And, the Democrats COULD try to formulate a message of “you are all getting screwed, and we can fix it” –OR- it could do its typical guilt-ridden dance of minority ranking (complete with Jessie) and scare off the white-trash. Until you guys get some white-trash voters, you’re doomed. And Iraq won’t matter long term. You might save the white-trash kids from getting killed, but the males will just resent you for that.

I agree that Democrats need to get on this, not just as a strategy but as a move to bolster and [I'm an optimist] hopefully save our declining democracy.
I was with someone today who has been helping a family member run for house of delegates in her state. The candidate is Republican and so, as a gay liberal, I mentioned one of the more obvious and personal reasons I don't vote Republican, to which I was shocked to find out she was completely for gay marriage and equality. She then went on to talk about how she can't understand why Republicans are jumping all over gays instead of focusing on putting away child molesters and pedophiles. I thought this jump was a bit 'funny', but it got me to see something I hadn't yet.
While I am not 'for' child molester rights and am as concerned as the next citizen about the welfare of children, I saw that the camp her family belonged to was looking for the ingrediant that all politicians recognize is necessary in a campaign: the dragon to be slain.
There has to be a bad guy to chase around the village with burning torches. In the face of evidence that America isn't quite as behind the gay-bashing route as some polls suggested, they are looking around for the dragon for the 'knight' to kill. It's ancient, tribal psychology. Whether the dragon is real or should be killed is not so much the point [obviously being gay doesn't harm anyone, but molesting any person regardless of age is wrong]. Another recent dragon is the ferocious Mexican.
I don't want to believe that we innately need the dragon; I think we're programmed to expect it. Until politicians stop feeding it to us, we'll always have a dragon. I think its this way particularly when the politicians have no real plan for helping the people in practical and everyday ways, such as through job creation, educational advancement, etc.

The correct political message when it comes to economic injustice is this: economic inequality has been rising in America for some time. This quantitative measure demonstrates that the rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. It now is at a level indicative of major social unrest. Conservative economists like to argue that although income and wealth inequality is not good, people should be happy that there is consumption equality. In other words, be happy that you can borrow and pay for lots of stuff not made in the USA. Forget that in terms of income and net worth you are getting screwed.

"I don't want to believe that we innately need the dragon; I think we're programmed to expect it. Until politicians stop feeding it to us, we'll always have a dragon. I think its this way particularly when the politicians have no real plan for helping the people in practical and everyday ways, such as through job creation, educational advancement, etc."

Innately? Probably not. Programmed? Definitely. But this goes much deeper than the politicians. This is a societal issue. We are a fearful people and the media is far mor culpable than any politician. I'm not sure why the fear agenda gets pushed so much. Maybe it's because people under stress tend to consume more. Regardless, blaming the politicians is sorta misplaced. They are just doing what helps them most. It isn't even about a lack of ideas,(though many probably do lack them) it has more to do with the fact that people were tune out when discussions move to actual issues. Quite simply they'll change the channel to American Idol or whatever inane distraction they choose to pay attention to. But give the people something to fear (immigration, terrorists, natural disastrous, etc.) and you've got a captive audience. Sad? Yep. Inevitable? I think it is.

To the point of the post, I'm torn. Living in Michigan, I have for years witnessed an environment where folks with a High School education make more than me at one of the Big 3 factories. That seemed pretty inequitable to me, especially since I paid for my own college education. Sure there was something to be said for my own self-esteem, since I made the effort to better myself. And I certainly wouldn't want to spend my day performing the same tasks over and over. That being said, I felt like I deserved better compensation because most of them couldn't do what I do, while I could step in and do there jobs without much of a learning curve.

Now however, the manufacturing jobs have dried up and many good people are left hanging in the breeze. Who's to blame? The more ideologically paralyzed on the left will emphatically place blame squarely on the company’s shoulders, while their polar opposite will blame the unions. The truth is each probably shares blames as do the politicians from both sides of the spectrum for enabling things to get so far out of control. And again, maybe its our own fault for allowing the politicians to cater to our fears. One side chooses fear of the rich. The other sided chooses fear of the worker. And so, nothing really gets solved. They shop guy punching a time clock achieves a salary approaching six figures, which the company can't sustain for very long. The company then lays the worker off and\or closes a bunch of plants. Then millions are poor and bankrupt.

When some priest from the Chamber of Commerce intones “it will hurt the economy”, the subliminal message is, “the gods will be angry”. Since time immemorial we’ve been taught how the gods love us and want to shower blessings down upon us. There ways are mysterious and unfathomable of course. That’s why we need priests to explain how to keep them happy with us. Because, while the gods love us and want to provide us with lots of manna, sometimes we do bad things or think bad thoughts or are ungrateful. That make them angry, and so they punish us, but we deserve it. Fortunately, the priest are there when that happens to intercede for us and to tell us what sacrifice will be required of us this time to make the gods love and bless us again.