The Ignorance of the GOP Base -Economic Woes Worse in Tea Party Districts

I continue to be amazed at how so many in the GOP base allow themselves to be manipulated by Republican politicians and far right hate groups who play upon the base's religious extremism, homophobia, racism and fear of loss of white privilege, all with the result that GOP base votes against its own interest.  Indeed, by allowing themselves to be duped by cynical Republicans, these people are their own worse enemy.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the consequences suffered by Tea Party districts which has been greatly exacerbated by Republican obstruction of higher government economic stimulus spending.   Yet what do the cretins members of the GOP base do?  They blame Barack Obama rather than the GOP obstructionists who are the real underlying cause for the economic malaise they are suffering.  Here are excerpts from the Washington Post story that looks at the alternate universe in which these people live:

If you want to understand the congressional Republicans who have forced confrontations with Obama on the “fiscal cliff,” the government shutdown and the debt ceiling — and whether those lawmakers might feel encouraged to force more confrontations in the future — you need to understand the economic struggles of the Republicans’ home districts.

People in those districts are poorer and more likely to be unemployed than in the nation at large. They have focused their anger about their economic circumstances on Obama, and they want someone, anyone, to make him improve things for them. This is why Hackett praises his congressman, Tom Graves, for voting against the plan to end the budget impasse with Obama that produced the shutdown. “I think he’s great,” he said of Graves. “Somebody’s got to stand up to him.”

Forty-five House Republicans have most consistently pushed their caucus to brinkmanship over the past several years, according to a Washington Post analysis of voting patterns.

On average, the economy in the districts those Republicans represent is significantly worse than it is in the nation at large.

The median income in those districts last year was 7 percent lower than the national median, according to the Census Bureau. The unemployment rate averaged 10 percent. That was almost two percentage points higher than the national rate, and two percentage points higher than the overall rate in the states that contain each district.

The epicenter of that economic distress lies in the Deep South. Four of the congressional districts are in North Georgia. A dozen others are close by in Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, and North and South Carolina. Nearly all of them ended 2012 with jobless rates in the double digits.

“There is a lot of frustration over the way the government’s acting” when it comes to the economy, said Roger F. Smith, the chief executive of River City Bank in Rome, one of several people in town who contrasted Obama’s performance in office with the economic success they experienced under President Bill Clinton. “There’s a lack of confidence in the leadership. That starts with the president. It certainly hampers the ability to recover.”

Hackett, 58, called Obama’s entire agenda anti-business: “It’s like, ‘What can we do to kill the economy?’ ” It was his final day of selling to customers at the specialty meat shop he opened in 2008 as a hobby, catering to grilling enthusiasts like himself who want higher-end steaks than the big grocery stores sell.

For those who have followed this blog over a period of time, it is obvious that the Congressional GOP has sought to destroy or at a minimum, impede, economic recovery in the hope that it would destroy Barack Obama.  And yet these fools of the GOP base stupidly continue to support those most responsible for their ongoing misery.  I do not want to sound mean, but I find it difficult to feel very sorry for them.  They need to get their heads out of their asses and stop being controlled by their religious extremism, homophobia, racism and fear of loss of white privilege.