I have asked this question several times and haven't gotten anything like a response

[dsc]

If the people of Clay County Kentucky, and those like them, literally voted to end their own health insurance (which was Medicaid aka the public option) over their hatred of gays and/or other minorities then why do we think there is any public good which we could offer them that would make them not vote for the GOP over those issues? They literally voted to put their own health care in jeopardy. The county is 60% on Medicaid voted 88 to 11 for Trump and Bevans got over 70% of the vote.

[TXCritter]

1. They are lost but their kids aren't.

Focus on the next generation.

[hueymahl]

3. Yep

That is how change happens. One youth at a time.

[dsc]

4. to an extent that is a fair point

but I think one reason that in terms of racial issues the younger generation is better is that more of them are of minority races not that the whites in that generation are necessarily vastly more tolerant.

[JI7]

30. yes. Obama lost yOung white voters

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

32. Yes, I have said this before too. n/t

[boston bean]

2. They believe they are the deserveds not one of them freeloaders repubs

Talk about.

They will be sorry when they find out it was all about them and they lose or see thier benefits significantly decrease.

[dsc]

5. true that

I do think there is some of that going on.

[leftofcool]

6. I live in Kentucky and can answer that one.

I don't live in Clay County but I suspect that most of the people to which you are referring did not take insurance under the ACA anyway. Most of those in that county are older and also on medicare as well as medicaid. The others that are on will keep their medicaid anyway regardless of how they voted.

[dsc]

7. no that isn't correct

many of them only got Medicaid under Obama's expansion. I admit that wouldn't be true of all the 60% but it true of way more an a fifth of them.

[boston bean]

8. Ams the fact they want medicaid funded through block grants to the states. Their regular

old medicaid will be significantly affected.

[leftofcool]

27. Not according to those who live in Clay County

But since you obviously live there, maybe you know more than the other residents do.

[dsc]

29. there are stats on these things

Maybe NPR is a bunch of liars but here is a link which backs up what I said.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/19/502580120/in-depressed-rural-kentucky-worries-mount-over-medicaid-cutbacks

About 60 percent of Clay County's 21,000 residents are covered by Medicaid, up from about a third before the expansion. The counties uninsured rate for nonelderly adults has fallen from 29 percent to 10 percent.

That means that about half of the people on Medicaid now got it in the expansion or that NPR is a bunch of liars.

[riversedge]

34. There will be dramatic cut backs to mental health care also.........good article.. Iwish there

was on for all states. In WI--Walker refused ACA--and medicaid expansion. We are hurting.


......Any development that could take away health coverage from people with mental health issues worries Joan Nantz, a psychologist who works part time at Grace and whose appointment calendar is booked three weeks out because of patient demand. More than 90 percent of her clients are on Medicaid.

"If something happens to this program, I can't begin to think what impact it would have on society," she said. Without counseling, people with mental health issues will resort to illegal drugs and be more likely to commit crimes and domestic violence, Nantz said.

[dsc]

35. gee what a shock

I post facts and not one word from a poster who literally accused me of being ignorant. Fact is what I wrote was absolutely correct.

[rogue emissary]

9. Rebs have put Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block with the ACA.

If not totally cutting them, they'll privatize them which will be just as bad.

[MADem]

19. Doesn't the Kentucky health plan have a cute-sy name? KYnect?

Those morons probably thought it was something OTHER than "Obamacare."

This is a good, if depressing, read on the subject:

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a50874/clay-county-kentucky-healthcare-trump/

[mcar]

42. That was my understanding too

When they voted for the RWNJ governor, they had no clue they were voting to eliminate their own insurance.

[Garrett78]

10. White identity and ignorance.

It isn't that white folks who voted for Trump didn't hear Clinton's message; it's that they rejected it. If you look at what Clinton campaigned on, had a Clinton Administration actually been able to enact all of those policies, the US would be well on its way to becoming a social democracy on par with those of northern Europe. The Democratic Party platform is as progressive as it's ever been, socially and economically.

Those who voted for Trump are worthy of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, TANF, food stamps and so on. But 'other' people are not. Those 'other' people are just lazy...oh, and they happen to be persons of color when conjured up in the imagination.

