When Republicans win, we all lose

As Nicholas Kristoff says in his column in today's NY Times, Kerry supporters "should be feeling wretched about the millions of farmers, factory workers and waitresses who ended up voting--utterly against their own interests--for Republican candidates." Kristoff says that one of the Republican Party's major successes over the past few decades has been to persuade many of the working poor to vote for tax breaks for billionaires.

How did this happen? Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat, says, ""The Republicans are smarter. They've created...these social issues to get the public to stop looking at what's happening to them economically. What we once thought--that people would vote in their economic self-interest--is not true, and we Democrats haven't figured out how to deal with that."

Well, Democrats had better figure out a way to deal with that, if they hope to ever win back this once-democratic country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/opinion/03kris.html?th