Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award
Cross posted from JohnEdwards.com
http://blog.johnedwards.com/story/2007/8/22/2257/96266#7
Populism: The Key to Victory
user icon Saje Williams in Arguments & Analyses Feed of
8/22/2007 at 11:03 AM EST
What we're faced with in the Neocons is a group of people who embrace an ideology that believes that the "free market" can decide economic issues, that anyone who cannot thrive in the "free market" deserves what they get, and that conservative religious "values" should be the driving force behind any political change.
They call themselves conservative, but they did not act to conserve ANYTHING, but, instead, acted to return the United States to a economic state that existed before FDR's New Deal that gave Americans opportunities their grandparents and great grandparents never had. They acted to steal away the hope of those they were elected and appointed to serve to the advantage of a select few.
We all know what the neo-cons represent. They represent the darkest side of American politics. The "I've got mine and to hell with everyone else" philosophy. They represent the "we know best and the rest of you are just rabble to scrape off our shoes" ideology.
They believe that the wealthy and powerful should have more access to government, that the guy flipping burgers at the local fast food joint, or the girl cutting hair in the beauty salon, don't have anything to offer in terms of political insight. The construction worker and the secretary are simply votes to harvest, not active minds to call upon for ideas.
And it's not just the neocons that feel this way. We hear echoes of that when the DLC speaks ill of the bloggers, when the corporate media sneers down at those of us on the digital fringes because we have the nerve to raise our voices to assail our "betters."
We are the great unwashed, the unelect, the uninformed. Our views are, at best, suspect. At worse, they're the product of some "class warfare" brainwashing.
But, in fact, we are the "boots on the ground" when it comes to democracy in action. We are those who live and work everyday with the people who make up the largest percentage of Americans--the people who aren't investors, who move the economy by donating their labor, not pure capital. We are the base of the pyramid on which everything else is built.
We're tired of being ignored. We're tired of being used, being lied to, being taken for granted. We're tired of being downsized, watching our jobs being sent overseas to the advantage of the corporations, we're tired of falling ill and having to mortgage our souls to get medical care. We're tired of being played for fools.
We're speaking out, and we're getting louder all the time.
And we're never going away.
There is only one candidate who's speaking to us, who is telling us that we matter, and speaking in such a way that those who have been misled into voting Republican for the past several years can hear and understand. He stands there and says "I have been where you are, and I know you feel as though none of us hear your voice."
They attack his career, which was predicated on facing the giants on behalf of the little people, acting as though the rest of us should feel any sort of protective instinct toward the goliaths that use us and give us as little as possible in return.
They attack his hair, and his home, and make him out to be some kind of fringe lunatic, but his voice speaks to people who don't feel they've been heard by everyone else who's gone up to Washington. Yeah, he's a rich guy. But he comes across as though he is listening to the concerns of those who aren't in his social class. And that's something that a lot of politicians simply cannot and do not do.
Talking to everyday people about their financial concerns, in a way that every single one of them can grasp, is the ONLY thing that can effectively counter the religious wedge issues the Repugs draw out during every election cycle. People NEED hope, need to believe that they're sending someone up to Washington that understands their issues, and will work to resolve them.
When Edwards pulls into a small town and speaks to the crowd, people walk away with the impression that "that guy knows what it's like to be me. To be here."
Despite everything the corporate media is doing to dilute his message, he's getting it out there to the people who most need to hear it. And, with any luck, that will help turn the tide when the general election actually comes. Even if HE is not the candidate in the end. He SHOULD be, but we all know how the game is played.
But the others need to reach out with this message as well. Obama already is, and he's doing a good job of it.
It's not liberalism, as such, the people will embrace first. It's populism. The fact that many of the same ideals drive both ideologies will help in the long run. But first the people have to be told, and actually believe, that THEY matter.
That Everybody Matters.
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