And some probably don't even realize or accept that they have Medicaid because of the ACA. After all, there are people out there who are so ignorant that they oppose Obamacare while supporting the ACA. We shouldn't underestimate just how much ignorance there is in the US at this time. Nor should we underestimate how much racism, sexism, heterosexism, xenophobia and twisted Christian supremacy there is in the US at this time.

[PossiblePasts]

11. But they think THEIR Medicaid won't be cut

Some probably didn't even think about their own health care when they voted. God, guns, and jobs.

[TwilightZone]

12. This seems simplistic, but I think it's possible that they didn't know enough about the candidates'

stances to understand that they were essentially voting for losing their health insurance.

Some of them, anyway. If one's only source of information is Fox News, for example, as it apparently is for millions of people, not much of actual substance is getting through.

[leftofcool]

28. You just nailed it.

[RobinA]

40. This

I live quite a ways from Kentucky, but the ignorance I hear around me is mind boggling. Judging by what I've heard just since the election, I can't believe we've made it this far as a nation. We truly are vulnerable to the worst demagogue. As we can clearly now see.

[Fast Walker 52]

43. I think just didn't believe it would affect them if Oabamcare was overturned

I'm sure they heard how bad Obamacare was, and wanted it gone, but probably thought it weren't really on it or something.

[TwilightZone]

46. That's possible, too.

Someone mentioned overhearing a conversation from someone who said they were going to vote for Trump because he was going to get rid of Obamacare and replace it with the ACA. I have to say...that's kind of remarkable in its own goofy way.

Shades of keep government out of my Medicare.

[closeupready]

13. You don't get responses because we are threatened explicitly with account suspension

for posting popular counter-factuals. It's happened to me more than once.

Now that the election is history, discussion should - in theory - have been opened back up here on DU.

Yet, it's still a kind of omerta that reigns here, so I guess my response to you would be to ask this question after Trump takes office.

Peace. Over and out.

[JCanete]

14. But they didn't truly understand the ramifications. They've been manipulated

for a long time about the things that ail them. Some people rail against welfare when they are on it, because they simply don't see the connection. They are lied to so effectively, and their education on these matters, so piss poor, that welfare is something that they only think minorities get.

And it is true, there are people we are never going to be able to win over. They have been indoctrinated to a point that we don't have the tools, access or time to deprogram them. We only need to pull a small percentage of them though to start making a difference, if our policies are designed to make a difference, and that has to mean more than triaging or forestalling suffering.

The angle should never be to try to court these voters by downplaying social justice, but by campaigning loud and hard about the things that they might actually recognize in their own experience--the forces that are fucking with them--and then pointing at the winners, calling out the winners, might at least move a handful of them towards a different solution.

[RobinA]

41. I Think The Guy

with the sign about government keeping its hands off Medicare, even though that was awhile ago, tells us all we need to know about this election and the level of understanding among a large segment of the population.

[JCanete]

45. yes, exactly. nt

[pansypoo53219]

15. the Fux gnewz effect. brainwashing their minds clean of unity. divivd & conquer.

GOD FORBID we help "THEM". you know who. democrats help THEM. tribalism.

[ohheckyeah]

16. You know the answer

They putvthe party and its prejudices ahead of their own interests. They aren't the brightest bulbs in the box.

[Jose Garcia]

17. What percentage of those on Mediciad actually voted?

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

18. Why do you assume they voted because of hatred of any given groups?

Perhaps it's about guns, religion and abortion. Not saying there aren't some that vote about race and hatred, but things are never that simple.

[dsc]

20. they voted for Bashear who had a pretty bad record on gay rights

no idea to be fair, what his views on abortion or guns were.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

22. I don't know either...

But I'm guessing that those issues would be really important to most red counties. Guns and religion are strong influences in rural areas in the south especially. Guns are important to all rural counties, but in the south religion is a massive influence. That's where the negative stuff towards LGBTs comes from. I honestly think it's less about really hating the group as it is believing that they will go to hell if they don't fight against any perceived acceptance. Not all religions have that kind of view, though, and each year it seems there is some positive growth in this area.

[mcar]

21. It's a good question

I don't think anything will convince them to vote D.

