ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by identifying what seems to be the root cause for middle-class hostility toward government in general, and toward the Democratic Party in particular, and then follows with a discussion of how the party has tried to respond to this growing hostility. It evaluates the success of the Democrats' response. The area with some predictive power for Bill Clinton versus Perot voting has to do with the actual economic experience of voters as opposed to their survey responses about economic conditions. Essentially the same finding holds up in a multivariate context, with an antigovernment response being a strong predictor of voting for Perot over Clinton. The chapter concludes with a consideration of whether and how further steps might be taken to restore middle-class faith in activist government.
