Americans would be far less easily susceptible to influence and spun up about these culture war issues if their basic material conditions were better met, and fewer people lived in fear of running out of money before payday or going bankrupt due to unexpected medical expenses.
Wealthier (non-billionaire, non-sociopath) people have the luxury of feeling liberal, progressive, generous, cosmopolitan, tolerant, open-minded, and rational. Their day-to-day isn’t filled with fear for survival.
Poorer working people are deeply stressed, constantly exhausted, and, frankly, shit-scared, so it’s easy for right-wing media and religious groups to come in and constantly smash that lizard-brain fear button and feed them a queue of “others” to blame.
