I think I've figured out why people are not voting their pocketbook.

[napi21]

I'm 61, and when I was first married and we were both working, I had to sell home made gifts to be able to afford to buy a rose bush for my yard. There was no prescription drug coverage, and drugs were far less expensive than they are now, but I remember when my son had an ear infection, I had to buy an antibiodtic for $10.00 and my husband had $15.00 hidden, and we used that. There was no money to go out to eat, and on the morning of payday, I had 10 cents in my wallet!

I guess all I'm saying is that people really have it a lot better now than I did, and I had it a lot better than my parents did during the depression.

The Dems have to choose something different than the economy now, because it just isn't as important as it used to be.

[Hatchling]

1. I can't afford to vote with my pocket book.

I'm in a catch-22. I know Walmart, etc. is bad for us, but I can't seem to find other places where I can make my dollar stretch far enough to survive month to month.

[CheshireCat]

16. Try harder

I haven't shopped WalMart in more than 5 years.

I shop at the Good Will and other second hand stores, $ stores, & sometimes K-mart.

I remember the days before there were any WalMarts. We shopped at locally owned 5 & Dime Stores and put clothing on layaway at Dept. stores.

[JaneEyrez]

2. You're right... it's not bad enough... YET!

But I'm a bit concerned that it's going to get a whole lot worse.

[Old and In the Way]

3. Just you wait....."the good old days" will be back before you know it.

[liberal N proud]

4. And I thought they were voting their bible

That is what the media wants us to think.

[Fovea]

5. Good point

Now imagine the dollar sinking to two fifty on the Euro, gas at 4.75 gal, the loss of another net million jobs, and state taxes 20% higher.

Imagine that the EPA has been massively re assigned to deal with post terrorism clean up, which is good, because they didn't have any environmental laws to enforce anymore anyway.

The economy will go the way of the passenger pigeon, and will be like War Communism, only without the pretext of being a workers paradise.
That will be the America the next Democrat will be running to fix.

[PurityOfEssence]

6. The absurd reality is that they think they ARE voting their pocketbooks

The right has skillfully taken any discussion of the poor off the table by spooking the middle class into thinking that any concern for our underclasses will drive up their own taxes. Affirmative Action was taken away by exactly the same dynamic.

The right choruses "tax cuts" repeatedly, and people think they're actually voting their pocketbooks by voting for that which hurts them.

[Warpy]

15. That's what I've said for ages.

The Repuglicans offer them tax cuts (yeah, I know, bait and switch, but the offer was made). The Democrats offer them nothing but the low wage, high offshoring policies that have been pushing them a little farther behind every year, plus threatening to raise their taxes to keep irresponsible oversexed welfare mothers (you know, black folks) living high off the hog in the big cities.

The most utterly stupid thing the DLC ever did was take working class economic issues like living wages and fair trade off the table.

[sandnsea]

19. Now wait a minute

Not ALL Democrats supported the trade bills. In fact, Gephardt didn't and he was villified around here anyway. And they are much more Republican policy than Democratic policy, trade without restraint. Democrats support fair trade and if you look at those bills you'll find that Democrats introduced fair trade elements into them, it's Republicans that wouldn't pass them. And now, Bush won't even enforce what is in them. Clinton should have insisted these bills were written better, but it's not right to lay these trade agreements completely at the feet of Democrats.

[quiet.american]

7. Ten cents more than me....

I think you have a good point, however, the economy's not great for everybody.

Under Bush's economy, suffice it to say I was unable to find work in a new profession I'd trained very hard to transition to. Everyone was cutting back, getting laid off. I was even unable to find work in my "old" job, and then, it was for about 35% less than what I'd made before.

For almost three years, I was on and off of unemployment, as I'd find work, then have it dry up. At one point, when the Repub congress failed to renew unemployment benefits for the first time in history, for months I had absolutely $0.00 income to support myself and an older relative who lives with me.

By the grace of God, I scrambled HARD, tried a little bit of everything (legal) and somewhow, we survived, but I can tell you, I rarely had ten extra cents in my pocket and it was the scariest time in my life.

Now, also by the grace of God, I've found a good job (ironically in a very pro-liberal, anti-Repug environment) and just as I've joined them, they're cutting back, because of trouble being made for them by froth-mouthed, rabid Repugs in Congress. I hope I can hold onto this position, because it's been nice to be able to buy shoes for a change! :)

[sendero]

8. I agree with you..

.... for now. But wait 2-5 years and get back to me. Americans have no freaking idea how precarious a thread this economy hangs on.

