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A few weeks ago I read this article [The Dems Go West]
about Gary Hart's White Paper to democrats. He cites the
importance of the west to democrats, and lists issues they must market
if they hope to stay the dominant party. Here's
a sample.
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''Westerners are individualists who do not like the beliefs of others
imposed on us. We are people who believe in principles: integrity,
honor, courage, accountability. The religious right preaches values.
Democrats, regionally and nationally, should espouse principles, for
ourselves and for our country. "Values" have religious overtones.
Principles are humanistic and secular. Our domestic and foreign
policies should always be based on the nation's highest principles.''
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In the 1970's All in the Family was
produced by Norman Lear as a vehicle to ridicule conservative
values. Some think it backfired because Archie Bunker, who
represented those values, was embraced as a cultural icon. What
Lear was able to do, however, was use this acceptance to
introduce Liberal ideas about the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon,
Homosexuality, the Draft, etc., into the mainstream. I see
the same thing at work in a new reality television series
starring Ed Begley, Jr.
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''Ed Begley Jr. had an image problem. Hollywood is lousy with so-called
activists, but he's a genuine back-to-the-land environmentalist and
something of a rigorist. That fact has led to some mockery over the
years. On one episode of The Simpsons, the writers had him refusing to
board a protest bus to help save a grove of redwoods. Begley preferred
to drive a vehicle that "doesn't hurt Mother Earth," a go-cart powered
entirely by his "own sense of self-satisfaction." - "You Try Living with Ed's Wife"
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This morning Chucky Schumer was making the rounds with his new book "Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time." On Fox and Friends he delivered this -- here, see for yourself.
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