I've been fighting the class issue on DU for years now but it seems nothing has changed. From what I've seen on GDP, the chasm has grown even wider and the rhetoric even more hateful.
I wrote this during the Kerry campaign but it's just as relevant today...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1135567&mesg_id=1137628Some simple things first, then some more complex... Edited on Fri Oct-22-04 02:14 PM by theHandpuppet
First of all, its amazing to me just how quickly how so many of those who would describe themselves as "progressives" turn to angry insults and stereotyping when discussing the Appalachian vote. (Not directing that remark at you, BTW.) We as Dems have to kick this kind of blind bigotry right out of our thinking and our vocabulary (and that includes pics of "toothless hillbillies" which accompany so many posts. We're not going to reach ANYONE with such a display of disrespect).
Secondly, you don't have to share the concerns or the "live the lifestyle" (whatever that means) of people in WV to truly understand and address their concerns. I waited through three debates to hear one or both of the candidates address some particular concern that would resonate particularly with West Virginians. Guess who did? Yes, believe it or not it was GEORGE BUSH, with his stated committment to the development of "clean coal technologies". Doesn't matter whether or not the committment was real -- the fact that he even verbalized it put him front and center in the very living rooms of the people of WV in recognizing their concerns in front of a national audience! I couldn't BELIEVE Kerry let him grab that issue and then failed to follow up.
Further, I would fervently hope that President Kerry -- like Robert Kennedy did long ago -- will take up the banner of the poor and disenfranchised in rural America, so we may begin to heal the wounds in this country. Develop programs that will encourage more physicians to practice in rural America, as well as draw our best teachers. Initiate programs that offer Appalachian kids the opportunity to go to college without having to fight on the front lines to earn a dollar (WV disproportionately supplies the US with military recruits). Stop the flight of young people from Appalachia by creating a NEW industry to supplement the old -- companies that are the forefront of alternative energy technologies -- and let the people of West Virginia and Kentucky share in the jobs that can be created by the development of clean coal technologies. Revitalize the railroad industry in this nation, an industry that once provided many a family in Appalachia with their best hope of a well-paying job with benefits. That's just for starters.
Finally, about the crafty way the Repukes have won the media war with so many of these folks.... we know they're all sound byte, which brings up that old saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words". President Kerry should, as one of his first plans of office, schedule a nice, long train trip through Appalachia for his Secretaries of Education, of HHS, Labor, Commerce, of the Interior and the Vice President himself. We're not talking the Orient Express here, but the same kind of grimy train I often took with my father through the back mountains down to places like Beckley and Bluefield. Each of our esteemed Secretaries will be provided with a lunch of white bread and government surplus cheese, as well as one yellow legal pad and a #2 pencil for taking notes. Then they can take a GOOD, LONG HARD LOOK at what it's truly like to be poor and despised and forgotten in America. They will stop the train at places that have no station and talk to REAL people. Sit at their tables, break bread with them. If President Kerry's "Train of Healing" is scheduled for summer, make sure the train has no AC or, if wintertime, that it has no heat. Let it sit on the tracks for a few days with no way out and nowhere to go. Cut off their cell phones to boot, and let them get a real feel for what it's like to suffocate under the weight of isolation. At every stop each of the esteemed Secretaries shall be required to invite one Appalachian family to spend a week with them, in their own tasteful homes, in Washington DC -- all expenses paid. Let these people tell their own stories in front of an apathetic nation.
For upon their return, President Kerry will require the reports of his Secretaries be submitted to an independent commission to be immediately convened upon completion of the "Healing Train Tour". For his part, the President should agree to implement changes to existing programs and/or creation of new programs that will provide the kind of jobs, education and basic health care that will allow these very proud folks the chance to lift themselves up and take part once again in this society. Make the American dream real for them again -- and make it now.
Anyway, that's all I would have to say to our future President (as well as my fellow Dems) on that subject, for what it's worth. Unlike too many others here in WV, I'm either a hopeless optimist or perhaps hopelessly naive to still believe these words will not fall on deaf ears.
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