September 30, 2005
Party of the Rich
Noam Scheiber at TNR realizes that the GOP is no longer the party of the rich.
Ronald Reagan carried 17 of the 20 most affluent counties in the country in 1984.
[...]
What's changed since the '80s is that a smaller and smaller portion of the party's votes come from affluent voters, even as its funding continues to come from the business community. Bush won less than half of the 20 most affluent counties in 2004. These days, GOP votes come increasingly from working-class whites. Bill Clinton lost lower-middle-class whites--those making between $30,000 and $50,000--to Bob Dole by a single point in 1996. Bush won them by 13 points in 2000 and by 17 points in 2004.
Being Noam Scheiber, he jumps to the wrong conclusion and states (the next sentence, actually) "The upshot is that, while the party must still deliver tax cuts that primarily benefit the affluent, it must also spend lavishly to appeal to the working class."
I can't go along there, the lower income GOPers understand their benefit from tax cuts and do not clamor for more spending.
But Scheiber is correct to point out the divisions exposed by Katrina spending. I have ridiculed Democratic senators that I thought were economic dim bulbs (Michigan's Sen. Debbie Stabenow should have her own TV show) but the Rs I have witnessed are displaying a fearful amount of cluelessness.
Montana's Sen. Burns was facing a grilling from friendly Larry Kudlow last night. The subject was not-taking $4 million for a new parking garage to help fund hurricane recovery. This was suggested by the citizens but rejected by the city council. What was the Senator's opinion? "Well, Larry, these are 'earmarks' and they don't bust the budget." Kudlow enumerat6ed a handful of bike paths and a teleconferencing center and an indoor pistol range. Burns didn't defend any of the projects, he genuinely seemed stumped that anybody would object to any of this.
Who will capture disenchanted small-government voters? I cannot believe the Democrats have a shot. But if the national party cannot catch this zeitgeist, the GOP will be very vulnerable to a Perot-esque third party challenge.
And that, gentle readers, is how we got the first President Clinton...
4 million here, $4 million there, and pretty soon you are talking real money... The real axis of evil is Pork, Entitlements, and Subsidies. Kudos to Larrry Kudlow for asking the questions, and even more kudos to the blogosphere in general for adding enough voices that some light can be shed on the dark recesses of funding bills. Perhaps if our elected officials actually had to account for and support all the little pork publicly to their constituents instead of passing through riders late at night in near secrecy there could be a real reduction in spending.
Posted by: Silence Dogood at October 3, 2005 12:22 PMHear, hear!
Posted by: johngalt at October 5, 2005 12:09 AM | What do you think? [2]