But they are wrong, and often willfully ignorant. There's a big difference.
There have been several diaries today either stating that conservatives are stupid, or alternatively, that we are fighting a class war. Neither is true. If conservatives were stupid, we'd see that Republicans are less likely to be educated. If we were fighting a class war, we'd expect Republicans to be less likely to be rich. Neither is true.
You can see this in the exit polls for president in 2008. If you look at the first two pages of the exit polls, you note that the richest Americans actually were more likely to vote for Obama than McCain. If there were a class war, how would that be possible? We also note that the least educated and the most educated were most likely to vote for Obama. How can that be consistent with the idea that conservatives are stupid?
But, we then look at how race and religion affected voting in 2008. Nonwhites and non-Christians were the groups most likely to vote for Obama. And the most Republican Christians are the Protestants (note that we've only had one Catholic president) that go to church most often. So, we note that white Christians, especially Protestants, are most likely to be Republicans (and conservatives).
So, if a poor conservative votes for someone who wants to maintain power for white Christians, they are voting their interests. It's just that their interests are really fucked up. And post-modern conservatives can't say that their main goal is to maintain power for white Christians - that type of blatant racism and pro-Christian bigotry is unacceptable to the rest of the public. So, everything is in code and none of it makes any sense. So, if your interests are less fucked up (as in not based in racism and/or bigotry), then conservatives sound really stupid.
Modern, post-modern conservatism is about maintaining the historical power of white Christians in this country. It isn't about anything else. Many of the rich and powerful manipulate this desire by many Americans to maintain the White Christian power structure for their own economic ends. But, at its very base, post-modern conservatives want to maintain power for white Christians.
But, if you are listening to the code, it all makes more sense.
As more and more Americans reject racial and religious bigotry, post-modern conservatism becomes more and more desperate and nonsensical. And post-modern conservatism is desperate nonsense, because maintaining the old white Christian power structure doesn't make any sense. But, conservatives aren't stupid - they just have really fucked up values.
The best way to fight conservatism is to call it out for what it is, and then show those who might be convinced by post-modern conservatism that they have nothing to fear, and the psychic wage of being white (and Christian, quoting W.E.B. DuBois) isn't worth anything in the better America we need to build together.
And we have to fight conservatism. Eventually post-modern conservatism is going to die. Demographics will kill it off sooner or later, as every year there are fewer white Christians. But, how much damage are they going to do before they are finished? The current bunch is MUCH worse than Bush, scary to say. Bush was a tinpot wanna-be dictator that governed like a bad Risk player. But, he just wanted power and money. Bush didn't really hate non-Christians (hell, he got along with the Chinese and especially the Saudis) and he rejected racism (look how tight he was with Hispanics). But post-modern, post-Bush conservatives just want power for white Christians. And they'd rather have a poor, miserable America controlled by white Christians than a rich, happy America where power is shared. If they ever take power we are FUCKED!!! We need to understand their motivations so that we can fight back and keep them out of power forever.