The Democrats’ working-class problem

[formerlurker]

The Democrats’ working-class problem
By Joan C. Williams, Friday, April 22, 4:59 PM

President Obama, ever the gifted orator, has hit some excellent notes as he shapes the Democrats’ message on the deficit. He also has hit some wrong ones — and has failed to correct mistakes Democrats have been making for 40 years. Because when Democrats talk about the poor, they can wind up losing more votes than they win. ¶ A key constituency in any national election is white voters who are neither rich nor poor — the working-class families whose median income is $64,000. This group, overwhelmingly Democratic before 1970, has abandoned the Democrats in large numbers, creating a conservative center in American politics. Obama needs these voters in 2012. And his team needs to learn some basic messages about how this group sees the world, in particular about their attitudes toward the rich and the poor, and about certain phrases that may not resonate with them. The donkey’s tin ear should end here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-democrats-working-class-problem/2011/04/19/AFBKSnQE_story.html

Reading the article, meh - she is making some ok points (while hiding her total disdain for white middle class folk).   Then she can't help herself:

Democrats also need to debunk the myth that the rich work “darned hard for every cent.” Class mobility in the United States is lower than in other industrialized countries, and only 18 percent of the income in America’s richest families comes from work — hard or otherwise. In America, most wealth does not come from hard work. It comes from wealth.

Democrats also need, over and over again, to contrast the decline of the middle class with the explosion of wealth at the top. Between the “Ozzie and Harriett” 1950s and the “All in the Family” 1970s, ordinary Americans’ standard of living doubled. Since then, it has fallen: Forty-two percent of new wealth created from 1983 to 2004 has gone to the richest 1 percent of Americans. The richer have become much richer at the expense of the middle class: The wages of high-school educated men have fallen 25 percent since 1973, during a period when the richest Americans’ share of income doubled. The top 20 percent now controls 85 percent of American wealth — something most Americans do not know.

Debunk that myth indeed.   

She is spot on with Sarah Palin in that the lady has a true gift with connecting to everyday Americans.    I don't think she is running however.    Joan misses the boat that the fear of God should be for the candidates for which Ms. Palin gives assistance to their opponents.   I think in that role she is far more powerful and far more threatening to the DNC.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Class mobility in the United States is lower than in other industrialized countries,

That statement reeks of being based on a stat that was concocted by a methodology designed to reach a particular conclusion, rather than one one that led to the conclusion from unbiased analysis...if there is even any statistical basis for it at all. 

[Mr Mannn]

The democrats seem hell bent on redefining the working class as organized labor...something like 7% of the populace. That leaves the majority of the middle class (the real workers) out of the picture. 

my workplace is predominantly liberal, and non-union. No one even mentioned the quiet riots in Wisconsin...not even the political types. no one cared. and thats what I see happening here, the rats are pinning their hopes on an issue that no one cares about.

The liberals will lose big in the next election. Obama is the only one who can stand a chance if he gets Trump to split the GOP vote. But even if he wins, the GOP will control both houses. Impeachment is a terrible thing to waste.