Democratic Party moves sights from poor to middle class [View All]

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - John Kerry (news - web sites)'s strong courtship of the US middle class marks a new step in the evolution of the Democratic Party, which has moved to broaden its appeal from its generations-old base of the poor and working classes.

For months the presidential candidate has been pitching the middle class as "the moral and economic backbone of this nation," contrasting sharply with the party's image of yesteryear as champion of the underdog.

As the Massachusetts senator prepares to formally accept the nomination at the Democratic convention in Boston next week, some analysts see his candidacy as a further twist in the party's constantly evolving ideology.

"It's very amazing to me that I see them now saying 'We're worried about the middle class,'" said John Jay Douglass, a professor at the University of Houston. "It's as if the poor had disappeared."
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African-American and Latino leaders have been warning the Democrats not to take them for granted, but political experts say that in the final analysis they'll have no choice but to cast their ballots for Kerry.

"George W. Bush isn't going to get very many black votes, and he knows it and Kerry knows it, and therefore they (the Democrats) are going to spend their time and their money elsewhere," said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution think tank.

"Black politicians may be upset by this, but they understand the facts of political life," he said.

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