Posted on 09/06/2006 6:40:42 PM PDT by MNJohnnie
All things considered, Democrats would rather be talking about the economy; they think it is favorable ground for them. Yet Democrats are often undone by talking about the economy — more precisely, by how they talk about the economy.
That is the argument of a persuasive paper by Anne Kim and Jim Kessler for the moderate Democrat outfit Third Way. They note that, for a self-styled “party of the middle class,” the Democrats don’t win many middle-class voters. Democrats tell themselves bedtime stories about why this is so, including the thesis advanced by Thomas Frank, author of What’s Wrong With Kansas?, that middle-class voters get lured into voting against their own economic interests by the GOP cultural message; or the argument that Republicans scare the middle class out of voting its bread-and-butter concerns with the issue of national security.
The evidence suggests, to the contrary, that what’s “wrong” with Kansas is that it doesn’t buy the Democrats’ economic message. Kim and Kessler define the middle class as voters with household incomes between $30,000 and $75,000. Kerry lost it by 6 points, and by an astonishing 22 points among the white voters who “represent one-third of the voting population and three-fourths of the middle class.” The tipping point at which a white voter became more likely to vote in a congressional race for a Republican over a Democrat was $23,700 — “not that far above the poverty line.”
In 2000, national security didn’t loom large, but Al Gore still lost the middle class by 2 points and the white middle class by 15 points. In 1996, when Bill Clinton had defused hot-button issues by signing welfare-reform and tough-on-crime initiatives, congressional Democrats still lost middle-class and white-middle-class voters by 3 points and 12 points, respectively. It was in that year that Bill Clinton had the best Democratic performance among middle-class voters in three decades by winning them by a mere one point.
For the Democrats, the Dust Bowl is ever-blowing. Their economic message is perpetually premised on pessimism and decline (John Kerry: “Our great middle class is shrinking.”), together with promises of economic security and the flaying of big business (Al Gore: “Powerful interests stand in your way.”). None of this resonates with a public that knows it lives in a rich, wide-open country.
How does the Democratic message fall flat? Kim and Kessler count the ways. The public doesn’t buy heedless pessimism; 80 percent believe it is “still possible to start out poor in this country, work hard and become rich.” It prefers opportunity over economic security; only about a quarter of Americans say that they prefer a low-income, high-security job. It doesn’t like corporation-bashing; only 27 percent say big business is the biggest threat to America’s future, compared with 61 percent who say big government is.
Programmatically, Democrats essentially offer the middle class a nullity. Kim and Kessler run through the greatest hits of Democratic policy. The average family income for Pell Grant recipients is $19,460. Head Start is for poor children. A married family of four can make a maximum of only $37,263 to still be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (to the tune of $1). Only 2.7 percent of American workers make the minimum wage, and half of them are under age 25. Giving health care to the uninsured affects only 15.7 percent of Americans, and many of them aren’t middle class.
Kim and Kessler recommend a Clinton-style, hopeful message focused on promoting middle-class aspiration through making college more affordable, helping working families, and encouraging savings and investment. Democrats are indeed calling for a college-tuition tax break this year, but otherwise are advocating their usual farrago of corporate-hating, minimum-wage-boosting doom-and-gloom. It might work, given the anti-Republican political climate. Over the long term, however, pessimistic, anti-corporate Democrats will continue to be alienated from middle-class voters, and will need still more excuses as to why they can’t reach them.
Excellent post.
I agree the Democrat Party is no friend of the middle class. But the Republicans have failed the middle class as well, with Senate Bozoes like Ted Stevens making Bobby Byrd look like a piker when it comes to bringing home the bacon at the taxpayer's expense.
I do not know why Americans think being hyper critical is to be thought "wise". Rabid cynicism is not wise, it is in fact juvenile. It is the sort of behavior you see every day on any High School campus.
Not hard to do. Just post something postive or factual that reflects poorly on the Dems. They aren't intresting in fact, they are only intrested in the next thing to cry about.
The current Democrat cadre doesn't give a 'Rat's behind what happens to you and me and 99% of the people on this thread. And that's what's going to bite them in the ass when the GOP maintains control of both the House & Senate this fall. Some donks (Snakehead) already realize if their Party outwardly despises the middle class, you can't even be competitive in diverse places like CA-50 & IN-9, and you'll never get the House back. Which is fine by me -- they're only 10 years into their 40 Years in the Wilderness...
Then, finally, you'll begin to see some outward distegration of the Democrat Party, beginning with Dean's ousting; and after Lamont's loss, the Klink's manufacturing a major Sister Souljah moment to exorcise the Kos faction; and finally in 2008, Gore running for President at the head of the Green Party ticket.
From your mouth to God's ear.
My point is cutting taxes while increasing discretionary spending is not a conservative principle nor healthy for the future of the middle class. I am not constructed to buy into the slop the Democrat Party tries to peddle and it is beyond my imagination, a scenario which I would find myself voting for any Democrat. That said, I am not delusionary. The Republican Party has become the party of big government, while the Democrat Party is the party of bigger government. The fact that Republican Party has lost its way in this regard saddens me a great deal.
but of course - the demonicrats have a vested interest in making us *ALL* poor, since "the poor" are demonicrat voters...
bttt
>>I have many friends and family that make just above poverty and they all vote Repub. They know that when a Dem says Middle Class they mean the low class sit at home and don't wanna work Class for the most part.
That's a really interesting point. I've seen that phenomenon, too. Lower middle class, *working* class people often really look down on those perpetually on welfare. And it's impossible to not associate the Dems with those perpetually on welfare, if you are half-awake and have two brain cells to rub together.
>>The Republican Party has become the party of big government, while the Democrat Party is the party of bigger government.
Spot on.
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