Thank you, Hugin. I'm honored.
I've spent quite a bit of time the past few days trying to explain to people why Rmoney got the support he did, and I thought it might be helpful to put it here in our safe little Economy group. To me the key to understanding it all is to keep in mind that the fundamental difference between the right (and especially the far right as championed by Rmoney) and the left lies in how they view "equality." I think I need to re-read Animal Farm.
Edited to add:
Take a look at the clip from the Joe Scarborough show that was posted by kpete here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021783208
And put each of the comments made by the various contributors into a context of "Does this support a social system dedicated to a proposition that all people are equal, or does it support a social system dedicated to the haves and dismissive of the have-nots?" I think it's Scarborough himself who makes the comparison that Rmoney's -- and by extension the GOP's -- message is NOT relevant to an 18-year-old Latino, but IS relevant to a 65-year-old white guy in the south. In the context of equality, which of those two demographics is probably more likely to believe in equality, and which isn't? And I'm talking in terms of racial equality, economic equality, gender equality, education, job, pay, housing, EVERYTHING. The more unequal the person WANTS things to be, the more likely they are to vote for someone like Mitt Rmoney or Todd Akin. The more EQUAL that person wants things to be, the more likely they are to vote for a Democrat or even someone of a more liberal party.
That's why I so firmly believe that if the Democrats -- with a capital D -- would take a MORE progressive stance and be MORE liberal and MORE aggressive on the side of equality, they could be even more successful politically. Not to mention the rest of the country would be better off.
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