Will ‘Reagan Democrats’ revolt?

Will ‘Reagan Democrats’ revolt?

In this gritty Jersey town, home to chemical plants, two major oil refineries and a General Motors assembly line, no one ever breathes easy. When Franklin Roosevelt visited in the mid-1930s and promised to turn the skies “black with progress,” he was true to his word. Yet Linden did breathe a sigh of relief recently when the United Auto Workers won an agreement from GM to keep the aging Chevy Blazer assembly line open four more years. “It’s a reprieve, not a stay of execution,” says Guy Messina, president of UAW Local 595.

WHEN EVEN good news is greeted with such pessimism, there is trouble afoot. Political analysts say the fatalism gripping workers here and in countless other American manufacturing towns is a threat to George W. Bush’s re-election and a sign that the vaunted “Reagan Democrats” who crossed party lines a generation ago may be shopping around again.

Since Reagan’s 1980 election victory, the votes of manufacturing workers and their families, unionized or not, have trended increasingly Republican in presidential races. This predominantly male, Roman Catholic, Rust Belt constituency cheered the New Deal but rejected the Democrats in droves during the 1970s and 1980s. Endowed with a deep skepticism for the kind of bespectacled intellectuals so dear to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, these so-called Reagan Democrats have regularly crossed lines ever since to support the GOP candidate and throw states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan into the GOP column.

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http://www.msnbc.com/news/980129.asp?0si=-

The 80's are over.

a Republican-coined term, no doubt, out of the Karl Rove/Lee Atwater School of Political Distraction and Deception

((and, of course, some Democrats fell for it -- I've read 'I voted for Reagan' confessions at DU))

LOL

They voted for Clinton and stuck with Gore for the most part.

Reagan dems is GM plants. No way. Reagan dems were union people who work in industries that benefit from Conservative governmnet, like Defense. Reagan also benefited from those who stopped voting. I don't think it matters whether they buck because probably 40% are dead.

It's predominantly working-class, union, and tends to vote its pocketbook more than any ideology.

Kucinich has won re-election from the district repeatedly, with ever-increasing margins of victory. In 2002, he won with 75% of the vote, and even got 50% of the Republican vote. He has also been a great defender of the steel industry in Cleveland, protecting it from shutdown due to uncompetitively priced imports.

Kucinich is also the only candidate who is a union member. His voice on the destructiveness of our trade agreements has stood out from the throng of "get along, go along" platforms of the majority of the candidates. He's also from a humble background, very similar to the so-called "Reagan Democrats": his dad was a Teamster, and died with his first retirement check in his pocket, uncashed.

In a bad economy, people are going to vote with their wallets, no matter what bigger issues the Republicans can concoct. We truly need a candidate who is different from the rest, who stands up for workers and families, and who is NOT AFRAID to go head-to-head with the big corporate interests who want to make this country an oligarchy. Kucinich has done this all his life.

They'll vote for *****.