Voting behavior is a form of brand loyalty rather than a choice of social/economic policy or expression of dissatisfaction. People keep voting for one brand of political party for the the same reasons they keep buying one brand of cars, ciggaretes, soda, fast food, or for that matter, going to the same church - because this is what they are familiar with, rather than they evaluated all available options and made a rational decision.
IMHO the rational choice model on which "it is the economy, stupid" cliché is based is plain wrong. People are NOT rational utlity maximizers. Instead they are transaction cost minimizers and ex post facto rationalizers. In other words, they will not necessarily go for what can give them maximum gain. Instead, they will go for what requires minimum effort here and now, and then they tell everyone else (and often themselves, if they happen to reflect ontheir own actions) that they did what was best for them.
Wojtek