Loss of Middle Class A ‘Crisis’ For Democrats

The Democratic Party, the self-proclaimed defender of the middle class, was trounced by Republicans among those voters in the 2004 election, according to a Democratic advocacy group that says the party faces “a crisis with the middle class.”

A report released yesterday by Third Way says support for Republicans begins at much lower income levels than researchers had expected: Among white voters, President Bush got a majority of support beginning at an income threshold of $23,300 — about $5,000 above the poverty level for a family of four.

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Although Mr. Bush’s popular-vote margin of victory over Sen. John Kerry in 2004 was less than three percentage points, the Massachusetts Democrat lost the middle class — defined by the report as voters living in households with incomes between $30,000 and $75,000 — by six percentage points. Among white middle-class voters, the gap was 22 percentage points.

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