{"id":7533,"date":"2006-05-28T09:12:23","date_gmt":"2006-05-28T13:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7533"},"modified":"2006-05-28T09:12:23","modified_gmt":"2006-05-28T13:12:23","slug":"sunday-discussion-group-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/sunday-discussion-group-51\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Discussion Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the topic<\/a> was whether Dems should give up on trying to reach Nascar Man. There was a wide range of opinions, to put it mildly. This week, by way of a follow up, let’s take this one step further and consider what Dems would say\/do\/argue\/propose if they were<\/i> going to pursue Nascar Man and those who culturally identify with him.<\/p>\n

Digby, for example, noted<\/a> a popular country song yesterday that seems to capture the “sense of exceptionalism and specialness of southern culture.”<\/p>\n

I’m for the low man on the totem pole, and I’m for the underdog God bless his soul
\nAnd I’m for the guys still pulling third shift, and the single mom raisin’ her kids
\nI’m for the preachers who stay on their knees, and I’m for the sinner who finally believes
\nAnd I’m for the farmer with dirt on his hands, and the soldiers who fight for this land<\/p>\n

And I’m for the Bible and I’m for the flag, and I’m for the working man, me and ol’ hag
\nI’m just one of many, who can’t get no respect — Politically uncorrect<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 2006, working-class populism in the South is wrapped around (1) religion, (2) economic insecurity, (3) respect for the military, and (4) a sense that their culture is under siege from some ambiguous elite.<\/p>\n

Looking back at the last two presidential elections, who’d these folks vote for? The wealthy, Ivy-league educated cheerleader with a criminal record and a history of substance abuse, who avoided military service, and who had never demonstrated a desire to work hard a day in his life. Why? Because they perceive Dems as elite secularists.<\/p>\n

There’s a reasonable case to be made — indeed, many of you made it<\/a> last week — that there isn’t much Dems can do about this right now and should stop trying. But just for the sake of discussion, why kind of Democratic policy agenda items would resonate with the “politically uncorrect”?<\/p>\n

Kevin suggests<\/a> improving private-sector unionization, monetary policies that encourage full employment, national healthcare, and possibly universal access to decent childcare would go a long way. I’d throw in an immediate increase to the minimum wage.<\/p>\n

How about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, the topic was whether Dems should give up on trying to reach Nascar Man. There was a wide range of opinions, to put it mildly. This week, by way of a follow up, let’s take this one step further and consider what Dems would say\/do\/argue\/propose if they were going to pursue Nascar Man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}