Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Thou Shalt Not Promote Equality

Carpetbagger has a post in which he finds it ironic that the states where people most need "Obamacare," (ie, residents in Southern and Western states), are the most likely to oppose it. But I really think this all makes sense, as one big reason these places are so underinsured is because they're lacking in much of the advanced infrastructure that makes more progressive states more progressive.

They're conservative to their core and that means rejecting the progressive policies that give "blue" states advantages over these other places. And so it's just natural that they'd also oppose this progressive policy too. The establishment in these states have convinced the poor and middle-class that the status quo is the only quo for them, and these people will fight for their right to be kept down.

They believe they have a god given right to be screwed over by the powerful and to screw over those less powerful than themselves, and they'll be damned if they let anyone take that freedom away. And if that means that they get paid sucky wages and aren't offered real insurance by their employers in order to ensure that the powerful stay powerful, that's what has to happen; even if these policies harm the overall economy. It's better for a few ships to do good in low tide than to allow a high tide to improve everyone's ship.

3 comments:

Davis X. Machina said...

Don't overlook sheer pettiness.

The salient fact in American politics is that there are always enough people to form a party, and often elect a President, who would volunteer to move with their family into a cardboard box under a railroad bridge, and toast sparrows on an old curtain rod over an open fire, if you would only guarantee them that the people in the next box over don't even get the sparrow.

Broadway Carl said...

Off topic: You've been awarded Honest Blog Award by an admirer of your blog.

Matt Osborne said...

You know, there's something to be said about this phenomenon. My home state of Alabama is known for regressive tendencies and anti-federal sentiment; yet we take in $1.69 from Washington for every dollar we pay in taxes. We're quote literally a welfare state, draining the wealth of other, more progressive states. We refuse to tax ourselves; we refuse to raise the threshold for Medicaid and other poverty programs. And then we wonder why we're such an impoverished state.