[lbo-talk] density & voting, 2006

Michael Hoover mhhoover at gmail.com
Wed Nov 29 16:14:30 PST 2006


On 11/27/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> USA Today - November 27, 2006

> Democratic gains in suburbs spell trouble for GOP
> By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
<<<<<>>>>>

in the summer of 1963 walter heller, chair of the newly established council of economic advisers, suggested to jfk that he should propose an anti-poverty measure to *balance* both the proposed tax cut that would disproportionately benefit the affuent *and* the proposed civil rights bill *for* african-americans, in other words, heller was indicating that the administration needed to do something *for* poor whites...

while jfk apparently expressed interest in meeting a 1960 campaign pledge to *attack poverty* (kennedy's words), he closed the meeting with heller by saying *don't forget to put something in there for the middle-class man in the suburbs* (paraphrase but close to what he actually said)...

heller did not know that jfk's 1964 re-election campaign strategists had informed the prez a week before of the results of a poll they had conducted, their conclusion was that anti-poverty policy would not help kennedy at all because the poor already supported him *and* that the '64 election would be decided in the suburbs... mh



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