In my experience, the women who vote Republican...

tend to be older, married, highly religious (read: conservative Christian - especially "born-again" evangelical Protestants, conservative Catholics, and Mormons), and - and this is almost universal among both men and women who vote Republican - white.

They very often either grew up in an especially right-wing, patriarchal and culturally homogeneous environment, where in a household, the man was expected to be the breadwinner and the woman was expected to be the homemaker. Additionally, they typically aren't as well-educated or (for lack of a better word) "worldly" as liberal women. I have an aunt who never went to college (but went to beauty school! ), whose parents were right-wing Republican activists in Southern California and took her to Republican rallies when she was young. Fast-forward to adulthood, and my aunt married my uncle (who is also a Republican, albeit of the country-club/business variety); my uncle later became a top executive and partner in his company and when he helped sell his company...well, let's just say they are doing very well now. That's kind of an extreme example, but you get the idea.

So to sum up: A lot of it is internalized sexism and privilege in areas other than gender (race, class, etc.), IMHO. Add in religious fundamentalism to the mix, and you have yourself a lot of of very right-wing women.

'NeuroTribes' examines the history and myths of the autism spectrum

To right-wingers, Christian fundies breaking the law="religious freedom"

Yet when, say, a Muslim speaks up for THEIR religious convictions in America, then all of a sudden those very same right-wingers are the first to scream bloody murder about "sharia law coming to America." And that's just one example.

The double standards are ridiculous here.

The President commented on a Facebook post from Humans of New York yesterday morning..

Let's look at the evidence for each side of the "Is Obama a Muslim?" question...

On the one hand, the President is known to practice a fairly liberal and ecumenical version of Protestant Christianity.

On the other hand, his middle name is "Hussein."

Yeah, this sure is a tough question to answer!

If you're thinking cynically, ISIS is actually doing the dirty work of several Middle Eastern powers

They are a major threat to Iran, who are the sworn enemy of both Israel and (increasingly) Saudi Arabia. They are a major threat to the Kurds, who the Turkish government have been fighting for a long time now. And they are a major threat to the Syrian government, who are another enemy of Israel.

In addition, the immense amount of violence in Syria and Iraq means that the US and its allies are - in a way - distracted from other issues in the Middle East, which is convenient for many governments in the region.

Again, this is cynical geopolitics, and I'm not saying that I agree with what any of these governments are doing (or not doing, in this case). Just an attempt to provide some regional context.

Ann Coulter slammed "Speech Nazis" in hate-filled, racist, scapegoating screed against immigrants

Irony much?

You know who else whipped crowds into a frenzy over hatred of "the Other", especially "those foreigners" who looked, acted, and spoke a bit differently from the dominant white culture, who "threatened our way of life" and "our culture"?? The most infamous Austrian (turned-German leader) in history, that's who.

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

The Know-Nothing Party, the 1920s KKK, and elements of the Tea Party: historical parallels?

One thing that I enjoy searching for in American history are patterns or parallels between the past and the present. One particular area of interest to me is the infamous Know-Nothing Party or movement dating from roughly the middle part of the 19th century, and how it compares and contrasts to the 1920s variant of the Ku Klux Klan (which have membership in the millions at one point),a s well as certain elements of the contemporary Tea Party (e.g. the "Birther" movement).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Second_Klan:_1915.E2.80.931944

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories

One commonality I have noticed between all three groups is their blatant xenophobia (and racism, for that matter), and their exclusionary views of who is a "real American." From that, flows the conspiratorial thinking about those they consider "Other" or "foreign" or "not-American" who are "taking over the country."

However, that begs the question: Where does all that fear come from?

I think it comes from the reality of demographic, social, cultural, and economic change, and the historically dominant group's fears of becoming a less-powerful minority group in their own country. Historically, these nativist, racist, xenophobic movements have always reached their zenith at a time of rapid changes in the country - again, demographic, social, cultural, and economic change. The fear is that those changes will sooner or later, eventually translate to political changes that will adversely affect the dominant group. It's their fear that they will lose their traditional monopoly on power in "their" country.

These are just some of my thoughts. I'm curious to read what others here think!

+1. For all-too-many straight white dudes, personal responsibility is for other people

Specifically, "those other people", whether they be women, LGBTs, persons of color, or the poor.

Pull yourself up by yer bootstraps, they scold...when many if not most people can't even afford sandals and their feet are stuck in the mud and quicksand that the powerful and privileged have left in their wake (that's not meant to be taken literally, just to be clear).

Poll: 89% Of Americans Believe Obama Has Failed To Bring America Closer To Celestial Utopia...