Reply #38: Disagree with broad-brush characterization "working-class Republicans"

[slackmaster]

Being a collector of firearms I've done some reading on those forums. I've read some "How much money do you make?", "What do you do for a living?" threads. I think your characterization as working class Republican is not accurate.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=309140

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=311665

Most of those who are not retired seem to be in technical or professional fields not entirely unlike DUers, i.e. people who have access to computers much of the time and have enough liberty at work to surf and post on discussion forums. Some are in the military. But not many have traditional blue collar working class type jobs. Just looking at the salary graph in the first link it's hard to imagine many of them being factory workiers, farmers, or in construction trades.

These are people with money to spend on discretionary purchases like firearms. If you want to include white-collar professionals and highly paid techies in the "working class" that's fine, but to me the term has a connotation of low-to-middle class. The people we're talking about are relatively affluent.

As far as politics go, a weak majority are Republicans with Libertarians and independents making up most of the rest. There are a lot of fundamentalist Christians, but if you look at some of the threads on evolution or abortion you can see quite a range of opinion.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=312219

Everything from rational humanists and atheists and Jews to gay-bashing bigots from the ugly side of Christianity. What I note with interest is the tolerance of a wide range of attitudes. People on the GD forum there get away with of ad hominem attacks like "How can you be so stupid?" that are thankfully not tolerated here on DU. They tolerate criticism of George W. Bush BTW. I particularly enjoyed reading this quote by user SteyrAUG this morning:

OK fine. Jesus was just a theory. He probably never even existed.

If we are gonna ignore facts let's start with that one.

He's standing up firmly to a small gang of fundies. :D

I agree that DUers should get to know the "enemy" and figure out what makes them tick. Writing them off as all cut from the same cloth - Fundamentalist, socially conservative, white male bigots or whatever image you may have confabulated - is a poor substitute for seeing what the people who chronically vote GOP are really about. The people on those particular forums make an excellent case study IMO because they are vocal, politically active, affluent, and hold deep convictions. Ignore them at your own risk.