Reply #2: Humanizing the issue is essential...

[MAlibdem]

It's easy, though wrong, to dismiss the suffering of an adult as a failure on their part not to work hard or be intelligent. It is impossible to dismiss the suffering of a child as the fault of the parents. That's why children can get healthcare from the government much more readily than adults. Because we have this idea that we should take care of children as our own, but not take care of each other as our brothers and sisters. And that's wrong. And we can change that, easily.

Humans will usually point to dispositional factors, innate nature, in another's misfortune while pointing to situational factors in describing their own (thank you psych 1). Thus, we need to explain the situational factors that get people into poverty so that we can get people to understand and identify with them. John Edwards was doing this convincingly in the primaries when he spoke about two Americas. He used the example of a hungry little girl, and he promised her that "Hope is on the way." We MUST be that hope. We MUST champion the cause of those who are left behind.

We have to do this for two reasons. The first is clear: It is the right thing to do. The second is because, electorally, we need to expand and reinforce our base in a way that does not alienate others. This reinforces our black base, we expand in low income voters (where Republicans have been doing better b/c of BS moral values), and it's a fight that can and will resonate with the heart strings. We fight this battle, and we have the moral high ground. Doing things for the poor is right, it's popular, and it's not even that costly compared to many of the things we do.