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I don't mean quite what you think by that (how could I?). But I've never seen such a raw statement of the current Democratic sales pitch than today when I saw a bumper sticker on a Toyota Highlander that said "I'm too poor to vote Republican." Obviously, there are several ways to take this, but I'm sure the irony of a presumably upper-middle class person considering him/herself "too poor" for anything wasn't lost on hi/er.
We've discussed this topic before, of course, and as I've said, when it comes to the economy, the Democrats do their best to sell an "us vs them" mentality along with the pessimism that "them" is winning ('The rich get richer while the poor get poorer' myth/lie that Democrats like to tell). Obviously this person buys into it.
But the fact of the matter is that upwards of 80% of Americans define themseves as "middle class" ( http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004036986_middleclasslocal27m.html ). And though a decent fraction of Democrats buy into the pessimism (see the "What's wrong with the US economy" thread), they don't have much success selling that message to independents and conservatives. Chicken little can only scream that the sky is falling for so long before people get bored with the message and go back to participating in the growing economy.
So what does that mean for next years' election and the larger political landscape? It means that this is still a socially conservative country. The Democrats control Congress today because Bush is a jackass, not because people buy their ideology. Bush won in 2000 even though people knew then that he was a jackass (just maybe not how much). There was nothing particularly wrong with Gore besides being uninspiring, but he couldn't overcome a slightly weak economy and his own ideology to beat Bush. Next year, the Democrats have to attack the Republican candidate by connecting him to Bush and hope for a recession (odds seem to be about 50/50 for a mild recession next year) - but they won't be able to sell their idology to the majority of Americans.
We've discussed this topic before, of course, and as I've said, when it comes to the economy, the Democrats do their best to sell an "us vs them" mentality along with the pessimism that "them" is winning ('The rich get richer while the poor get poorer' myth/lie that Democrats like to tell). Obviously this person buys into it.
But the fact of the matter is that upwards of 80% of Americans define themseves as "middle class" ( http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004036986_middleclasslocal27m.html ). And though a decent fraction of Democrats buy into the pessimism (see the "What's wrong with the US economy" thread), they don't have much success selling that message to independents and conservatives. Chicken little can only scream that the sky is falling for so long before people get bored with the message and go back to participating in the growing economy.
So what does that mean for next years' election and the larger political landscape? It means that this is still a socially conservative country. The Democrats control Congress today because Bush is a jackass, not because people buy their ideology. Bush won in 2000 even though people knew then that he was a jackass (just maybe not how much). There was nothing particularly wrong with Gore besides being uninspiring, but he couldn't overcome a slightly weak economy and his own ideology to beat Bush. Next year, the Democrats have to attack the Republican candidate by connecting him to Bush and hope for a recession (odds seem to be about 50/50 for a mild recession next year) - but they won't be able to sell their idology to the majority of Americans.
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