You won't believe this.

[bigendian]

A man I work with is black and gay. You would expect him to know which side his bread is buttered on. That is not the unbelieveble part...this is...!
Everyone knows I support Kerry. They even come to me with questions and I have no problem talking to anyone regardless of party affiliation.
But I just found out that he supports Bush!
There is something deep going on here that I cannot figure out. He started off very agitatedly trashing Kerry and ended up telling me he really didn't care who won. The depth of emotion I saw as he said this stunned me. I said to close your eyes and hit a button, at least you had a 50% chance of voting for the right guy!
It takes all kinds I guess.

[Not Me]

1. Un-fucking believeable.

[KlatooBNikto]

2. Must be a convert to Compassionate Conservatism!

[jimshoes]

3. Sound as though he's

been listening to wingnut radio. Please do him a favor and tell him about AAR.

[punpirate]

4. Quite believable...

... for example, has he expressed any religious sentiments? Is he the sort of person who would admire Republicans, thinking that some wealth and power might rub off on him? Does he have a sort of mythic belief in Horatio Alger stories? Has he had some personal issues with Democrats in the past that might cause some irrational hatred?

All possibilities, and there are probably more, besides. Most people are more complex than we imagine--even those that confound stereotype.

Cheers.

[bigendian]

7. I think you may have hit it.

He is remarkably aquisitive. He buys so many antiques that he has to store them. Perhaps he does want to join the rich man's "club".
That would explain why a working man with nothing to gain would vote republican.

[punpirate]

9. Odd how it works...

... but the psychology of it is that one's fear of losing what one has often grows linearly with how much one has accumulated. Apply an external threat (someone's coming to take or destroy what you have) and you've got a convert.

Fear of loss is a great motivator, and the Republicans know it. That's why they say to the general public, "so-and-so wants to raise your taxes. They want to take your money." Even if the Republicans know it's only the wealthy who will get their pocketbooks trimmed some, it's effective.

That's what's going on with Bush and Kerry at the moment.

I won't even get into the psychology of how fear of loss is related to fear of death. But, the Republicans work that fear every chance they get--and some people are susceptible to it.

[deadmessengers]

5. interesting

I also work with an African-American gay man, a USMC vet who served in the first Gulf war, who has never voted for a Democrat in his life.

Funny thing is, he's not voting for Bush in this election. He knows exactly what his Marine brothers are dealing with over there, and just can't bring himself to vote for the guy who sent them there under false pretenses. Instead, he's going to vote for Badnarik, the Libertarian candidate. In this bright red state, that's as good as half a vote for Kerry.

[newyawker99]

15. Hi deadmessengers!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Robbien]

6. It is possible he wants to be associated with winner capitalists

He is in the minority in so many other aspects of his life and in this one issue he can choose to be on the perceived winner capitalistic side.

Or some other such nonsence.

[Lexingtonian]

8. that kind of thing is wierd but not uncommon

I wouldn't claim meaningful knowledge of what being black and gay is like in any particulars.

But when people break out of perverse anti-self politics of the kind their explanation often tends to involve the notion of selfhatred, on the one hand, and the idea that submitting to the powers that ruin the lives of people like oneself is easier than resistance, on the other.

The bargain people of the kind imagine they've struck is this: If you're acquiescent you might not be destroyed. But if it chooses to destroy you (and at some level you know that is your fate) it will be less painful to be destroyed by a force that you accept as a child does a parent figure. I.e., if you love Big Brother and acquiesce to be being killed by him, then being killed by him will be acceptable to you...at least that's what you tell yourself. The problem is that when this is brought to the test, people discover that they've denied an awful lot more selfworth to themselves than they had let themselves recognize was there.

Of course it's a childishness at bottom, not something a full adult person would be willing to live. But sometimes it's to be preferred to life defined by the harpies of grief and selfhatred, living embittered with the world and giving in to impulses of selfdestruction and acting toward destruction of others in hope they can/will destroy you for it and solve the whole Gordian knot of impossible rationalizations.

[skygazer]

10. I don't believe it's usually so Freudian

I think for the most part these people are duped by the relentless right wing propaganda. Look at the number of women who inexplicitely support Bush. Not all of them are anti-choice, not all of them are religious. Many, many of them are duped by his promises of "safety" or "values" or fear of how they portray liberals. Most people are too complacent or lazy to actually educate themselves - they simply follow like sheep.

People don't necessarily always fit into the stereotypes we tend to try to fit them into. Being black and gay would make one think the person would vote Dem but perhaps this guy simply buys into the Repuke spin.

[Lexingtonian]

13. true

What you say is perfectly possible. But this fellow seems to feel a bit of political schizophrenia if I understand the poster who started the thread correctly.

[LiberalForEver]

11. It is the 'Stockholm Syndrome'!

[cheezus]

12. sounds like a born-again

[K-W]

14. Have you read David Brock's book?

It is interesting how people can be motivated to associate with political parties against thier own beliefs and interests.