I think we've been on that road many times on this list, but let me reiterate anyway.
There are two main motivators of human behavior - transaction cost minimization and social status preservation.
The transaction cost minimization principle says, in a nutshell, that people will avoid effort inasmuch as they can get away with it. If they face a choice between getting a crappy payoff that takes little effort, and a handsome reward that requires substantial effort, they will opt for the latter most of the time.
Secondly, most people will do whatever it takes to preserve their actual or perceived social status, because that status defines who they are. There is no price too high to pay for that. Consequently, most people do not mind taking even a substantial economic loss, if they consider it as a price to maintain their status. What is more, they would do anything it takes, regardless its cost, to prevent people of the perceived lower status to "encroach" on their own status.
The ruling classes and their mouthpieces in this country have long been aware of these two principles and skillfully manipulate them to their own advantage. That is, they spoon fed the populace with the information that is most favorable toothier interests knowing that most people would swallow that pablum, that is made easily available through multiple propaganda conveyor belts, instead of making the effort to find information that is needed to make an optimal decision. What is more, the ruling classes and business will skillfully manipulate the status seeking behavior by portraying their own solutions as "status enhancements" and opposing solutions as "status threats." Private health insurance vs. universal/single payer health care system is a case in point. Most people do not mind paying exorbitant prices for health care as long as people perceived to be "beneath" their own status do not "abuse" the access (i.e. do not get it).
That does not make people necessarily "stupid" - but it makes them much more prone to accept the right wing frame of mind than the left wing one. The left wing frame, with its universalism, equal rights and opportunities, and the emphasis on personal sacrifice for the common good falls on the deaf ears in most people. They like the conservative spiel much better even if in the end accepting it makes them economically worse off. They do not mind "paying the price" as long as there is somebody below them to make them feel that their own status is not going down the drain.
Most people do not mind exploitation, being ripped off and spat into their faces as long as they have someone else to return the favor. That is why they will most of the time side with right wingers who are in the business of supplying fast food for thought and scapegoats to make the perceived threats go away, rather than with left wingers who want people think for themselves, make informed decisions, care for common good and give anyone equal respect.
I think that I finally realized that one cannot protect people from themselves, save them against their own will - and any effort in that direction is not only truly Sisyphean, but gives us a headache and a depression. Stoic detachment is the way to go - which reminds me of one of my favorite poem by Constantine Cavafy "The god forsakes Antony" http://users.hol.gr/~barbanis/cavafy/antony.html.
Enjoy the exquisite art, theater and music while they last and bid the hope farewell, the America you are losing.
Wojtek