It's all about all media feeding the interests of corporations, and itself. The first response to 9/11 was about the disruption of consumerism and commerce. It's still about dependence on oil and maintenance of the "business class" as the power brokers in this country, and in other countries as well. This is what Capitalism without integrity, honesty or restraint looks like. When the core principles of a business are superceded by the dictate to make money by any means necessary, including through the control and manipulation of local governments and their interests, you can't blame blue collar (whatever that means today) workers.

If you're talking about people who really have no control over what happens in their lives because a business interest with money will trump their ability to self determination, then striking a very conservative, religion based or justified stance is the only control that many people have over any aspect of their lives. It's a stop-gap measure adopted by many Americans for different reasons, primarily to create the belief that there is a space they can call their own. Tragic when out of the blue the effects of the ruling class policies leave their children dead from lack of access to health care or fighting in a war based on securing more revenue for the ruling class.

Other Americans have such total disgust and distrust of the ability of government to create and maintain a level playing field on which they can exercise their first amendment rights that they form other groups which they believe will allow them to do so without government interference (or with its' help if they can vote them in). Wealthy Republicans have been brilliant at creating fictitious government mandated plots that would force people to accept laws that are contrary to their basic beliefs or core values. They espouse lowest common denominator beliefs consistent with the notions of Christianity or conservative Judaism or American traditions, for example. So it becomes a moral imperative for the non-ruling class to fight for their values or even just traditions, while the Republican ruling class controls and manipulates the resources of the country to continue to profit and control decisions - not to benefit the people or the country.

The Rovian,Nazi-like techniques are used to ensure that people can't think their way through the fact that their leaders are corrupt, shameless, power hungry people who really could not care less about a few thousand deaths here and there to maintain this system of control. The media is complicit (and a source of revenue) and functions to marginalize or suppress those who would argue that the freedom and love of country that is stated by the Republicans is anything but Democracy.