Statistics demonstrate that hard line Republican House districts, who have supported Tea Party candidates, and are vehemently anti Barack Obama, have a higher unemployment rate than the average House district.
The rate in the Tea Party districts is around ten percent, while the rate in other Congressional districts is 7.5 to 8 percent, a substantial difference.
One would think that the Republicans who represent these districts would wish to do anything and everything to encourage job growth, and to avoid the disarray of confrontations that undermine economic development, but instead it is the opposite,
When Barack Obama has promoted the need for infrastructure projects and educational investments, that has been enough to convince Tea Party types, plus the GOP leadership in both houses, to sit on their hands and refuse to cooperate in any fashion!
One would imagine that the voters of these districts, who elected these representatives, would begin to realize that they are playing politics, refusing to allow Barack Obama to have any ability to claim any progress economically, but at the expense of their constituents, who would benefit from such economic progress.
But instead, the emphasis is on fear of the “black” President from “Kenya”, obvious racism, and instead invoking religion, which should have no place in the public sphere, so we see emphasis on abortion and gay marriage to scare these constituents into voting for representatives who do not give a damn about them, and are even willing to cut food stamps, which benefit many of their own population, especially considering that the majority on food stamps nationally are white!
The ignorance and prejudice of so many people in these Tea Party districts, and other Republican districts, is absolutely mind boggling!
Hello Professor,
So true as I have passed on the example of North Carolina. Four out of Ten working middle class people today in that state are on Food Stamps because the wages have been driven down so low in that “Right To Work” state. When the Unions were destroyed, so were the averages middle class wages…..and yet they still vote for the Republicans who put them there.