... even if they personally loose in the process.
they are patriots. Misguided, but patriots. It's all about virtue.
They are willing to pay the price of being poor or even be exploited in order to protect what they think is the cornerstone of our Democracy: individual freedom. Oh, this is a simplistic and naive view of Individual Freedom but it is still powerful.
Remember the traction Republicans got from "You didn't build that"? It was a crazy, bogus issue but they love the idea that each American is an free-standing enterprise and that the difference between the rich and poor are consequences of ability and hard work or the lack thereof.
"I Built This" is both statement of pride in achievement and a claim of exclusive ownership and individual profit.
Anything else is socialism, communism and hateful to real Americans.
That's why they will denounce 'Obamaphones' as coddling the contemptible freeloaders but low tax rates for the rich are OK because the Rich have virtue. They played the 'American Game' and won.
The Republican Poor cannot claim virtue from success but can claim virtue by denying that they are 'dependent on government handouts'. They are good and loyal losers: gracious enough not to complain that they got a bad break or that the game was rigged.
One of the reasons they hate Obama is that he describes those government dependent freeloaders as if they had virtue.
All this is just conjecture on my part and is probably useless, but it's hard not try a narrative for the poor defending the rich.