democratic party agenda improves the mental, physical and financial health of all citizens which then improves their condition.

[yallerdawg]

2. A deplorable asshole discovered...

a great many deplorable assholes are mean and angry and low-information, easily-duped jackasses who would vote for someone just as mean and ugly and resentful as they are.

It doesn't matter what he does as long as he is screwing over someone, and they always believe it to be someone else he's screwing!

[DaleFromWPB]

3. I disagree

I think people vote for what is important to them ... necessarily what would benefit them the most.

I think it's incredibly arrogant to pretend to know what's best for me or anyone else.

I have things I think are important and vote that way ... I don't think there will ever be a candidate that I agree with 100%. There are always trade-offs.

I make the trade-offs and come to a decision ... almost always Democratic.

To say that I know better than you what is in your self-interest shows condescension.