On the subject of Kentucky specifically, I'm pretty sure they accepted Medicare expansion which is slightly unusual for a red state. And also Mitch McConnell is not all that popular there as it turns out. What that says about this specific issue, I have no idea. Just seems to me like the governor wants to fuck over the poor. Because I don't know if he was the governor who accepted Medicare expansion. Make of that what you will. I'm pretty sure I'm right about Medicare expansion and ambivalence about McConnell. I don't disagree with your assessment of liberal v. conservative ideology. The GOP seems like it's had much better recent historical success with wrangling up the fence sitters. The poor, frightened ones by exploiting their fear, prejudice and other negative emotions. I mean I got into a bit of a thing on hubski yesterday trying (poorly) to explain how poor conservatives view a stereotypical liberal as a feckless cuck (to use their terminology because laziness). It just seems to me that the GOP Playbook for, I don't know, like, 50 years, has been to pit poor people against each other. I've met plenty of poor people from rural areas who hate the fuck out of the idea of food stamps. Whether or not it's because they don't qualify and are jealous or are too proud to apply, I don't know. Either way it seems to boil down to, "I'm not getting free shit." Which dovetails with your assessment of conservatives as wanting fairness. And tacitly supports my idea that these people would give more of a shit about other poor people if the GOP weren't so good at exploiting them and the Dems weren't so bad at reaching them. I'm not 110 years old so I don't know firsthand, but it seems like there was more solidarity among the poor during the Depression. Not that poor white people weren't incredibly racist and everyone was singing Woodie Guthrie songs around the May Pole. But more of an abstract solidarity. Maybe I'm talking out of my ass. I just think the GOP leverages wedge issues much better and part of that was making poor people hate poorer people.