Another Myth Busted

The Republican party has always been portrayed as the party of the rich--drinking martini's and smoking fat cigars. By contrast, the Democrats have always been portrayed as the party of the blue collar types--union tradesmen, beer drinking and hard working. It has always been a myth of course but one that was perpetuated through the media and by Democrats themselves.

Well, it turns out that that myth is totally wrong:

Democrats like to define themselves as the party of poor and middle-income Americans, but a new study says they now represent the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional districts.

In a state-by-state, district-by-district comparison of wealth concentrations based on Internal Revenue Service income data, Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, found that the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional jurisdictions were represented by Democrats.

I know it comes as no shock to anyone who's been paying even scant attention but there is a change that has been going on in the GOP. The blue-collar worker has become more Republican than Democrat. The reasons are many but include the decline of union membership, the effect of environmental regulations on the construction industry and the wussification of the Democratic party.

Unions were at one time a major force in the US--that time is past. Where you had the strength of the United Auto Workers, Teamsters and the AFL-CIO, you now have major corporations paying decent wages so that the unions are not needed anymore. The unions have always supported Democrats.

As for environmental regulations, ask anyone in the constrcution industry how easy it is to get permits for new construction. Ask them how many projects have been held up because a single snail-darter or timber rattlesnake was found near the project site. How many construction jobs were not completed because of wetlands regulations? Limited construction means limited work for carpenters, electricians, HVAC workers, painters, masons and landscapers. The Democrats are home to the environmentalists who believe that any construction is evil.

And finaly the "wussification" of the Democrat party is another major factor. Your average middle-class guy watched as two 110-story buildings collapsed in lower Manhattan because of terrorism and said to himself "it's time to roll up the sleeves, straighten up the spine and get to kcikin' ass." The GOP is the party that did that. The average upper-class guy said that "we ought not to rush to war, we ought to figure out the root causes as to why they hate us and we should enlist the help of the UN and France or not go in." That's the tack the Democrats took and one they still cling to. The blue collar guy calls that "being a wussy."

The blue collar guy sees Democrats calling for open borders and sees his job being done cheaply by illegal immigrants and it pisses him off. He takes note that the GOP rank and file is anti-illegal immigration.

So we had a change, the liberal elites who make six figures as professors and lawyers are now the upper class or the rich. The middle class can't really relate to them or their lines of thinking and thus are either registered Independent or Republican. Now we see that the party of the rich is in fact the party that still talks the talk on fighting poverty but is in fact the party that is most removed from the daily struggles of being poor.