A Winning Unity Narrative (TomPaine.com)

[marmar]

A Winning Unity Narrative
Alan Jenkins
March 27, 2007



Alan Jenkins is Executive Director of The Opportunity Agenda, an organization dedicated to building the national will to expand opportunity in America. The Opportunity Agenda is the co-producer, with the SPIN Project, of American Opportunity: A Communications Toolkit.

A recent article in USA Today asked the question, “Can Edwards win with an ‘us vs. them’ pitch?” Edwards’ challenge, according to USA Today’s Judy Keen, “is to convince voters in primaries and caucuses that he is a populist who would put their interests above those of big corporations and big government.”

I don’t know how Edwards’ particular message will fare with voters, but I do believe that Americans are ready—and, in some ways, eager—for a political discourse that confronts the steep and unequal barriers to opportunity that millions of Americans are facing and challenges the economic, educational, and political divides that are widening in our country. Importantly, though, the winning narrative will not be about “us vs. them,” but about whether and how we can rise together.

A recent CNN poll found that 54 percent of Americans feel that “the American dream has become impossible for most people to achieve.” And 55 percent say they’re dissatisfied with “current opportunities for the next generation to live better than their parents.” A poll of American workers commissioned by Change to Win found that 81 percent believe that “no matter what you hear about the economy, working families are falling behind.”

At the same time, though, voters are increasingly fed up with the politics of blame and division. They hold out hope that they will be wealthy one day, and don’t see corporations as inherently evil—even as they express concern that monied interests wield too much power in our society. And arguments that bash “big government” have the predictable effect of eroding their belief in a public sector that can help solve big problems like education, health care and poverty. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/27/a_winning_unity_narrative.php

[msongs]

1. too many (not all) corporations = enemies of the people - FIRST we need to

take away the rights of corporations to be treated as "people" type entities.

Msongs
www.msongs.com