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the poorest people he could find, farmers, working people, and unemployed people too, so that he LEARNED the perspective of poor people.
He Learned perspectives, the issues, and the vocabulary of people who were not rich. He took the time and invested the effort it took to learn how to put aside his own perspective of a rich white guy.
And then, when he came into the white house, he brought that wider perspective with him, and that skill for listening to other people.
Unfortunately, there were some limits. He never managed to listen to the perspectives of Japanese immigrants, or Native Americans, to name just two. His limits can't undermine his success though. Measured against his peers, he was ahead of and beyond all of his peers. His thinking was far more flexible and revolutionary than theirs was.
Who else would have seen the need to talk to poor people throughout the nation?
Who else would have seen that this absolutely could not be delegated to someone else, and the information could not be delivered as a report, summarized with bullet points and nice slogans and conventional wisdom?
Who else would have seen that a whistle-stop tour on a train wasn't good enough? After all, this had always been the traditional way for politicians to travel when/if they had to meet people. Go to each town and let the people come to them at the station. Who else would have seen that he had to go to them, and find them in their fields, in their shops, and standing in their lines? Who else would have figured that this makes a difference in who you meet and what information you get?
Who else would have guessed that when you travel this way and meet so many people, they remember you and vote for you years late. And talk about you to friends and relatives and get the to vote for you too? Who else would have guessed that traveling this way and talking to so many thousands of poor people, and listening to what they had to say, was the way to get an enduring reputation as someone who goes out and talks to voters and listens to what they have to say?
It is a damned shame that this level of political wisdom vanished with FDR.
Public Relations Firms have never been able to artificially-recreate these types of reputations or these bonds between any politician and groups of constituents. You just can't get this bond unless the politician does the work of going out there to do the listening in person. It can't be faked using any remote technologies or using focus groups.
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