Harvard University history professor Niall Ferguson recently claimed that John Maynard Keynes's economic theories were doomed to fail because Keynes himself was gay and did not have any children.
While Ferguson has since apologized for making homophobic remarks, he single-handedly pulled back the curtain to reveal that bigotry, whether it be racism, sexism, homophobia, or other forms of bigotry, is the driving force behind the austerity movement in the United States and around the world.
One has to remember that Lee Atwater's "Southern Strategy" was based on the ideal that bigoted white people are willing support candidates for public office whose policies (such as austerity) would hurt their livelihoods if they hurt the livelihoods of ethnic minorities even more, and this is still the driving force of the Republican Party to this day.
Bigotry isn't just the driving force of the Republican Party, it's also the driving force of the global austerity movement.