Many of us were pleased and relieved to see American flags waving at the Berlin speech. Why? When Bush framed the world as being "either with us or against us," not only Europeans, but also Americans took sides. This fear based, either or way of thinking has been fanned and fed for eight years, and if we underestimate it, or approach it with only derision and logic, we could lose.
We may need to go beyond railing against the MSM for not treating our message fairly and respectfully listen and talk with EVERYONE we see and know in our daily lives. And, we may need to look at and learn from Hillary Clinton’s successful ability to reach out and regain Reagan-Democrats. And, we need to stand beside and sincerely with rural and Appalachian America -- to face distrust, fear, hopelessness, and sometimes, hateful opinions -- to find common ground and shared interests.
When people are afraid, there is a natural, human tendency for our decision-making to become less rational. We are biologically programmed for fight or flight, either-or decision-making, and an US verses THEM perspective when we think we are in danger. Over the last eight years, Americans have been encouraged to stay at yellow, emergency levels of anxiety, and now, the economy and wide-spread number of natural disasters has many at a very real, red-level state of personal emergency.
When you add eight years of consumerism, circus cable entertainments, Pro-life polarization, and destruction/ distraction of public education by NCLB, our electorate has become not only more afraid and anxious, but also less equipped and practiced in responding with critical thinking and rational decision-making.
FDR was a hero to the people of Appalachia and rural America. He understood his constituency, and he understood that he needed to reach out to Americans to encourage them with not only sweeping rhetorical lines like, "the only thing we need to fear is fear itself," but also needed to respectfully and intimately discuss and educate them with Fire-side Chats, day-after-day, week-after week. Note the title he gave to his discussions with the American public – Fireside Chats – and the mode of communication he used, the radio.
The Progressive Movement has largely left the airwaves to THEM (except for wonderful folks like Rachael Maddow), and decided to simply write off the ditto-heads as being hopelessly clueless. But, aren’t the ditto-heads FDR’s former constituency? Have we arrogantly become the disconnected, arrogant, smarty-pants, elite who look down on people who take a certain pride in managing their hard earned dollars by fixing Velveeta mac-n-cheese and jello-salad dinners?
There is no doubt that Obama has reached the 21st century youth vote and libural voters via the internet and technology, but how are we reaching out to the rest of the people who used to be part of our economic self-interest constituency?
FDR and Eleanor went into the hills of Appalachia and sat with people as they enjoyed their music and sat down to eat. Hillary and Bill Clinton knew to do this too, and they succeeded. We wail and rail about how can the PUMA’s not see that Obama and Clinton’s positions on the issues were just about the same?
We need to stop thinking that people are just THINKING. We need to compassionately and humbly understand that a lot of people are so stressed out and pushed to the edge that they are in a constant state of EITHER/ OR mode where they are primarily FEELING first and just trying to hang on. Obama does "get this," but his effort to try to explain it in SF with the "bitter" explanation fell far short of getting many of us to "get it."
Another anecdote from this week: My husband was talking with a mechanic in rural Ohio who is doing some work for him. The man began talking about politics, and his initial entry in to the conversation was. "I just can’t understand how the Democrats can be so interested in supporting the Gays!" Now, the man could be written off as being a hopeless, homo-phobe, but my husband probed further – to just listen, first.
It turns out, the man didn’t actually hate homosexuals, he just couldn’t understand why the Democrats seemed to care MORE about gays than they did about him and folks like him and their issues. He wanted to know why HIS issues were "invisible" while the damn, Dems could be all fired-up and standing up for some rich, gay guys getting married in SF.
His issues? Clear mountain-top mining in Appalachia that are ruining the "hills back home." How big Agri-business and Environmental Activists are regulating small, subsistence farmers into bankruptcy and off their land. Why the Dems were against drilling, when he needed anything and everything to be done to get gas prices down. City folks have those nice street cars and subways, but rural people have long country roads, pick-ups and tractors. And, why are the Dems always interested in taking away his hunting rifle? Healthcare, or the lack of it, had him willing to still listen to the Dems, but damn it, don’t the Dems care about how the few jobs that had been left in AK at the poultry processing plants have now gone to illegal immigrants (foreign scabs as far as these children and grandchildren of UNION Miner and Mill workers are concerned.)
I don’t know the answers to this, but I’d like to encourage a fuller discussion of it. I'd like to hear what others' in swing states, rural communities and Appalachia are hearing. I'd like to hear other ideas for how we might connect with other voters in red- or red-leaning states.