This is needlessly insulting tripe. Poor people vote Republican because they believe in the platform that the Republican party states they support as they understand it.
Just like the reason people vote for the Democratic party.
It's all based on a mix of imperfect understanding of imperfect honesty.
You have an interesting profile as well:
HN has become a very negative site as of recent. I see no place for me to contribute here. From now on I will not be posting or submitting
/s
(Thanks for the links).
[1] Note that socialism designates a vast array of different ideologies and its meaning is continually evolving. It certainly did not mean the same thing in Steinbeck's time as it does today.
Edit: grammar
Although I do not actually support socialism, I think this quote is one interesting take (of many) on the problem you've outlined.
Edit: looks like someone beat me to it by one minute.
Although the graphs on [1] tell a slightly different story.
[0] - http://www.people-press.org/2012/08/23/a-closer-look-at-the-... [1] - http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/09/26/161841771/how-inco...
Then, messaging to voters becomes "I LOVE GOD!" instead of "All your money flows up to me." The "poor people vote republican" line of thought follows from people believing poorer/more-religious people vote only on religion above all else without regard for how much their representatives also want to exploit/maim/kill/cancer them.
Recent evidence doesn't entirely support that conclusion, but it makes for a convenient story.
What we end up with is the representatives not keeping up to date with reality. The reps stay "god god god religion god god jesus" while the world drifted more to "Uh, actually everything is pretty okay. Just stay out of our way." You can see that effect in southern "we hate all the gays" politicians while most real people don't want oppression/repression/persecution of them at all.
But—to get your way—all you have to do is scaretivate (scare+motivate) a small vocal base into voting for your overton candidate. (See: 2004 GWB election where "kill the gays" was set as a constitutional amendment in a dozen states along with "Vote for GWB!" — Drag the crazies out to vote for their delusional pet social bigot issue while also catapulting your candidate pet back to victory (well, victory against a droning sedated sloth, but victory nonetheless))
Poor in rural areas = Republican
Poor in rural areas = White
Why does anyone vote republican, or democrat? Because those are the two choices on the ballot.
I didn't even agree with the Libertarian candidate on many things but I voted for them to satisfy my right and responsibility to vote while not endorsing the Single Party we have here in the US.
I've known a lot of people in bad situations and most of them where hard working men and women that take nothing for granted.
The ones that do...well when you reduce the budget of a welfare system to the point where every dollar HAS to go to those in need, you don't leave a whole lot to oversight and investigation of fraud.