A few weeks ago, Ramesh Ponnuru argued that the GOP needs to be seen as the party of the middle-class rather than as the party of the rich. John Sides expects this to be difficult:
In their book Partisan Hearts and Minds, which cites the 1953 poll, political scientists Donald Green, Bradley Palmquist and Eric Schickler argue that people tend to view parties in terms of the parties’ associations with visible social groups, like the rich and poor. This helps account for how we choose a party to identify with; this party will, at least to some extent, comport with our own social identities, whether defined by class, race, religion or other attributes.
Because these images are so durable, a Republican Party that wants to become, as Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam advocate, a party for the working class, faces significant challenges. Party images do not change quickly or easily. They reflect the accretion of political agendas and actions—big and small, symbolic and substantive.
The Dish 