Prometheus 6

And the money quote is:
"The realization is growing rapidly among low-income Americans that their interests are not just being neglected but are under assault."

COLUMBIA, S.C.

Henry Fernandez, who had come down from Connecticut to join other activists from around the country, was giving instructions to the busload of volunteers.

He said: "The first thing you ask is, `Are you registered to vote?' If they answer yes, don't believe them."

The volunteers laughed. Mr. Fernandez smiled, but he hammered the point home: "Even if they think they're registered, they may have been purged. You can say, `We suggest you register again to make sure your registration is up to date.' "

One of the biggest reasons politicians continue to trample on issues of crucial importance to low-income Americans - issues like jobs, education and access to health care - is the traditionally poor voting habits of that segment of the population. The percentage of people who vote (and the level of attention they get from politicians) rises steadily as you scale the income ladder.
South Carolina is a state with plenty of poor people. The Bush recovery went right by the Palmetto State without even stopping to wave. "It's like a depression down here," said Wilbur Collins, an unemployed factory worker. "The plants are closing so fast, the workers don't have no place to go."

Parts of South Carolina are economic wastelands. The jobless rate in some counties is approaching 20 percent. The median income for blacks, statewide, is less than $15,000, and for whites, less than $30,000.

The anxiety over the absence of work is pervasive, and in some cases heartbreaking. At a forum attended by all of the Democratic presidential candidates except Joseph Lieberman, a woman named Elaine Johnson told Senator John Edwards about her son, Darius. She said she gave Darius three choices: go to college, get a job or join the military. He tried college, but that didn't work out. "He wasn't ready for college," his mother said. He couldn't find a job. So he joined the Army and was killed in Iraq.

Ms. Johnson told Senator Edwards that young people should go into the military because they really want to, not because they've been unable to find a civilian job.

The candidates forum was sponsored by the Center for Community Change, an organization that was started more than three decades ago by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Fund and that is now coordinating the activities of local groups from around the country in an effort to sharply increase the political clout of low-income people. The cornerstone of that effort is an ambitious national campaign to register and mobilize two million new voters.

The idea is to make low-income voters a force too strong to be ignored. A recent study commissioned by the center showed that small increases in voting by low-income people could be decisive in several strategically important states.

Most Americans are unaware of the extent of the suffering that has fallen on the bottom 20 percent or so of the population. Many low-income Americans are leading lives of grim and sometimes painful determination, struggling to survive from one day to the next. The contrast between the real lives of families sinking beneath the weight of economic distress and the headlines that continue to insist that the economy is doing famously is extraordinary.

"There are no jobs that can sustain you," said Fran Ruff, a Columbia resident who has three children and is trying to work her way to a college degree that she hopes will lead to a better life. "We're not living lavishly, but I'd like to be able to buy some snacks and go to a movie once in a while. All you can really get around here is a retail job, or maybe a job in an office. And just as a temp, with no benefits. It's awful."

The realization is growing rapidly among low-income Americans that their interests are not just being neglected but are under assault.

Deepak Bhargava, the center's director, said: "We want to convert the anger that people feel, and the pain, which is really extraordinary in this community, into a sustained campaign of political involvement. And that means registering people to vote and getting them to the polls."

I tagged along as the volunteers filed off the bus behind Mr. Fernandez. Filled with enthusiasm and good cheer, they began knocking on doors in a public housing project, doing their part in a difficult effort to coax enough people out of the shadows to bring change to a government that barely acknowledges their existence.