It is more complex than just being "non white" though I agree that color has a tremendous impact on the psyche.

Although I know that not every wealthy person is conservative but a large proportion of them are, and wealthy conservatives have been most active in trying to maintain current status of power in the country through use of divisions among other groups so for the purposes of my argument assume wealthy to mean wealthy conservatives.

The wealthy have always looked down on the poor, even those in their same racial/ethnic/color group. The terms "cracker" "hillbilly" "clay eater" etc... were not created by Black people in response to racial slurs hurled at them by White people. They were created by wealthy White people to dehumanize the poor White people. Prior to the 1800's there was more solidarity among poor Black and White people and there were a number of slave and worker rebellions. The wealthy started to worry and thus began the tradition of pitting poor White people against Black people by giving poor White people slightly more status, if not pay.

Color is an effective tool because it is right their in front of you, but the wealthy have no more affinity for poor White people than they do Black. They understand that by providing poor White people with a little more status, they are able to effectively use them as a wedge to counter the numbers of non white people.

Being poor is where it starts for wealthy conservative people. There is an almost religious and in many cases, an explicitly religious element to their disdain for the poor. Color is very important, but I don't think that it is the starting place. It is the most effective tool that the wealthy have at their disposal to get non-wealthy people to fight on their behalf but I think that poverty in and of itself is offensive to wealthy conservatives and people who are poor are deserving of scorn and punishment.

Greedy...Oligarch....Politicians.

as opposed to any luck or help that they might have had.

And the corollary is that anyone who isn't successful must be as a result of character flaws as opposed to bad luck or lack of help.

And since poor people are poor because they are bad people, it provides an excuse not to waste money helping them.

Ryan might (MIGHT. This is pure conjecture) have a lot of shame over his father's alcoholism and his own dependence and convinced himself that he didn't get where he was through being taken care of like an orphaned child, but through merit and his own deserving nature. And he might need to separate himself further from that by believing that those who need similar care (as nearly all of us do at one time or another unless we're stinking rich) are willfully freeloading and just not pulling our load.

Even if they've been poor or broke at some point in their life, they're not anymore. They got out of it, so obviously other people can, too.

They seriously believe capitalism functions as natural selection, and those who "lose" are therefore proven to be unworthy of life.

"I've got mine. Fuck you!"

something that they are not getting. That's why the free lunch program for poor kids or food stamps enrages them so much.

When they actually receive things like food stamps or medicare, they see that as their right, but others who get it don't deserve it.

One does not invest in losers.The modern Ayn Rand Republican believes that people can be turned into profits if the country invests in for-profit institutions for mentally ill, developmentally disabled, low-achieving students, law-breakers (even misdemeanors).

People are reified, they become in accounting terms "throughput". They are to be run through these privately-owned institutions in order that some supposedly "Alpha-Males" who are ruthless( ruthlessness is a virtue) can be productive. One sign of the alpha's productivity is profit-making.


This is why, as I have, pointed out before, Kentucky is leading in toothlessness and childhood dental caries.

To modern Republicans, the fact that poorer white people are easily fooled by their b.s. Ayn Rand philosophy is actually evidence of their inferiority.

The Nazi's were continually trying to to figure out how to make a profit off their concentration camps.

...that drug addicts are addicted to drugs because they chose to do drugs and people are unemployed because they are not making the right choices or they choose to be on welfare rather than work. They believe everyone has the same opportunity to be rich and they deserve to keep their wealth because they were smarter and made better choices than those who are poor. This is why there is no compassion or empathy.

Free will is a myth but it's a cornerstone of Christian belief...that's why almost all Republican politicians are devout Christians.