Blue collar white voters believe that the Republican Party is better equipped to make the economic system more fair by an overwhelming margin, according to a new Washington Post poll

In the survey of non-college educated whites, 50% had more faith in GOP policies, while 29% favored the Democratic strategy. These are among the workers hit hardest by the economic shifts of the past quarter century, and in particular by the failed polices of the Obama administration. They’ve seen good paying jobs in Appalachian coal mines become casualties of Obama’s war on coal. They’ve lost solid, middle class work on the oil rigs of the Gulf because Obama is more obsessed with tomorrow’s temperatures than today’s families. And they’ve bid goodbye to Midwestern factory jobs while Obama saddles employers with oppressive taxes and regulations. Mitt Romney, the failed GOP standard bearer in 2012, bemoaned the prospects for selling a message of smaller government when 47% of the population is receiving some form of government assistance. But many of these blue collar whites are among the 47%. They may be getting Obamacare subsidies, or unemployment benefits, or even food stamps. And that’s not what they want. They’re looking for the opportunity to take care of themselves and their families. They want jobs, not another Big Government giveaway designed to replace the paychecks Democratic policies have killed. They’ve lost faith — if they ever had any — in the government’s ability to solve their problems. And who can blame them? Handouts never create opportunity, only dependency. Blue collar workers aren’t hardwired to want handouts; it demeans their humanity and self-sufficiency. And it should be added that blue collar workers comprise 61% of the U.S. working population. It should also be added that Democrats’ incessant demeaning of blue collar workers because of their race (predominantly white), religion, gender (predominantly male), or values isn’t helping a whole lot, either. If you keep suggesting that white, male, Christians who believe in earning a dollar are racist, ignorant, xenophobic, homophobic or otherwise evil, they probably won’t vote for you.