Report: "Middle Class" slipping away from the Democrats...

A group called Third Way - a self-proclaimed Progressive (i.e. "Liberal") Advocacy Group - has looked at exit poll data from the 2004 election and its findings should worry Democrats. Specifically it warns that, despite its populist rhetoric and class warfare tactics, the Democrat party is slowly but surely losing its appeal to those voters that consider themselves to be "middle class".

Gary Andres looks at the findings over at NRO.

With a couple of exceptions, instead of mining a Democratic electoral mother-lode, these voters delivered landslide margins to President Bush and congressional Republicans. For example, the report concludes that "George W. Bush defeated John Kerry by 22-points among middle class whites with incomes between $30,000 and $75,000." House Republicans won the same income group by 19 points.

Republican support among lower-middle-class white voters continued down the income scale more than suggested by conventional wisdom. The report says "The economic tipping point - the household income level at which whites were more likely to vote for Republicans than Democrats - was $23,700." Middle-class black voters, on the other hand, voted overwhelmingly for Democrats (by a nine to one margin) - a spread so large, according to the report, it "masked the enormous deficit Democrats faced with other middle income demographic groups."

In other words, more and more voters are deciding to ignore the "victim-oriented" propaganda that Democrats are trying to feed them and figuring out that they can aspire to greater success and achieving their dreams - all without the sugar teat of the Federal Government.

But wait, it gets even better. As Hispanic voters prosper and as women marry, they flee the Democrats in droves.

After all the debate about the extent of Republican gains among Hispanics, the Third Way report offers a somewhat different perspective, one focusing on income groups. For example, Hispanics become more apt to vote Republican as they move up the income scale. And the Hispanic population is not only growing, but it is becoming more affluent. And the more affluent Hispanics become . . . you guessed it - time for more political Prozac for the Democrats.

As the Democrats grapple with their party's identity and try to come up with new and clever ways to attack President Bush and the Republicans, the GOP is growing its base with an optimistic and positive message of "growth, hope and opportunity."

As Third Way's website acknowledges:

The conservatives' ability to win the war of ideas is the linchpin of their hold on power. And while progressives may not like their ideas, conservatives must be credited with having articulated and marketed a modern agenda that resonates with a majority of Americans.

Where the group misses the boat is that it's the ideas that sell themselves not the way they are marketed. Now matter how much lipstick you put on that pig, Liberalism just doesn't sell these days.

Posted by: Gary at 04:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 494 words, total size 3 kb.