The American Prospect has a fascinating article about why Democrats keep losing voters. The article is a sneak preview of some new research which shows that Americans do not tune in to economic arguments when they go to vote. From the article:
Looking at the data from 1992 to 2004, Shellenberger and Nordhaus found a country whose citizens are increasingly authoritarian while at the same time feeling evermore adrift, isolated, and nihilistic. They found a society at once more libertine and more puritanical than in the past, a society where solidarity among citizens was deteriorating, and, most worrisomely to them, a progressive clock that seemed to be unwinding backward on broad questions of social equity. Between 1992 and 2004, for example, the percentage of people who said they agree that “the father of the family must be the master in his own houseâ€? increased ten points, from 42 to 52 percent, in the 2,500-person Environics survey. The percentage agreeing that “men are naturally superior to womenâ€? increased from 30 percent to 40 percent. Meanwhile, the fraction that said they discussed local problems with people they knew plummeted from 66 percent to 39 percent. Survey respondents were also increasingly accepting of the value that “violence is a normal part of lifeâ€? — and that figure had doubled even before the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.
And also:
Over the past dozen years, the arrows have started to point away from the fulfillment side of the scale, home to such values as gender parity and personal expression, to the survival quadrant, home to illiberal values such as sexism, fatalism, and a focus on “every man for himself.� Despite the increasing political power of the religious right, Environics found social values moving away from the authority end of the scale, with its emphasis on responsibility, duty, and tradition, to a more atomized, rage-filled outlook that values consumption, sexual permissiveness, and xenophobia. The trend was toward values in the individuality quadrant.
The data is complex and the article should be read in full to understand the above quotes.
One point of the article is that the Democrats who are succeeding in this shifting culture are those who reassure voters that they have a moral yardstick. These are Democrats who can explain their own decision-making to voters and how it derives from a personal ethos. Without this kind of appeal from Democratic leaders, voters will continue to gravitate toward Republican candidates, even if it is at the expense of their own economic and social well-being.
Kmareka.com 
we need politicians to focus on how to make ordinary people’s lives better. there are plenty of publicly moral people out there who are good at shaking your hand while picking your pocket. we have to be wiser in our expectations, to some degree we are getting the kind of politicians we deserve.
A very thought provoking article, but it never satisfactorily addresses the critical question it raises: how can Democrats focus on “bridge values� when the tide of American culture is moving away from liberal ideals? The article’s “moral yardstick� proposal is intended to offer liberals some hope, but it seems painfully apparent to me that if a hedonistic, Social Darwinist ethos is in fact on the rise in this country, then the conservative appeal for individual liberty will surely find greater resonance in the larger culture than the liberal appeal for concerted action in the interest of the common good. The research, I’m afraid, leaves Democrats holding the short end of the “moral yardstick�.
Thanks for your comment, Nth. Clever twist at the end, by the way.
One thing the article said to me was: Democrats are not wily enough. Wily people use whatever tricks (or ‘skills,’ if you prefer) are at their disposal to forward their agenda. It’s unfortunate but the truth is that in politics, we can’t all just be who we are, no matter how boring and wooden that may be, as long as we are good people inside. Fluency in the current style of political discourse is critically important, especially at this juncture, when the democrats are not winning on many fronts and are disappointing their own voters.
As new Democrats try to take the stage in some of the 2006 elections, I would hope they would read the article in The New Prospect and come up with some good material to feed the public so they can compete with the Republican “I rose up from humble roots to become a person of great moral certitude” baloney. Look inside. Find where your personal struggles are. Talk less about your second homes in Nantucket or Newport. Remember not to mention how you think you are “bred to be a leader” due to your life of privilege. Spend a day helping a regular working class family paint their house. Set up a helpline for people trying to figure out medicare. Visit businesses where they are cutting back on pension benefits.
But you’re probably right. The dems don’t stand much of a chance.