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Comment by katastic | Hacker News Reader

And if it is a "3rd world" state, why aren't people jumping to donate and help and aid them?

"Cuz 'rednecks." The only group you're allowed to prosecute on TV, media, and public discourse.

But if liberals were running in and giving free aid, and helping lives, those people would start to like liberals.

I mean, when we help people in Ghana, do we check to make sure they don't have any conflicting political values? When we aid Syria, have we checked to make sure they're there aren't any nationalists and racists?

I'd love to hear an actual rebuttal, but I guess I'll have to settle for downvotes from people who can't. I guess bigotry is okay when it's people you hate.

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> But if liberals were running in and giving free aid, and helping lives, those people would start to like liberals.

Not to put to fine a point on it but the #1 criticism I hear from my GOP friends is that Liberals want too much of our tax money to go to welfare programs. Who do you think benefits from those welfare programs?

As a study of human nature it is fascinating. These people don't benefit from tax breaks, they don't even have enough money to be taxed. They do benefit from the social welfare programs. Yet they consistently vote for the party that gives out the tax breaks. It makes no sense.

One possible explanation is the fear that the liberals will give away the jobs to immigrants and oversees workers. I don't have a good answer for those people, I wish I did.

> "Cuz 'rednecks." The only group you're allowed to prosecute on TV, media, and public discourse.

Except for muslims, immigrants, citizens of countries we don't like, LGBT people... and liberals. Turn on Fox, it is 3 hours of liberal bashing. Clearly they are "allowed" to do that, no one is stopping them.

Seriously, I'm not even a liberal. I'm a Libertarian. But anyone can see the holes in your arguments.

The rich, who benefit from tax breaks, spend copiously on issues that influence the poorest’ votes. Abortion, religion, military, immigration, homophobia. Emotional issues that influence deeply those who lack critical thinking skills. And so the poor vote against their own interest, consistently. It’s classic neuropsychology.

> Who do you think benefits from those welfare programs?

I can tell you who many poor Republican voters believe benefit: "Lazy urban youth." Yes, this is a dog whistle. But I have heard the words "welfare queen" in person, and I knew exactly what they meant.

One might say that “liberals” (blue states) are already giving aid to Alabama and other impoverished “red” states through the disproportionate share of federal funds these red states get as compared to their federal tax revenue. Alamaba is #4 in the country for taking more than it gives.

> I mean, when we help people in Ghana, do we check to make sure they don't have any conflicting political values? When we aid Syria, have we checked to make sure they're there aren't any nationalists and racists?

Basically, yes. We expend an enormous amount of effort making sure aid gets to the "right" people, and we have a track record of rescinding it when those people change their opinions to ones we don't like.

The answer is mostly to do with the long standing culture of keeping a power structure in place that benefits the few, historically pit poor blacks against poor whites, and an inability to override the desires of a State.

Most programs that deliver aid to poor people are administered by states use Federal money but have rules set at the State level and are implemented at the state/county level. That system is run that way because of “states rights” senators from the south and west.

The “red necks” are living in an illusion of choice. They live as best they can and are strongly independent. But in that pride, as a group they lose the recognition that they live in a corrupt electoral system where they cannot affect change and are divided & conquered from neighbors in similar circumstances because of the legacy of Jim Crow.

> I mean, when we help people in Ghana, do we check to make sure they don't have any conflicting political values?

I think there is a critical difference between Ghana and Alabama, and that is that Ghana does not have representatives in Congress making policy decisions affecting all of America.

Ghana also has no people who pay taxes to the U.S. government or any other rights of U.S. citizenship.

But they are at risk of influence of extremist Islamic groups to destabilize the country. That’s in our strategic interest to counter.

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