Back in 1964, after passage of the Civil Rights Act, and while visiting rural Tennessee, LBJ was confronted with hundreds of poor whites carrying signs with racial epitaphs on them. Later that day he remarked to Bill Moyer, a young staffer at the time, why it was that poor people consistently voted against their own self interests:
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
And if you look at today's Tea Party and Trump supporters, you can see exactly what LBJ was talking about.
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