Nick Coleman (Mpls Star Tribune): Democrats ought to be ticked off, too

[dflprincess]

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/86674867.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

There's certainly reason for all of us to be angry. The question is how to direct it.

A lot of Americans are angry, and a lot of our leaders don't like it. Anger is an emotion that suggests a pent-up impatience, a deep-seated dissatisfaction with the state of things and a potential for explosive outbursts that are difficult to contain. Besides money, however, anger is the only thing that the politicians who lead both major parties respect.
They fear it. Which is why it can be useful.

But if you listen to some politicians and commentators on the left side of the aisle, where progressive values are esteemed, there is something wrong with being angry. Nancy Pelosi has attacked the Tea Party as the pawn of wealthy right-wing interests, and liberal film critic Roger Ebert calls the Tea Party "Tee-Pees" and belittles its ranks for "opposing its own best interests." But you don't have to be a member of the Tea Party to be ticked off in America. If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.....

...The question is not why so many Americans are angry. It is: Why aren't more of them angry? Real unemployment is in the high teens; a return to full employment is years away; income and home values have plunged; rising health care costs are putting basic services beyond the reach of many; and banks and corporations are back to business as usual, while reform efforts wither and middle-class families are asked to pay more and more of the cost of government while the super-wealthy who have fattened on tax cuts for more than a decade skate free. It's not crazy to be angry. It's crazy not to be.

"The hostility we see in the public is real," says retired University of Minnesota history professor Hy Berman, an authority on the political upheavals that accompanied the Great Depression. "Especially the perception of being excluded, of having all the needs of the elites satisfied -- all the folks who always get to the top of the heap -- while the little guy gets left in the cold. The problem for Democrats is that all of that public anger is being taken advantage of by conservative forces while Democrats try to speak softly."

Democrats in Minnesota and in Washington, D.C., are fighting against forces that don't play nice, and who are using public anger to try to pin responsibility on those who hold office now, not on those who let greed run wild on Wall Street, put two wars on the country's credit card, kept giving tax breaks to the rich and dug us into a deep hole. Playing by Marquis of Queensberry rules when the other guys are using switchblades doesn't work. Democrats used to speak for the average working American. If they still hope to, they better make their case more clearly and get in touch with public anger.

Note: Nick Coleman is no relation to Normie. His brother is Chris Coleman who is mayor of St. Paul.

[Bosso 63]

1. Hy Berman was one of my professors at the U of M

If I knew 25 years ago where this country was heading, I would have taken better notes.

[Demeter]

2. I Would Have Emigrated

Before W destroyed my livelihood, all of them.

[Bosso 63]

3. In hindsight, that probably would have been a good idea.

But at this point I'm digging in.

[Demeter]

4. Ditto

If only I had known....in 1999.