[lbo-talk] Why the Dems lost the White Working Class

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Oct 22 18:25:58 PDT 2008


On Oct 22, 2008, at 8:28 PM, KJ wrote:


> Just curious how this discussion lines up with the results of the
> latest Pew
> survey on the polls, e.g., an absolute majority for guaranteed
> health care
> (whatever that means, but does sound suspiciously like some version of
> socialised medicine)

Americans are very confused and believe lots of contradictory things. Remember, something like 3/4 of Bush voters in 2004 thought he supported the Kyoto Protocol. But a lot of Americans agreed with Bush when he vetoed the SCHIP child health insurance bill, denouncing it as socialized medicine. You can get them to agree on specific things, but then their support will weaken if you bring up some bullshit principle like "government programs are bad." And they won't vote for candidates who support things they're supposed to like, and vice versa. It's a damned mess.

Doug



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