Of Course the Economic Interests of the Majority of Americans are with the Democratic Party (Duh!)

Steve Rose wonders whether the economic interests of the American people are with the Democratic Party.

Of course the economic interests of the American people are with the Democratic Party. Duh.

Republicans seem just as unwilling to cut government spending, but they spend it on defense contracts instead of social programs. And as long as deficits make no electoral impact, there is no reason that Democrats couldn’t call for large tax cuts exclusively for the lower tax brackets. Let the Republicans make the argument for their tax cuts for the rich (instead of our tax cuts for the lower and middle classes) using obscure economic theory while we paint them as reverse robin’ hoods. Of course this depends on the Democrats making a lower-middle tax cut so outlandishly large that the Republicans can’t simply add it on top of the tax cuts for their corrupt corporate cronies. How about upping the ten percent bracket thirty thousand dollars? Or (triple) Sawicky's Simplified Family Credit?

However, the larger point I want to make is that all of this is immaterial. There is almost nothing that can happen to reverse the impression in the minds of the public that Democrats are in favor of large “feel good” government programs like education, healthcare, and retirement security. This is similar to the cognitive momentum built around the idea that Republicans are the party of christianists. What has the Republican leadership done for the pro-life lobby recently? Schiavo? That was a spectacle. No doubt we can turn up some victims of corporate greed to sympathetically parade in front of the cameras. Stem cells? Gay marriage? Sold out on both counts there by Bush. Remember the Gibson interview where Bush said he disagreed with the Republican platform on Gay Unions? And this current SC appointment is certainly not going to go to a “pro-life” Justice. So the christianists have been left with perpetual blue-balls, and yet still follow the Republicans (although I’m hoping the Dems wake up and use this current SC debate to change that). Convincing the dual income household that additional federal education and healthcare spending will help them spend more time with their family will be relatively easy since we actually intend to do that.