Why has the political class demonized the working class?

[Democratic Hawk]

This is my understanding of what has been going on through the Democratic primary cycle.

On the one hand, downscale and lower educated primary voters have gravitated towards Hillary Clinton because she has offered them 'substance'; but, on the other hand, upscale and higher educated voters have gravitated towards Barack Obama because he has offered them a compelling 'vision'. This has led to me to term Clinton's base the 'substantialists' and Obama's base the 'visionaries'

Either way you look at it, Obama as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, moving forward, needs both to coalesce around his candidacy and to do that Obama must as much, of not more, the 'substantialist' on the stump as he has proven the 'visionary'

Lets be clear about one thing; very few of those Clinton primary voters have any real investment in a McCain presidency given the closeness between the two Democrats on the issues

Vision is all well and good but this election will be decided on the issues. Obama's task moving forward is to flesh-out the policy substance that will realise his vision. He must prove to leaners and undecideds that he, and not John McCain, is more in command on the leading issues, and problems, of the day and that it is he who has the best solutions. If Obama he can accomplish that he will be the next president of the United States

Racism, of course, is the great unknown; even if there has been some evidence of it among Democratic primary voters

Although America is a center-right country in that there are more conservatives than there are liberals among the electorate, it is not inconceivable that a center-left progressive majority cannot be forged given the extent to which the right has failed under George W Bush.

Dave

[Democratic Hawk]

America will vote for center-leftists but not leftists. The mistake the democrats make is running leftists and trying to govern as a left party.

Obama is, if anything, a PRAGMATIC progressive and will govern that way; and that, in my opinion, is surely preferable to the idiologically-driven cackhanded incompetence of the conservative Republican incumbent. When the right screws up, the pragmatically progressive center-left deserves its fair shot

He's a realist (pragmatists are); so any one expecting radical leftism, be they supportive of or opposed to Obama is going to be disappointed. Obama would use the best, and most effective, means possible to achieve his political goals. This is just an opinion, of course, and it remains to be seen whether it holds true should he be elected

Right now I'm minded to say that either Obama or McCain would be an improvement on Bush; but I'm not reassured that McCain, who is keen to tell us all that he's a "conservative Republican" would mark a significant enough change of direction

Besides we are feeling the effects of the "credit crunch" this side of the Pond, the fault line of which orginated in a loss of confidence in the US sub-prime mortgage market; so understandably, I'm pretty cold on Bush, a conservative Republican. Nor am I fond of the extent to which America's moral standing has declined and see Obama as being the better bet to raise that standing back to where it belongs. Although this might sound a bit fawning, I can see a President Obama being the best US export since coca-cola . Forward through the 21st century I say

Dave