More questions and answers on independent political movements: labor political muscle -- some questions from the mine workers.

More Questions and Answers on Independent Political Movements:

JOURNAL: In recent years, it's become fashionable for political consultants to downplay appeals to the labor movement and ordinary working people in campaigns. They point to victories by people like Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Brian Mulroney, and argue that politicians should be more concerned with trying to woo moderate Republicans and the yuppie vote.

But you are - a Washington "insider" and political consultant - saying that a straightforward appeal to working people's interests can win elections. Why is that?

FINGERHUT: Because it is true. To put it in terms of political parties, every poll we've taken in the past 20 years has shown that if the Democratic Party aimed its message at working and middle-income Americans - stressing issues like health care, Social Security, taxing the big corporations - then it would win elections.

But what has happened? In the last three presidential elections in the United States, for example, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis actually avoided speaking to those issues, and they all got killed.

JOURNAL: Some people would argue that Carter, Mondale and Dukakis lost because they are identified too closely with unions and working people, and point to things like Dukakis being labelled a "liberal" to explain those election defeats.

FINGERHUT: I think Dukakis made a mistake by even engaging in a "liberal-versus-conservative" discussion. He should have done what Harry Truman did in 1948 - make a contest between "Democrats who represent working people" and "Republicans who represent the big corporations."