What Kerry/Edwards Can Do to Win the Working Class

eRobin at Fact-esque has some good advice for the Kerry/Edwards campaign. They should take it.

Step One - Use the anger of the base. Don't be cowed by the accusations of class warfare, because that's a war that we'll win and are used to fighting.

Step Two - Give the voters the truth. Explain what Starving the Beast means. It's no longer an abstract concept now that there are fifty beasts across the country starving and eating their young to survive. Also point out that it is a plan essentially rooted in perpetual bankruptcy - a concept so loaded with shame that nearly no working class American will be able to support it. That's where Howard Dean was going with his idea that balancing a government budget is fiscally and socially responsible, just as balancing a personal one is. America will respond to that thinking.

Step Three - This is the most important part (and my personal hobby horse) because it's rooted in optimism, which is apparently the cornerstone of an effective campaign. BushCo talks a lot about how optimistic he is, but he has given us nothing to feel optimistic about. In fact he's done the opposite. Despite that, Americans haven't seemed to catch on to the lies. Kerry*Edwards aren't going to convince us unless they give Americans something truly hopeful and exciting. They have to give us the means to pull ourselves out of the hole we've been thrown into. The talk out of the Kerry camp so far hasn't done that since it's all been about what government is going to do for us instead of what we can do for ourselves. That makes people suspicious. Kerry*Edwards needs to show how, under its leadership, America will lead the world again in the development and implementation of a new technology and so a new economy. I want them to focus on renewable energy because it lends itself to current foreign and domestic concerns and it's a huge weakness of BushCo and his oil-soaked administration.

We need both. The hole BushCo has dug for us is so deep we can't get out of it alone, but it's a big mistake not to include us, not to give us ways to help ourselves. That's what builds community, not having somebody do it all for you. And that's what gives you a sense of worth, your own and that of the others around you. 'If we do this, and do it together, we'll be able to rebuild the community Bush has torn down' would be an effective and powerful message.