And they won't until it snaps. That's just the way people are.

[Skidmore]

9. My brother called me last night and we were talking about the

election. He told me about some good ole boys he works with and how he'd spent months trying to convince them to vote for Kerry. After the election, he asked them how they voted, and they all said for *. When he asked them why that vote, they had one reply only--Kerry will take my guns away.

He told them pretty soon they won't be able to afford bullets and they won't be able to sell their guns either to provide for their families cause no one else will be able to afford them either. Told them it's too bad cause they may have to resort to clubs to put food on the table. He said they just looked at him blankly.

[Julien Sorel]

11. The Democrats don't even have a plank for gun control

in the party platform any longer. But no one cares enough to even look closely at where the party stands now.

[Julien Sorel]

10. I think you're right.

Nobody cares about gay marriage when they are worried about how to pay the rent next month, or what flavor of ramen noodles to splurge on for dinner tonight. But when people feel fat and sassy, trivial issues suddenly become major, and that's where we are now.


There was a union guy who said he talked to members of his union who were voting for Bush because of gun control. He would say to them, "You can't eat your guns." If those guys really felt they had a choice between keeping their guns on the one hand, or keeping a roof over their heads on the other, we know which way they would have voted. I think we also know which way they actually did vote.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. At The Risk Of Being A Heretic...

Most folks are content with their lot in life in America though there are still glaring inequalities and abject poverty which needs to be addressed...

I think for every person who votes their economic interest there is another person who votes their cultural interest...


I know this from social science surveys and also anecdotally from driving through mostly caucasian working class neighborhoods and seeing Bush -Cheney signs galllore and no, literally no Kerrey-Edwards signs... It's not until I get to the African American or Latino, or upper middle class white neighborhoods that I start seeing many Kerry-Edwards signs...


P.S. I was too lazy to discuss the signs in the past tense since most folks have taken their signs down except for the one clown who tarped his roof with Bush-Cheney tarp after the Florida hurricanes destroyed it....

[mbee]

12. That's because of credit cards and if you remove them fromq

our society those realities will set back in. I think people know that our country is fixed so they just spend as much as they can as long as they can until the gig is up!

[napi21]

17. You're right about the credit cards! MC/Visa didn't exist then.

If they did, certainly the average guy didn't have one! It was ALL CASH!

I sure don't want to see life go back to the "old days", but I am getting very afraid that the mortgage/car loan/credit card life style is heading to a disaster!

[BeatleBoot]

13. Its going to get worse

Just wait and see.

[sandnsea]

18. Food stamps, medicaid, energy assistance, WIC, school lunch,

Maybe so, but why? Democratic programs, that's why.

And there's plenty of people in the exact same situation you describe today. But if you live in the suburbs, you don't see them. We've cloistered ourselves away from each other so we never see people different from ourselves, not at school, not at church, not at the grocery store. Not like when we lived in smaller towns and all went downtown, etc. Half of America has an income of $25,000 or less. They're having problems buying their prescription drugs too, just like you used to, believe me.

[napi21]

20. I'm not saying there aren't people who still live like I did.

And BTW, although my children are now grown and out of the nest, my husband & I still earn less than $25,000. My point is, there are far mor people today that earn enough to enable them to go to McDonalds, buy steaks once in a while, go to the movies, go on vacations, and yes...even shop at Walmart. All those things were luxuries we couldn't afford 35 or 40 years ago. I still don't go to the movies, or on vacation because I just don't have the money to do it, but the majority of people in the US do. It's that majority who can't recognize what it's like to have to watch every penny, and worry about what you can buy for your kids for Christmas because all the toys are too expensive. I shop at resale shops, and Goodwill stores, amd Dollar Stores. I don't want to see it happen, but the economy issue will never work again until the MAJORIATY feels the pinch, has to stop going to McDonalds, the movies, the mall for entertainment, and has to resort to buying nothing but chicken, rice, beans, and potatoes just to make it to the next pay day.

[GetTheRightVote]

21. Let's Not Forget What Alan Greenspan stated today

The dollar is going down, the EU (Europian Union) is forcing the value of the dollar down against their own currency. Our economy is in serious condition where have you been ???