I come from a white working class family. My Dad never finished school, my mom, although very bright, couldn't afford college during the depression. So they were working class white voters but they consistently voted Democratic.
Why? Because Democrats spoke an economic message which captured their allegiance. Today, though, it is very seldom that an economic message from Democrats is reported in the media. The media is much more likely to report cultural war stories than economic stories.
Compare, for example, the amount of time being spent on the media over Roberts Supreme Court nomination with the battle over CAFTA. If you go to www.google.com and type in Roberts and Supreme Court nomination as keywords you get 9,500 hits, but if you type in CAFTA you get 3,500 hits.
Why is this happening? Because people in the media are generally doing better than working class people and don't really care about economic concerns like job protection, healthcare availability, and wage growth. They do care about abortion, gay rights, and the environment. Hence those stories get reported.
Therefore if you are a working class white male you end up with the impression that Democrats care more about abortion and gay rights than protecting you and your family's income, healthcare, and way of life. It is the media's focus on cultural war issues that is hurting the Democratic party. But that is not the only reason.
Quick, how many Democratic politicians make economic issues their main focus when dealing with the media? Not very many. Yet failure to do so is costing us votes and losing us elections.