It ain't necessarily so:
http://www.princeton.edu/%7ebartels/kansasqjps06.pdf
Doug argued that there is also a Calvinist conception of us as fallen wretches who require the pitiless discipline of the (divinely?) self-regulating markets:
Pieties
But why has the class war been so easy? Why has there been so little resistance? There are several reasons, among them the atomization and political disengagement of the American masses. But I'd also want to emphasize the durability of that Yankee–Protestant tradition in the culture. Tom Frank created a big splash with his book, What's The Matter With Kansas?, which argued, among other things, that the white working class has been hoodwinked by Republican culture warriors into voting against their economic interests. As engaging as the book is—Frank is a very smart and witty writer—it has several problems. One, not relevant to the topic at hand, is simply that Kansas has been one of the most reliably Republican states in the country for the last 100 years (at least until 2006 brought some Republican defeats).
But there's more. In a paper called "What's the Matter with What's The Matter with Kansas," Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels shows that outside the South, the white working class has not moved Republican, that cultural issues do not trump economic ones—but that large numbers of white voters actually like Republican economic policies. (Bartels' work is based on the American National Election Study, a rigorous poll done after every election since 1948.) That brings us back to Hofstadter, who made the now largely forgotten point that American Protestants have long had a deep sympathy for The Market. Since they see humans as fallen, corrupt creatures always in need of a good kick in the ass, they revere it as a wonderful mechanism of social discipline, punishing the lazy and rewarding the hard-working. If people are poor, it's because they're immoral, impatient, or wasteful. I'm certainly not arguing that the market really does punish those who deserve it, or rewards society's winners in a fashion commensurate with their social contribution. (What moral virtues are exhibited by a hedge-fund manager who pulls down $150 million a year while women who care for other people's children toil for minimum wage?) But the fantasy that it does explain why there's been so little political price paid for the economic march back to the 19th century.
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http://leftbusinessobserver.com/LBOAt20.html
Shane