Ohioans with an Annual Income of Less Than $50,000

Many Democrats are asking: "What went wrong?"

A simple economistic analysis of the voting pattern can tell you what is to be done:

VOTE BY INCOME
Income	Bush	Kerry
Less Than $50,000 (48%)	42%	58%
$50,000 or More (52%)	58%	42%

Source: CNN.com, "Election Results"

Ohioans whose annual income is less than $50,000 voted against Bush by a margin of 16% (Ohioans whose annual income is $50,000 or more voted for Bush by exactly the same margin), but they constituted only 48% of the Ohioans who voted. The difference is clear, stark, and easy to grasp.

Promise working-class voters a pro-working-class program featuring public works jobs, universal health care, and an end to the Iraq War, use exciting ballot initiatives (e.g., universal health care) to raise the turnout of less-than-$50,000-a-year voters by 3-4.5% (according to Caroline J. Tolbert, John A. Grummel, and Daniel A. Smith's research, "the presence and usage of the initiative process is associated with higher voter turnout in both presidential and midterm elections. The disparity in turnout rates between initiative and noninitiative states has been increasing over time, estimated at 7% to 9% higher in midterm and 3% to 4.5% higher in presidential elections in the 1990s" ["The Effects of Ballot Initiatives on Voter Turnout in the American States," American Politics Research 29.6, November 2001]), and you are on your way to a victory.

The thing is, though, that the Democratic Party would never do any such thing.

That's why we need to create an alternative to it, by any means necessary, ballots or streets.