Nothing is the Matter With Kansas

Thomas Frank in his book, What's the Matter with Kansas? he is flummoxed about why the so-called American heartland vote against their economic interests when they vote "God, Guns, and Gays" social issues.

Well, over at MoJo, Kevin Drum notes that any serious analysis, "Democrats have done virtually nothing for the middle class in 30 years."

He's right.  The  Democrat Party's record on economic for the middle class, and the poor is amazingly weak tea when compared to anyone but the Republicans:

There are two problems with the Democratic approach. First, it's too abstract to appeal to anyone. Second, it's not true anyway. Democrats simply don't consistently support concrete policies that help the broad working and middle classes. Half of them voted for the bankruptcy bill of 2005. They've done virtually nothing to stem the growth of monopolies and next to nothing to improve consumer protection in visible ways. They don't do anything for labor. They're soft on protecting Social Security. They bailed out the banks but refused to bail out underwater homeowners. Hell, they can't even agree to kill the carried interest loophole, a populist favorite if ever there was one.

Sure, Democrats do plenty for the poor. They support increases in the EITC and the minimum wage. They support Medicaid expansion. They passed Obamacare. They support pre-K for vulnerable populations. They expanded CHIP. But virtually none of this really benefits the working or middle classes except at the margins.

Democrats have been unwilling to do any more than nibble around the edges for years.

It's all about extracting large donations from rich people, which requires that you support policies that make them richer and richer, and this money is extracted from the rest of us.