Actually it is much worse than the above indicates, because it isn't focused on the right place.
The democratic party is only as strong as it political professionals that work for the party during an election.
I know inside the beltway people who use to work for either in the offices of democratic congressmen on or as committee staff of democratic party controlled congressional committess. These types of people went from either staff for a single elected official to staff of a committee to partronage assignments when the Dem's controlled the whitehouse. They are fighting between themselves for fewer and fewer jobs in the DC area.
To make maters worse the old standby alternative, lobbying, has now under solid Republican control of the legislative and executive branches closed a lot of doors to Democrat lobbiests.
This is forcing a lot of the professional political party hacks/workers to go back to the states they came from and try to either get "real jobs" or to force them into small time (i.e. small salary) local partisan politicial jobs back home. They as a group are not happy campers and discussed that the party they have devoted much of their life to can no longer provide them with a "decent" standard of living.
These folks have been hanging on hoping that a Democrat will get elected to the whitehouse so that they can get partronage jobs in the executive branch. Many have taken out second mortgages to work in the Kerry Campaign or have been hammered by party officials to donate a significant amount of their salary from congressional staff jobs to the Kerry election campaign. If the Dem's loose more seats in the House and Senate and the winers cut back on partisan committee staff and the Executive branch stays in the hands of Republicans, you will see a mass migration out of the Washington DC area in November.
To make maters worse the old standby alternative, lobbying, has now under solid Republican control of the legislative and executive branches closed a lot of doors to Democrat lobbyists. This is forcing a lot of the professional political party hacks/workers to go back to the states they came from and try to either get "real jobs" or to force them into small time (i.e. small salary) local partisan political jobs back home. They as a group are not happy campers and discussed that the party they have devoted much of their life to can no longer provide them with a "decent" standard of living.
I don't think that's sound financial reasoning at all. That's almost as bad as taking out second mortgage to get money to bet on horse races.
Excellant analysis and spot on if I may say so!
actually many of those are finding jobs as candidate consultants. The Election industry is big business now.
But this does point out another consideration for voting blocks. If they support the democrat candidate they WILL have no voice in the republican controlled congress. If they support a republican, they will have a voice. (assuming they are compatable with republican platforms)
But aren't the Republicans spending like drunken sailors?