[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Op-Ed Columnist: Living Poor, Voting Rich

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Op-Ed Columnist: Living Poor, Voting Rich

November 3, 2004
 By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF 



 

In the aftermath of this civil war that our nation has just
fought, one result is clear: the Democratic Party's first
priority should be to reconnect with the American
heartland. 

I'm writing this on tenterhooks on Tuesday, without knowing
the election results. But whether John Kerry's supporters
are now celebrating or seeking asylum abroad, they should
be feeling wretched about the millions of farmers, factory
workers and waitresses who ended up voting - utterly
against their own interests - for Republican candidates. 

One of the Republican Party's major successes over the last
few decades has been to persuade many of the working poor
to vote for tax breaks for billionaires. Democrats are
still effective on bread-and-butter issues like health
care, but they come across in much of America as arrogant
and out of touch the moment the discussion shifts to
values. 

"On values, they are really noncompetitive in the
heartland," noted Mike Johanns, a Republican who is
governor of Nebraska. "This kind of elitist, Eastern
approach to the party is just devastating in the Midwest
and Western states. It's very difficult for senatorial,
Congressional and even local candidates to survive." 

In the summer, I was home - too briefly - in Yamhill, Ore.,
a rural, working-class area where most people would benefit
from Democratic policies on taxes and health care. But many
of those people disdain Democrats as elitists who empathize
with spotted owls rather than loggers. 

One problem is the yuppification of the Democratic Party.
Thomas Frank, author of the best political book of the
year, "What's the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won
the Heart of America," says that Democratic leaders have
been so eager to win over suburban professionals that they
have lost touch with blue-collar America. 

"There is a very upper-middle-class flavor to liberalism,
and that's just bound to rub average people the wrong way,"
Mr. Frank said. He notes that Republicans have used
"culturally powerful but content-free issues" to connect to
ordinary voters. 

To put it another way, Democrats peddle issues, and
Republicans sell values. Consider the four G's: God, guns,
gays and grizzlies. 

One-third of Americans are evangelical Christians, and many
of them perceive Democrats as often contemptuous of their
faith. And, frankly, they're often right. Some evangelicals
take revenge by smiting Democratic candidates. 

Then we have guns, which are such an emotive issue that
Idaho's Democratic candidate for the Senate two years ago,
Alan Blinken, felt obliged to declare that he owned 24 guns
"and I use them all." He still lost. 

As for gays, that's a rare wedge issue that Democrats have
managed to neutralize in part, along with abortion. Most
Americans disapprove of gay marriage but do support some
kind of civil unions (just as they oppose "partial birth"
abortions but don't want teenage girls to die from
coat-hanger abortions). 

Finally, grizzlies - a metaphor for the way
environmentalism is often perceived in the West as
high-handed. When I visited Idaho, people were still
enraged over a Clinton proposal to introduce 25 grizzly
bears into the wild. It wasn't worth antagonizing most of
Idaho over 25 bears. 

"The Republicans are smarter," mused Oregon's governor, Ted
Kulongoski, a Democrat. "They've created ... these social
issues to get the public to stop looking at what's
happening to them economically." 

"What we once thought - that people would vote in their
economic self-interest - is not true, and we Democrats
haven't figured out how to deal with that." 

Bill Clinton intuitively understood the challenge, and John
Edwards seems to as well, perhaps because of their own
working-class origins. But the party as a whole is mostly
in denial. 

To appeal to middle America, Democratic leaders don't need
to carry guns to church services and shoot grizzlies on the
way. But a starting point would be to shed their
inhibitions about talking about faith, and to work more
with religious groups. 

Otherwise, the Democratic Party's efforts to improve the
lives of working-class Americans in the long run will be
blocked by the very people the Democrats aim to help. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/opinion/03kris.html?ex=1100497797&ei=1&en=d7df0bbc92bdbfb1


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