political commentators, trying to explain how reagan had won by such a large margin, coined the term "reagan democrat" to describe a democratic voter who had voted for reagan in 1980 and 1984 (as well as for george h. w. bush in 1988), producing their landslide victories. they were mostly white, blue-collar and were attracted to reagan's social conservatism on issues such as abortion and to his hawkish foreign policy. stan greenberg, a democratic pollster, concluded that reagan democrats no longer saw democrats as champions of their middle class aspirations, but instead saw it as being a party working primarily for the benefit of others, especially african americans and social liberals.