Some stats that will no doubt shock some Democrats:

A report released yesterday by Third Way says support for Republicans begins at much lower income levels than researchers had expected: Among white voters, President Bush got a majority of support beginning at an income threshold of $23,300 — about $5,000 above the poverty level for a family of four.

The report says the economic gains of Hispanics have translated into strong Republican gains, as have economic strides across every category, save for black voters.

“As Americans become even modestly wealthier their affinity for Democrats apparently falls off. With middle income voters, it is Democrats — the self-described party of the middle class — who are running far behind Republicans, the oft-described party of the rich,” the report says. …

This month’s issue of Blueprint, a magazine published by the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, has several articles looking at statistics similar to Third Way’s income data, such as Mr. Kerry’s losing married parents of young children by 19 percentage points, taking 40 percent of the group compared with Mr. Bush’s 59 percent. Those parents made up 28 percent of the electorate.

This, of course, comes as no surprise to the informed. It has long been apparent that the Democrat Party has become the party of extremes — the very poor and the very rich. It is no more the party of the middle class then it is the party of “progressives”, no matter how much the “party of no” pretends otherwise.