About the Guys With Confederate Flags on Their Pickups

Posted on November 9, 2003 in Campaign 2004 Liberals & Progressives

I endorse Carol Moseley-Braun for president.

I hope that my candidate takes a tip from Governor Howard Dean, however, and reaches out to the angry white voter.

Dean’s recent remark about the guys with “Confederate flags on their pickups” belonging with the Democrats rather than the Republicans is a bold strategy. The superficial attacks on the governor, suggesting that he is racist, are plainly untrue and work to undermine the struggle to unseat the Pretender.

What I heard him saying is this: “You guys are fighting the wrong cause and the wrong people. You’re being screwed just like the immigrants, the people of color, and the white working liberals that you claim to detest. This is an invitation to come join us in getting your real issues solved, things like your job, protection of your investments from sharks, health care, the deficit, honesty in government. Talk to us. You’ll find we’re your true friends.”

Now imagine Ms. Braun saying words like this. I guarantee that coming from her mouth, they would electrify the nation.

The principal damage that the Republican business-political-media machine has done to the country is dividing the working people of this country against themselves. It’s time to bring folks back into the Democratic Party by smart campaigning that reunites the members of Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition.