Letter: Why do Republicans vote against their own interest?

I used to wonder why so many of my colleagues at Hanford and PNNL, whose professions were based on science, could support a party that didn’t believe in global warming. Then I saw a PEW poll that showed just how tribal Republicans can be. In 2016, only 39 percent of Republicans thought their income tax was fair; a year later when Trump was president, the number jumped up to 56 percent.

Democrats and independents have tribal tendencies too, but they only changed their minds from 68 percent to 64 percent. So why are Republicans so much more tribal than everyone else? What is it about the Republican Party that is so important that people will vote against their own interest?

Or, to put it another way, what does the Republican Party stand for that commands blind loyalty? It’s certainly no longer the old Republican dogmas of balancing the budget, free trade, or keeping the Russians in check. The only thing I can see that Republicans have in common these days is their disdain for people not like themselves.

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Letter: Why do Republicans vote against their own interest?."