Lakoff's words on tepid approach by Democrats, also Obama's shoes.

madfloridian

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Sun Feb-27-11 08:31 PM
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Lakoff's words on tepid approach by Democrats, also Obama's shoes.

From frigid Wisconsin a sign speaks volumes.

From Fred Klonsky's blog

Under the picture is a comment by Arne Duncan which tells us for sure he is straddling the fence. But then we knew that already.

Ed Secretary Arne Duncan thinks the Wisconsin governor and the unions should try to be more collaborative. Jeez.

I don't especially expect the president to go to Wisconsin. It would be nice, but it is not necessary.

I did expect our president and our Democrats to take a stronger stand on the right wing attacks on public employees, the efforts to destroy the unions by taking away any power to bargain. I did expect that. I did expect to see folks like Howard Dean who said that the unions built the middle class in this country. I have not seen him out and about saying much on unions right now.

He also said that we were losing elections because the party had turned away from its traditional constituents...

Dean said that as we crept to the right we began to lose elections.

From his book in 2004:

From his book "You Have the Power", published in fall of 2004:

Dean: "They turned their back on their core constituencies, in some cases under the guise of being "New Democrats." In fact, they relabeled their "core constituences" as "special interest groups," whose influence, they tried to tell the public, had to be avoided like the plague."

He refers to this quote from Time Magazine in 1995 in which Al From told Time that "a long-term majority will never be created around the interests represented by Jesse (Jackson) and the labor unions".

Dean further states that "the real problem, of course, is that Jesse Jackson and the labor unions form the core of the people who traditionally have elected Democrats. It is not an accident that members of labor unions and African-American voters became less interested in the Democratic Party as we crept to the right......we began to lose elections up and down the ballot with increasing regularity." END SNIP

Well, I am not seeing any major Democrats speaking out strongly in support of the Wisconsin public employees and teachers. Some have expressed as George Lakoff puts it..."tepid support."

From Alternet yesterday:

The Dems' Tepid Approach to What's at Stake in Wisc. Is Helping Conservatives Destroy Unions, Defund the Democratic Party and Take over the Country

The Wisconsin protests are about much more than budgets and unions. As I observed in What the Right-wing Assault on Women, Unions, the Environment, Health Care and PBS Is All About, the conservative story about budget deficits is a ruse to turn the country conservative in every area. Karl Rove and Shep Smith have made it clear on Fox: If the Wisconsin plan to kill the public employees� unions succeeds, then there will be little union money in the future to support democratic candidates. Conservatives will be effectively unopposed in raising campaign funding in most elections, including the presidential elections. This will mean a thoroughly conservative America in every issue area.

The media, with few exceptions, is failing to get at the deeper issues.

.."The media � and the Democrats � also need to do a much better job on a sneaky conservative media strategy. The clearest example occurred in the NY Times. David Brooks, in his Feb. 21, 2011 column wrote: �Private sector unions push against the interests of shareholders and management; public sector unions push against the interests of taxpayers.� I turned on CNN that day and heard Anderson Cooper introduce the Wisconsin protest story as a battle between taxpayers and unions. These are massive distortions, but they are what conservatives want the public to believe.

The real issue is whether conservatives will get what they really want: the ability to turn the country conservative on every issue, legally and permanently. Eliminating the public sector unions could achieve that. Collective bargaining rights are the immediate issue, but they are symbolic of the real issue at stake. That is the story the media should be telling � and that Democrats everywhere in America should be shouting out loud.

Like the women's rights issues in which the messaging of the Catholic Bishops won...they met with Pelosi just before the vote on the health care bill.

Like the tax breaks for the rich. Right wing messaging won that also. The rich got a real deal there, and they hardly had to put up a fight. The cuts to Social Security began when the payroll taxes were cut by 2%...because the GOP will never let them be raised again.

Like the teachers having to fight so hard with no party truly standing with them.

I don't expect President Obama to physically put on his shoes and go walking. I do expect him and other Democratic leaders to take a much firmer and louder stand.