Yeah, I got that... ;-)

I think you're right that a majority of Americans don't hold Doug's opinions. The last election indicated that very strongly. The problem is that Doug's opinions are held by a majority of rural white Americans in certain regions of the country such as the Deep South and the more sparsely populated states in the Midwest and much of the West (east of the Rocky Mountains). His opinions are also more prevalent among older white people than among younger white people.

That's the traditional base of the Republican party...rural white people, and specially the older generation. They're people who are much more likely to go out and vote than younger people are, and they are people more driven by anger and frustration than younger people (whose attention is more occupied by dating, having a lively social life, getting married, looking for a new job, etc...than bitching about political issues)

The core of the conservative base both in the USA and in Canada (and, I suspect in almost all countries) is the older people from the cultural mainstream, people who are set in their ways, afraid of change, and locked into a cultural holding pattern that's a few decades out of date.

It's the forces of reaction, not innovation.

I am living in a part of Ontario that's exactly that kind of demographic, since the majority of the population right around here is older white people who used to live in Toronto when they were young liberals and who moved out to escape the rapid cultural changes and increased urbanization there. They have metamorphised into crabby old conservatives who are busyily defending themselves against change. ;-)

Whereas Toronto tends to vote for more "liberal" parties and candidates, the people in this more rural region where I live will virtually always elect a conservative to office...even if the Conservative Party runs a dog or a chimp! (I jest....but it's kind of like that)

They are afraid of change, and they are easily bamboozled by the very conservative political forces funded by big business, the very forces who are robbing them all the time in 1,000 insidious little ways.

One interesting thing, though. All those conservative people hereabouts are very much in favor of maintaining our single payer socialized health coverage. Why? Well, they've had about 50 years to try it out by now, and they like it! They don't have to fear going bankrupt if they get sick......and they're not stupid. Reactionary maybe, but not stupid. They're learned by direct experience what a damn good idea it is to have that kind of health coverage.

The jerk who's in power now (Stephen Harper, Conservative, minority government) would love to dismantle our health system and make us just like the USA, but he's not going to. He'd be committing political suicide if he tried it, and he knows that. He's not stupid either. ;-)