[mopinko]

23. they are unreachable at this point.

and i think that hate radio needs to be focused on here.
for so many it is not only their main source of news, it is their constant companion. it gets into their brains in a pervasive way.
i have been to some of these backwoods areas, and unless they are lucky enough to have a good statewide public radio network, like wis, there is nothing but jesus radio, and rw bullshit.

too bad the tale of air america radio isnt better known. i still nurse a grudge against john kerry, and all dems on the ballot in '04, for not taking out any ads AT.ALL.
they spew the dollars at the big media, and here they had a chance to nurture a badly needed voice on the radio spectrum. but no...

[lunasun]

24. This

[CajunBlazer]

25. They are too ill informed (stupid) to vote in their selfish self interest interests

What's new about that? States which receive more dollars in the form of federal government benefits than they pay in federal taxes are more often red while those states which pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits are usually blue.

That sounds strange on the surface, but the reason is clear - the difference is education. The poorer the people, the more likely it is that they are uneducated. The more uneducated they are, the less informed and less tolerant they are. Therefore, they are more likely to vote against their economic best interests when the Republicans dangle social issues in front of them.

[Docreed2003]

26. Between having a poorly educated populace and

The political push by the religious right and indoctrination in those beliefs every Sunday, you have a voting constituency that truly believes that the GOP is the party of Christianity and to oppose Democrats is the calling of God. I grew up in rural TN and saw this transformation with my own eyes and it's a malignancy here today. That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of how once that indoctrination begins the teachings are constantly reinforced via conservative radio and Fox News

[raccoon]

48. Yep, here in SC it's that way too,

you have a voting constituency that truly believes that the GOP is the party of Christianity and to oppose Democrats is the calling of God.

It's disgusting the way that the philosophy of the churches--at least some of them--has become indistinguishable from the
right-wing, conservative, Republican philosophy.

[RonniePudding]

31. These are the voters the GOP have engineered

Through their messaging across a variety of platforms, radio, tv and the internet. And yes, the pulpit.

The GOP wants dumbed down ignorant voters. Preferably hooked on opioids and anger. This is why they work to destroy public education. I bet Kentucky's public education system is an underfunded cluster fuck, just like it is in all the red states.

[TheKentuckian]

33. You neither can nor need to win every country but those kind of margins aren't sustainable

in too many.

I think the best way to get them under control is to dump gun control and get serious about dumping.

I suggest demanding the TeaPubLieKLANs join us in moving forward with an Amendment affirming the right to hunt and to self defense.

[nfla]

36. A response

As a Conservative, and of hillbilly extraction, I think I know. They have their sense of what is right and wrong. Gay is wrong, abortion is wrong, taking money from people for your gain is wrong. Most have worked and think their payments into Medicare give them the right to that.

They also do not agree with some of the Left's policies, immigration for one. Think of all the things you hate, would you give up free health care to stop those things? Let's see, medicine for your baby or stop lynchings?

[uppityperson]

37. Welcome to du. Which of these beliefs do you hold?

[tenderfoot]

38. What is the leftist policy on immigration? Who gets free healthcare?

Taking money from people for your gain?

What does that mean?

[renate]

39. welcome to DU, and I hope you'll stay

I agree. If my baby needed medicine that I was unable to provide, that would certainly be my #1 priority. Especially in a great country like this, that has so many resources, nobody should go without medicine, for God's sake. That's obscene.

Is it not possible to do both? To stop lynchings and to provide medicine for your baby? Because that would, to me anyway, seem ideal. Is there any reason for the two concerns to be incompatible? I don't think there is.

I'm genuinely curious about the thought process behind certain people's votes for hatred and exclusion being more important to them, on a personal level, than shared sacrifice. Especially for those whose income means that they would actually benefit from others' sacrifices. I don't want anybody to go to bed hungry whether they voted for Trump or not. Suffering is suffering and the less of it the better.

And I feel truly. deeply, genuinely sad for people whose lives and opinions are influenced more by hatred of others than by the desire for the welfare of oneself and one's own family. My goodness. I can't even imagine how awful it must be to be ruled by such an ugly, angry emotion. It's so sad.

I think your post is very thoughtful and I would really like to hear more from you.

[raccoon]

49. You're a conservative? What are you doing here? nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

44. we encourage new voters, and challenge all voter disenfranchisement laws

that is the only thing we can do

some of these people are lost to their own hatred.

[Iggo]

47. Sorry, I was too busy trying to reach out to the Nazi and Klan voters.

Seriously, though, I don't know how to reach the people you're talking about, people who in my opinion are too dumb to know who's on their side.