by Stephen Fox » Fri Sep 13, 2013 4:55 pm
EDSALL
10:26:18
Well, I think sort of the big issue that has not been raised in a lot of these studies is in fact race. Since the 1960s, there's been a growing sense among many whites that government programs are providing benefits to minorities, blacks at first and now blacks and Hispanics. And that has helped drive up the opposition to raising taxes to provide for more benefits.
EDSALL
10:26:48
People have made -- a lot of people have made a distinction between -- in their own minds what they see as the deserving and undeserving poor. And add to that racial factors, and you get a very strong core of anti-tax sentiment. And this has been really a profoundly important part of the rise of conservatism. The -- I just read some figures the other day that Mitt Romney -- of the 251 counties that have had double digit increases in food stamp usage, Mitt Romney carried something like 150 of them, a clear majority.
EDSALL
10:27:41
There are a lot of very poor white counties in West Virginia, Kentucky, all through the Appalachian area where the Republican strength has become overwhelming. And a lot of that is based, I think, on racial matters, where people are disregarding their own interest and want to distinguish themselves from minorities in effect.
GJELTEN
10:28:13
And you attribute that to, what, to demagogic politicians, to -- I mean, how is -- I mean, this is something that we have seen in the American society and other societies for decades and decades and decades, isn't it?
EDSALL
10:28:26
Yes. I mean, it's been an ongoing process. And you -- this may be going a little far afield, but we now have a Republican Party that is overwhelmingly a white party.
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