Democrats", focusing on how Reagan hijacked TRILLIONS from their paychecks for tax giveaways to the wealthy and to Republican Federal contractors. "Morning in America" was in actuality the biggest heist in history--FICA taxes on millions and millions of workers were raised by a quarter so top income tax rates could be cut 60 percent for thousands of the ultra-wealthy. Workers were led to believe those extra FICA dollars were being "saved" for their retirement, but in reality they were being given away to the wealthy and being squandered on "defense" boondoggles like "Star Wars".
IMO "Reagan Democrats" need to understand just how thoroughly they were hoodwinked on "social issues" in order not to go back to the Republicans anytime soon. Framing the Social Security issue the right way could bring back the "Reagan Democrats" for good.
Your Times of London article is EXCELLENT!
From
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2414298,00.html :
"The Times October 21, 2006
Blue-collar Democrats return to their roots; The cornerstone of Republican success is crumbling after it was built up by Reagan
By Tim Reid in Pittsburgh
"Republican analysts believe that Mr Santorum's problems are rooted in the return of white, blue-collar voters to the Democrat fold, a generation after Ronald Reagan wooed them to the Republican cause. The "Reagan Democrats" have been a cornerstone of Republican electoral success for the past 20 years, especially in the Midwest, still the battleground for presidential contests. By the early 1980s, these traditional Democrat voters „ both rural and urban lower middle-class „ no longer saw Democrats as their champions. Socially conservative, they were attracted by Mr Reagan's simple message of moral values, fiscal responsibility and national security. Millions fled to the Republicans and stayed.
Mr Santorum has won in Pennsylvania „ he was re-elected to a second six-year term in 2000, in part because his conservatism appealed to blue-collar Democrats. In recent years they have been motivated to vote on cultural issues more than economic ones. Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster and one of the strategists behind the party's 1994 takeover of Congress, told The Times: "The Santorum race shows that Reagan Democrats are returning to their roots. Economic issues among blue-collar social conservatives are now subsuming concerns about social issues. ...
Hundreds of factories and car plants have closed, in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Wisconsin. ... (Santorum) has voted with Mr Bush 98 per cent of the time, in a state where the President has become very unpopular. Combined with the tectonic voting shift identified by Mr Luntz, it is little surprise that Mr Santorum has trailed his opponent by 10 points for months. Mr Casey, an anti-abortion social conservative and trade union economic liberal, is an easy man for a Reagan Democrat to support. ...
A typical Reagan Democrat grew up in a heavily unionised, blue collar home, probably in the Midwest. His father and grandfather were diehard Democrat voters. He is white, religious, married with children, a high school graduate who never went to university, and like his father, a tradesman. ... He is less well educated than a typical Republican, earns less money but shares the same sense of patriotism and moral direction. In Pennsylvania, many Reagan Democrats are Catholic and oppose abortion. By the early 1980s the typical Reagan Democrat was in his 40s, but had become deeply disaffected with the Democratic Party. He saw the party of his father and grandfather now beholden to pressure groups including feminists, African Americans, and the gay rights lobby."
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