Word: blue-collar
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...issues have such visceral appeal to workers as the plant-closing provision. Mike Dukakis, with his promotion of high-tech growth and labor management cooperation, has had some trouble convincing blue-collar voters that he can represent their interests. His declaration of support for the plant closing measure should go far in reasserting the Democrats' former hold on the blue-collar vote. Dukakis' support of the plant closing measure would serve notice that he represents the party of compassion, and Bush the party of privilege...
Dukakis worked hard in the state to quell party leaders' fears over his ability to fend off Jackson and attract blue-collar votes, particularly after the governor's poor showings in Illinois and Michigan last month. His victory seems likely to reassure establishment leaders, many of whom fear that Jackson would sink the party if he won the nomination...
Dukakis must do well in Michigan to prove, finally, that he can attract the Democrats' core blue-collar constituency. He has the endorsement of former U.A.W. President Douglas Fraser and a bulging wallet, but still no ability to generate much emotional attachment. Detroit Mayor Coleman Young's halfhearted quasi-endorsement is likely to hurt the Massachusetts Governor as much as help him. Says State Democratic Committee Member Morley Winograd: "It won't get him any white votes, in fact it could cost him white votes in the Detroit suburbs, and the black vote will go to Jesse...
...that perception is that the Reagan agenda was dynamic, not static. At its most expansive, when Reagan was still burning at full power, it reached beyond the confines of the traditional Republican minority. Kemp, far more than Bush, attempted to preach a sermon of inclusion aimed at blacks, Hispanics, blue-collar families and other blocs normally considered Democratic property. Partly because of his own failings as a candidate, partly & because he never untangled his jumbled economic theories into a clear line, Kemp was unable to stretch Reagan's populist-tinted conservatism into the future...
...Suddenly the stiffly serious Gore began larding his speeches with nonstop promises to "put the White House back on the side of working men and women." There was nothing wrong with the sentiment except that Gephardt, Gore's main rival in the South, had long been telling the same blue-collar voters, "It's your fight...