Revenge of the Mutt People

All the while walking the precincts for Kerry and reading Joseph Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas, the questions kept nagging, "Why do they keep electing Republicans? Why do they vote against their own interests?"

Joe Bageant may have the answer. It's the logical consequence of our arrogance and failure to give a damn about the "Mutt People" who are now angry and out for revenge:

"We will either see that Americans, religious or not, get educated equally so they won't be suckered by political and religious hucksters or accept that uneducated people interpret politics in an uninformed and emotional manner, and accept the consequences. America can no longer withstand the political naivete of this ignored white class. Middle class American liberals cannot have it both ways. It has come down to the simplest and most profound element of democracy: Fairness. Someday middle class American liberals will have to cop to fraternity and justice and the fact that we are our brother's keeper, whether we like it or not. They are going to have to sit down and actually speak to these people they consider ugly, overweight, ill educated and in poor taste. At some point down the road all the Montessori schools and Ivy League degrees in the world are not going to save your children and grandchildren from what our intellectual peasantry, whether born of neglect or purposefully maintained, is capable of supporting politically."

Joe Bageant: Revenge of the Mutt People