It'll take a lot more than just explaining our policies (5.00 / 2)

There is a big swath of America that feels alienated from the Democratic party. They think that Democrats don't understand them, that we have contempt for their way of life, and that we don't care about them at all. In some ways they're right. Many of our spokesmen don't understand them and are contemptuous. (We do care about their well-being, but once it's clear that we don't respect them, they don't stick around to listen.)

The dominant faces of the Democratic party are often minorities, are often women, are often intellectuals, and often care most about abstractions like global warming or electronic eavesdropping. None of this speaks to Joe Sixpack.

We're not very good at faking respect. We're (rightly!) alarmed at the spread of the nonsense being peddled by Fox, whether it's about denying climate change or about the "war on Christmas". We don't want our schools to substitute preaching for teaching biology. And when we meet people who do think that the biggest threats to the US come from Sharia law, from gun control, and from the UN, we either laugh at them or shout at them.

On the issues, we're right and they're wrong. But until we find ways to talk with them as equals, or at least to fake respect as well as the Republican demagogues do (they're just as contemptuous but provide great lip service to Traditional American Values), we won't be heard.  

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by: LSadun @ Thu Nov 29, 2012 at 00:08:31 AM UTC