As reported by the AP today, most Americans see the GOP as being out of touch with the problems facing the vast majority of us. Sadly, the Democrats, too, appear to be as out out touch as their counterparts. No one is making noise about the greatest casualty of this administration, the American worker.

If the Democrats, and those of us who want progressive social change want to win the midterm election in less than 2 months, as well as the presidential election in less than 2 years, then we'd better stop talking about torture and terror, and start focusing on Ford's recent announcement that it plans to cut 1/3 of its workforce, as well as a cost of living that has skyrocketed such that life in America is no longer affordable for the the vast majority of us. The Democrats play right into the opposition party's hands when they allow issues that don't immediately address the needs of those they hope to represent to deflect attention away from the growing disparity in income, as well as the ongoing erosion of the middle class.

Make no mistake, economic disenfranchisement is at least as important as voter disenfranchisement, and the party that has historically come to the rescue of the poor, and hungry will find itself exiled to the trunk of an abandoned Prius unless it gets into first gear, and addresses the anxiety of the masses, in this country, who suffer angst from ongoing financial uncertainty. While Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rice make engaging targets, they do an equally compelling job of deflecting attention away from their neo-Con agenda which is election-proof. It is a platform that perpetuates wealth, and abandons equal opportunity that must be vigilantly opposed, and exposed; anything less is surrender. Moreover, any party that hopes to defeat the neanderthal right can only do so by acknowledging those they wrong.

The key to victory, in November, is no different now than it was when Bill Clinton ran against Bush Senior. Yet again, "It's the economy, stupid," and anything that distracts us from the core issues of the American worker will quell any chance for substantive, and lasting, social change now, and in years to come.

After nearly a decade of the "terror men," this is no time for the hollow men; it has never been more important for the Democrats to keep their eye squarely on the ball, and listen to the pain and outrage of those it has traditionally served