In the middle of yet another meeting with my boss I blurted out: people vote their aspiration not their situation. I think I was right.
A concern I have with general Democratic vernacular is that our populism talks about the evils of wealth. We talk about how those who have are benefitting while "you who are without" are suffering. That's reasonable if people expect to maintain the status of downtrodden little guy. But how well does that work when everyone seems to think that they are just around the corner from success. Lakoff argues that people vote against their economic interest quite often, because they vote their hopes and aspirations. Republicans offer policies that will "make everyone a king." And we talk about the evils of monarchy. It comes across as though we don't believe in people's dreams. Certainly most dreams are unrealizable, but the power of progressive politics is that they enable people to improve their lives. So instead of saying that the tax cuts are bad because they help the wealthy. Let's talk about how we Democrats believe in people. We believe that your work is worthwhile and that you should earn more. A family should be able to earn enough with one job, so we should raise the minimum wage. Then those who oppose us are standing in the way of the aspirations of the working class folks.
The best example of aspiration comes from religion. My feeble understanding of Christianity is that for many the bargain is: you're going to be poor but in the next life you'll be treated as a king. It's the same bargain the Republicans offer. You're getting shat upon now, but if you work hard and are a good person you could be a king in the times to come. We are basically saying....it's not true. You're getting screwed. You're going to be screwed. Things are rough. Don't you hate those wealthy folks. Sure they hate the wealthy, but they hope to someday be wealthy.
I don't have a great way of operationalizing all this. But I think we have to stop fighting greed with tools that suggest we are against people's natural aspiration to want wealth and a better life. We want people to be able to achieve their dreams, but I think our words suggest we have little confidence in their goals.
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5 comments:
Welcome Dan.
So I guess it was wishful thinking to hope that we'd left behind the notion of the deserving vs. undeserving poor. Do you think that people really process the cognitive dissonance that the Kozlowski event creates when placed next to the Rumsfeld quote from yesterday. I wonder if most people see those things as related.
I like the idea (for moral and political reasons) of increased pay for troops and better access to the VA upon return. Since few if any Democratic provisions are likely to make it into law, this seems the time to make bold policy suggestions. We're playing with monopoly money, nothing we propose is going to have the force of law.
On the monopoly money point...I was more saying that 15 progressive senators could sign on. We don't have to worry about getting enough to pass things. So instead of making our compromises to water it down, we can go in guns blazing. You're right we can propose that we get our troops body armor, we don't need bridges in Selma tacked on.
One thing that I think has gone unsaid here - correct me if I'm wrong, I read it all very quickly - is not so much that progressives have said "You're getting screwed" - though that's part of that - but that they've offered a change. Offering a change is scary, because embracing it means that you are acknowledging things are bad - which opens up a whole Pandora's box of potential psychic trauma, of which "wealth as virtue" is a very significant part (i.e., the rapid jump from "I want change"/"things are bad" to, "I'm poor," which means virtuelss).
At the same time, reform is a pretty effective narrative, as the GOP has so usefully shown us these last 10 years. So the challenge is to use the corruptions of the current system - Dan, I think you're right about the corporate excess, esp. as the Indian Gaming scandal develops - to present the GOP as the bums who need kicking out, and creating the right level of unease in people (not TOO much - as I was trying to say above, I don't think people really WANT to realize when they're getting their shit kicked for real [as opposed to invisible terrorist threats]), directed squarely at the GOP's fat asses.
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