The Donks Have Lost Their Base Voters

A new report just released showed that the Donks have lost their base voters - The Middle Class.

The Democratic Party, the self-proclaimed defender of the middle class, was trounced by Republicans among those voters in the 2004 election, according to a Democratic advocacy group that says the party faces "a crisis with the middle class."

A report released yesterday by Third Way says support for Republicans begins at much lower income levels than researchers had expected: Among white voters, President Bush got a majority of support beginning at an income threshold of $23,300 -- about $5,000 above the poverty level for a family of four.

The report says the economic gains of Hispanics have translated into strong Republican gains, as have economic strides across every category, save for black voters.

"As Americans become even modestly wealthier their affinity for Democrats apparently falls off. With middle income voters, it is Democrats -- the self-described party of the middle class -- who are running far behind Republicans, the oft-described party of the rich," the report says.

Although Mr. Bush's popular-vote margin of victory over Sen. John Kerry in 2004 was less than three percentage points, the Massachusetts Democrat lost the middle class -- defined by the report as voters living in households with incomes between $30,000 and $75,000 -- by six percentage points. Among white middle-class voters, the gap was 22 percentage points.

Polls show that voters identify the Democratic Party as the party of the middle class and that Democrats beat Republicans on middle-class issues such as jobs, health care and education, but that hasn't translated into votes, said Jim Kessler, policy director for Third Way, which was created after the 2004 election with the goal of "modernizing the progressive cause."

"Middle-class voters think Democrats care about issues they care about, but they don't care about the middle-class voter as much as they care about other voters -- that they're No. 4 or 5 on the priority list," Mr. Kessler said. Put another way, he said, "they think Democrats care about somebody else's schools, health care, jobs."

Many in the Democratic Party, particularly among those on the left, say there are no policy lessons to be learned from the 2004 election, that the party failed to get out its message and that it was overshadowed by a strong president at war. But centrist Democrats have continued to argue that the party may be in bigger danger than many loyalists think.

The problem the Donks have is not that they haven't gotten their message across to the Middle class, the problem is that they HAVE gotten the message across, and it is being rejected! I am in the middle class, and I worry about healthcare, jobs and schools, but what I see from the Donks is NOT an improvement, but a worsening of the problems. At least the Republicans are trying to fix the problems (if the obstructionist Donks would get out of the way), where the Donks just whine and squeal about the solutions without offering up anything constructive. The Donks are getting rejected and they don't understand it, they think it is their "message", but it is that they have nothing to offer except rhetoric and socialism. No, Thank You!! This Middle Class American wants his God Given Freedoms and Rights without being taxed to death or living in a Nanny State. Take your "message" somewhere else Mr Donk, because that crap don't flush down the toilet around here.


Mr Minority