"for democrats, a troubling culture gap"

[dajoki]

Dissatisfaction over the war in Iraq, the economy and rising health care costs might spell trouble for Republicans, but a study by Democratic strategists warns that their party's failure to connect with voters on cultural issues could prevent Democratic candidates from reaping gains in upcoming national elections.

Democrats have expressed bewilderment over Republican gains among lower-income, less-educated voters, saying they are voting against their economic self-interest by supporting Republican candidates. But the new Democracy Corps study concludes that cultural issues trump economic issues by a wide margin for many of these voters -- giving the GOP a significant electoral advantage.

WP 8/10/05 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/09/AR2005080901334.html?referrer=email

[snowbear]

1. "Dan Balz" .. who the hell is he... and what does he know...

Things are dead-boring in D.C. right now.. the guy is really digging for a story.

What a loser.

[LittleClarkie]

11. Oh him. Got sick of trashing Kerry and such, eh?

I remember his name from a few months ago. I think that the verdict then was he's a Repub and that his stories are often slanted in that direction.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. This argument isn't going to hold up after 3 more years of this grief

They can only hold out the gay marriage bogey man for so long before even the dumbest of them wise up.

[Vickers]

3. Yup, things ain't shitty enough yet.

:eyes:

[Pirate Smile]

4. Here is a thread on this with a link to the Democracy Corp PDF.

We need to match up some of the new Democracy Alliance think tanks with this issue.

The article was based on a study of focus groups done by Democracy Corp - Carville and Stan Greenburg's group.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4296416&mesg_id=4296416

[AndyTiedye]

5. He Wants Us All to Kowtow to the Fundies Even More

[wli]

6. There's no culture gap. The elections are rigged.

The only culture gap is between the religious reich (14% or less of the country) and the other 86%+ of the country.

[Telly Savalas]

7. I'm confident that many Republicans will bridge the gap...

and slowly catch up with the rest of the Western world.

[newswolf56]

8. I posted on another thread about this and will link it here because...

I think the point I made is vital to understanding what we are up against now (and will be even more up against next year):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=28667&mesg_id=28674

[Pirate Smile]

9. Good point and I mentioned going after the libertarian leaning people

in the thread I posted above which was on this same topic - part of the "Go West, Democratic Party" arguments we have seen since the 2004 election.

I like your libertarian vs. authoritarian theme. I hadn't quite put my finger on what to call these RW "Christian" Republicans who want the government to tell everyone how to live their lives in EVERY way.

I thought this should be an important discussion that need to have but most people don't want to deal with it because, frankly, it sucks and there are no easy solutions.

However, this is a real issue that we have to deal with or else we will keep having problems.

(here is the thread I posted above - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4296416&mesg_id=4296416)

[newswolf56]

10. I think we desperately need to keep this issue alive, because...

(apart from Dean and maybe John Edwards), all the likely candidates seem prone to repeat the errors of 2000 and 2004 -- errors that allowed the GOPorkers to garner votes that otherwise would have given us an (incorruptible) victory. And I believe you're absolutely correct the West is the key area -- that and the upper (northern) Middle West. (Ironically, though I believe Edwards is developing precisely the proletarians-versus-plutocrats economic analysis we need to win, I would regard most of the South {with its overwhelmingly Bible-thump/Christofascist/closet-racist majority}, as a total write-off.)