The tipping point at which a white voter became more likely to vote in a congressional race for a Republican over a Democrat was $23,700 — “not that far above the poverty line.”
In 2000, national security didn’t loom large, but Al Gore still lost the middle class by 2 points and the white middle class by 15 points. In 1996, when Bill Clinton had defused hot-button issues by signing welfare-reform and tough-on-crime initiatives, congressional Democrats still lost middle-class and white-middle-class voters by 3 points and 12 points, respectively. It was in that year that Bill Clinton had the best Democratic performance among middle-class voters in three decades by winning them by a mere one point.
For the Democrats, the Dust Bowl is ever-blowing. Their economic message is perpetually premised on pessimism and decline (John Kerry: “Our great middle class is shrinking.”), together with promises of economic security and the flaying of big business (Al Gore: “Powerful interests stand in your way.”). None of this resonates with a public that knows it lives in a rich, wide-open country.
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I think this speaks to how Democrats get votes. They have to make people feel like victims first, and then they have to exploit that victimhood for votes. That's why we hear endlessly from Democrats about the "broken economy." They want Americans to feel victimized so they can be seen as the heroes who are going to save everyone from being victims.
It works with more than just the economy too. Look at agriculture aid in farm states. Democrats (and even some Republicans) make the farmers victims by promising to bring those farmers aid and subsidies every year but never actually fixing the root problems that cause these farmers to need that aid and subsidization.
If Democrats would focus on empowering individuals rather than dividing people into groups of victims and then using the government they'd be a lot more successful politically, I think, and their policies would certainly be better for this country.