>> So, the NYT has a big story about the rise in food stamp use in the
>> recession. It focuses on localities where food stamp use is
>> particularly high, and mentions Owsley County, Kentucky, where half
>> of the 4600 residents receive food stamps. I decided to find out how
>> Owsley County voted in the last election.
>>
>> As I was searching, I discovered that Owsley is actually part of a
>> large cluster of extremely poor Eastern Kentucky counties. In fact,
>> according to Wikipedia, of the 100 poorest counties in the US by
>> median household income, 16 are in this region of Eastern Kentucky.
>> So I looked at the 2008 voting returns in those 16 counties.
>> Remember, these are counties where probably around half of the
>> residents depend for survival on food stamp appropriations (not to
>> mention Medicaid, TANF, etc.).
>
> So why d'ya think?
I don't know. I really don't have any original explanation to offer. I guess probably to some extent it's because Obama is black. But then I think that Mitch McConnell won almost all those counties too. So I guess people around there really like Republicans. Maybe because they're hyper-religious? But then a lot of blacks are hyper-religious Protestants and they all vote for Democrats. So I'm stumped.
Whatever it is, it cries out for some sort of explanation. The US Republican Party is so openly anti-poor - even if those counties split the vote 50-50 it would still cry out for explanation how the Republicans could get 50% of people in those places to vote for them. That they can get 80% is mind-boggling.
SA