It's not that simple. Racist folks in America don't care they are poor as long as minorities are even poorer. That's a huge part of Republican politics, that's why they vote for Trump. Trump doesn't promise them they will have better lives. It's all racist dog whistles promising them they will still be on top, they will be the 'better' race. That's why they oppose all sensible policies, because they will try to fix inequality and inequality is what they want.

And I don't think there's a simple fix for this. Many countries have this issue (UK, France) and the more progressive policies you try to push there the stronger the push back is. In the end it usually goes farther right until something terrible happens...

People are desperate, angry, and feel like they have nothing to lose. Because regardless of who is in office, they never help.

We have ONE party that loves and needs division and desperation so they block anything that makes lives easier. The GOP needs riled up, angry people to get elected to "fix things" - that is why nothing changes - witness their immigration strategy.

It's a lot easier to prevent an extremist than to fix one after

Yes it is.

But it takes time to get positive results, and far too many people are too short sighted to do anything when the "return on investment" is a generation away.

Every time I've seen those type of program started, the following government cuts them and claims it was a waste of money because it hasn't shown results yet, even though it's only been a year and you can't make signifignat change to people's lives that quickly.

I agree with you. It's a catch 22 it though. When you live in a state run by shit birds, they cut off the fed from helping you in every way they can, meanwhile holding their little town hall events and talking to press saying stuff like: ‘the fed doesn't care about American citizens, they're too busy sending aid to [x country] to fix their problems’ and with the very same breath saying how cool it is that they conned the left into giving their state the most funding this year, but the media doesn't hold them accountable anymore and further push the issue "for fear of losing access" to them. The big secret, and the key to the issue in my opinion, is that the media is bought by billionaires who are no longer accountable to reality when reporting the news, the regulatory bodies in this country have been eroded to shit by capitalists, the now obligatory talking point: Citizens United, and that nobody is going to swoop in to save this awful mess from imploding into fascism any time soon. You all need to take personal safety measures; arm yourselves, and train with your weapons in whatever way you can safely afford. These fuckers are coming for us all, and they'll have the full support of a dictatorship soon enough, if we aren't able to get out the vote. UNITE!

That sounds a lot like socialism and we can't have that commie trash here!

Murica!

/s

And for some reason they think they have more in common with Billionaires than socialists, make it make sense.

Exactly. Likewise, the greatest way to fight the "war on terror" would've been through legitimate support and education, but that would not have enriched the US fossil fuel and MIC oligarchy, or pleased the bloodthirsty neanderthals who refuse to support and educate their own neighbours, so it's a non-starter — now, here we are, and everything's worse.

It's such a viscous ugly circle in the US though. I think really piss poor education in a lot of these rural areas is largely to blame. These thugs are by and large incredibly stupid people. The people that want to help fix the rural education systems are made to look like their enemies though, they are literally voting against their best interests. The GOP thrives off denying quality education and manipulating the feeble minded. Stupidity breeds hate and fear, and guess what, they have propaganda to play on those secondary features as well. You could try to give these people money and education and they would slap it out of your hand, call you a commie fag, and feel they did the right thing. We shouldn't stop trying, but it's really hard to help someone that shuns the help being offered.

Are the people who join these groups typically struggling workers? The Jan 6 mob seemed to be mostly relatively well-off small business owners and the self-employed. Who else has time to do all this stupid shit? And all that money to waste on guns and LARPy gear?

Then why don't these assholes vote for people who actually propose things to help them?

Regardless of whether they can even be passed with a broken Congressional system, the Republicans they're supporting don't even pay lip service to helping anyone anymore. They don't promise support, they actively destroy the support, they spit on the very idea of support. Routinely

And yet these people go to the polls for them.

We are loooooong past the "economic anxiety" excuse.

Billy Bob can’t string together 5 functioning neurons and synthesize that he’s being manipulated by intelligent people who would watch the world burn for that sweet dolla dolla bill. Give him a $100K welfare check and he’d behave exactly as he does now, the marionette that he is.