Identity and money

Does identity rate higher than economics with voters? Poorer people often pick up on identity politics and vote populist/nationalist. The poor have no money and so they don't vote like the economic elite, although the poor do vote for more jobs and better pay. The elite vote internationalist and globalist because that's where their money comes from. But once a poor man becomes rich he then tends to change his vote and votes the way the elite vote to protect his money.

This relates to how Democratic Republics become corrupted by money. "Merit" is defined by money, not by virtue, character, or the identity out of which the culture grew in the first place. Merit is seen as the talent for making money so meritocracies become corrupted by money since money chooses who gets elected.

Culture and identity develop from the genetic traits and the specific environments of the people who originally created the culture. Money corrupts those traditional identities and cultures, which causes them to decline, and so money has to be taken out of politics if we want to maintain our cultures.

But can we take the money out of politics? If it is not done then Ben Franklin's statement following the creation of the Constitution that we have a Republic if we can keep it will have to be answered that we could not keep it. Taking the money out of politics, no-matter how necessary, is a very difficult thing to do and is rarely successful. In modern times money seems necessary to commerce, but it also really does appear to be the root of all evil.