Do a search on "reagan democrats" at Google Web search.

[madfloridian]

You will find that Howard Dean turns them off or inspires them. Rush Limbaugh says he inspires them.

Please note just how many of these you find. This must be the new talking point. I kept noticing this term this week in various contexts and got curious.

You will find that Wesley Clark welcomes them, according to one supporter's website.

Most of the first page of the nearly 6000 hits mention either Dean or Clark. I don't have a clue what this means, but if Rush be for it....I be against it.

:evilgrin:

[Frances]

1. My first president was FDR

so I've been around for a lot of elections.

I think that the Reagan democrats were people who had been for FDR because they were either in bad financial straights (which most people were at that time) or discriminated against because of their ethnicity (Irish, Greek, Polish, Italian) or their religion (Catholic or Jewish).

By 1980 their ethnic groups and religions were no longer suffering discrimination. They were also middle class. They saw themselves as macho people who had "made it on their own." They bought into the idea that the Democrats were sissies who were giving their hard-earned tax dollars to welfare queens.

Now, Dean is nothing if not macho, so they can support him without being seen as a sissy. Also he is promising to balance the budget which means that their social security and medicare will be safe and these people are getting close to the age where they will need these benefits.