It really is amazing ... I have known -- daresay DATED -- people that this speech was directed towards ... they had all the trappings of the middle class: tv, vcr, sound system, cable, whatever -- but needed food stamps to feed their children.
I think the Democrats are appealing to a certain element of the so-called working poor who buy all the latest gadgets, run up $200 a month bills on their cell phones, are maxed out on their credit cards, have no savings and are one paycheck away from bankruptcy. A lot of people think that they are entitled to everything, that they don't need any discipline and if they mismanage their lives it is "society's" fault.
It was very telling when a speaker (I forget who) said (in the context of Social Security) that the Republicans would force people to "fend for themselves." The freedom to decide how to run your life is evidently seen as an intolerable burden that the Democrats will gladly "free" you of. Evidently abortion is the only area where one should have freedom of "choice." Against any other choice about anything else there is raised an iron curtain with barbed wire and guards telling you that everything is verboten. And people cheer at politicians promising to allow the people fewer choices in their lives.