Description:
If the 1996 presidential election marked the year of the soccer mom, then the 2000 campaign ought to usher in the year of Joe Sixpack, according to Ruy Teixeira and Joel Rogers. Or, at least an early-21st-century version of the white working stiff who was widely viewed as the key to success in American politics between the New Deal and 1980s. "It's next to impossible to cement a dominant electoral coalition without capturing the support of a good share of the forgotten majority"--i.e., the roughly 55 percent of the voting population that is white, earns a moderate income, has a low-rung white collar job or labors in the service industry, and lives in the suburbs. As Teixeira and Rogers admit, this is an incredibly diverse group of people. Yet, the authors claim, they also share common interests--mainly economic--that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans address. America's Forgotten Majority suggests that these folks played a central, if unappreciated, role in the elections of the 1990s, and it proposes some ways both parties might change their approaches to tap this hidden reservoir of votes. Here the authors' own political biases become clear. "We need a new era of strong government--one in which government doesn't sit on the sidelines but makes a serious effort to solve the great national problems that divide Americans from one another," write Teixeira and Rogers. That sounds like the talk of Democrats disaffected by their party's Clinton-era moderations and, indeed, the authors essentially urge Democrats to revive their party's working-class roots. As for the Republicans, Teixeira and Rogers think they ought to act more like Democrats. Until one of the parties remembers the forgotten majority, "Democrats and Republicans will be reduced to 'marketing at the margins'--attempting to cobble together temporary electoral coalitions in a basically unfavorable and dealigned political universe." It's an intriguing analysis, albeit one more suited to Democratic interests than Republican ones. Fans of E.J. Dionne, John Judis, Robert Kuttner, and Robert Reich will want to have a copy of America's Forgotten Majority on their shelves. --John J. Miller
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