have (the best of them, anyway, some are just locusts):

1. A belief in a natural order in which deserving people sift up and undeserving sift down, depending on how well they live their lives. They believe that government programs cause worse problems by oversetting this natural order. The same with too much government regulation of the upper classes, who need to prosper for the good of the nation. (Opposition to food stamp programs feeding hungry children.)

2. A darker view of humanity than liberals and believe that, without a strong societal structure of rewards and punishments, people won't work and will steal, cheat, etc. (Ever work for a conservative boss, especially an authoritarian conservative, who was always worried about employees stealing the office supplies?)

3. Conservatives do NOT believe, in their bellies, in the equality of all men and are more comfortable in and reassured by a class-based society which is run by those who have proven themselves through prosperity and have the most to lose if the nation does not do well. (Their peculiar support for tax breaks for the wealthy.)

4. Conservatives have a different sort of community-based morality in which harming the community by breaking norms is seen as more damaging than hurting an individual in that community. (Rubberstamping DA indictments, ignoring police violence) They also have different standards of morality for dealing with people who are their own and those who are "outsiders." (Guantanamo).

This is not theory but results of years of research by social scientists. It has been analyzed from many different viewpoints in different ways, very much including from the Christian religion it is embedded in. Understand this and you'll be able to answer your own question.

They feel, rationally or otherwise, that if it weren't for the disruption and corruption of safety net programs the nation would be doing far better. That this nation was founded and advanced on LIBERAL principles is something they deny, and they are trying to fix the enormous problems they believe liberal and progressive policies have caused.

incredulity at genuinely nice people who wanted to cut programs that fed poor children, and specifically one employer who would shop and lunch with me but keep the supplies closet locked so I didn't steal anything, that caused me to start finding out. Nothing is wrong with many good conservatives -- if you examine them from their viewpoint.

Given the situation, I was bemused but overall happy to learn that they like people in general in spite of having such a poor opinion of them. I tend to think poorly of and not like people I believe would grab the first chance that came along to cheat or steal from me, but then I don't regard that as standard human behavior. But she was actually being nice and responsible by protecting me from my own base character too.

The problem, of course, is what kind of country we want this to be? The one it was founded to be, or the one conservatives of those days assumed they would be establishing but lost out on -- one modeled on traditional European class-based societies? Over 200 years later, we still have to fight to keep them from "fixing" our liberal, Enlightenment-based Constitution and governance.

If someone is working the two or three jobs, they "don't have time" to go vote. They also probably don't have a car to conveniently take them to the polls.

I was lucky when I was a grad student because I lived five blocks from the polling place. Later on, starting working before becoming car-owned, the connector bus at the subway went right by the place.

In the DC area, getting from point A to B can be very challenging without a car. Even in the areas that take pride in their bus routes, it's usually two bus rides (or subway plus bus) to get from, let's say work, to the polling place (often a school), and then one is faced with getting home after rush-hour service has often quit. The alternative is walking to the school/etc in time for polls to open, then somehow make it to work on time.

((In Virginia, one can apply for an absentee ballot, but that takes time and effort.))

Thus the propensity of many candidates to focus on the car-owned and their fears, such as "Will me or my kids ever be able to afford college?".

It's tough to empathize with the working poor when you're making $160,000 a year to do nothing.

Experience has shown that when political candidates talk about the suffering middle class, audiences think "he/she is talking about me", whereas if the candidate talks about the working class or the poor, those same audiences will think they're talking about other people.

The old stratification of demographics were/are too technocratic. Working Class = the 99 percent.

They bow down to the "market" as an excuse to steal from the workers.

There is a huge disconnect between the Takers and the working poor & homeless. The Takers believe those folks deserve to be where they are and should be tested for morality, at random intervals. That is why class warfare is at an all time high. And we do nothing about it while the M$M cheers it on.

the middle class is becoming the working class is becoming the poor.