what do the Democrats offer to the poor?

Why have a blog again? Well, to resume linking to Political Animal, of course. Here Kevin is passing along a story that profiles a famous southern consultant to the Democrats, David "Mudcat" Saunders. The post offers a pretty powerful breakdown, I think, of what's wrong with the Democratic condescension to southerners and others they accuse of voting "against their economic interest."

The money quote:

Seriously now, try to answer this question in a concrete way: if you were an average joe in a rural part of the South or the Midwest, how would it help you to vote for a Democrat? What would you get out of it?

A higher minimum wage? Maybe, but even in the rural South most people already make more than the minimum wage. Medicare and Social Security? They already exist. Money for roads? Republicans do that too. More labor friendly laws? That doesn't resonate much in the South, and in any case they probably don't believe that Dems can deliver on that anyway.

There are marginal differences, to be sure. Kerry's health care plan would be better for these folks than medical savings accounts. But only marginally so. The Dems need to get back to making (and keeping) big promises to improve people's lives. It's not enough to merely say that hope is on the way. We've gotta call up hope, find out exactly where it is and give it specific directions as to how to get here.