A Hard Road Ahead

[Mythsaje]

So, the first hurdle has been passed. Democrats in Iowa better than doubled the Republican turnout. We can hope that this is a foreshadowing of what's to come. The Republican field is a disaster in the making...for them. Huckabee's win in Iowa heralds a different kind of fight, assuming he can keep his lead position. He's not the corporate candidate--he's a Christian Dominionist Populist candidate. And that's something to shake the GOP to its foundations.

This is the Populist Election. Obama works some populist memes into his speeches, JE pounds them day in and day out, and even Hillary's concession speech took on a decidedly populist tone. Obama is wowing people with his conciliatory message of "hope" and "change," and vowing (like John Edwards) to take on the entrenched monied interests in D.C. (though how he expects to do this with the help of the GOP folks who are owned body and soul by these interests, I'm not sure).

Make no mistake. The people are tired of being shoved into the mud so the people on top can stand a little taller. They're tired of being the stepladders for the powerful and receiving next to nothing in return.

That's what Iowa said tonight, and that's what everyone should start paying attention to. This isn't a campaign where trying to play to the center is going to work all that well...not if the "center" means giving the rich and powerful a boost. The people are tired of seeing their jobs vanishing, they're tired of paying three or more dollars a gallon of gas at the pumps, knowing that the oil companies are making record profits. They're tired of the lies, distortions, and obfuscations being thrown at them out of Washington.

Like John Edwards said... "Tonight the status quo lost."

And it did. Because people are tired of the status quo.

And it's becoming so obvious that even the dyed-in-the-wool political consultants can smell it in the air.

If nothing else, Edwards will drive the message leftward from here. He'll keep pounding it until even Hillary has to acknowledge the economic populist meme, as she already did tonight. Because the people want a share of the pie.

A "run to the middle" isn't going to work this time. Even the Republican winner tonight isn't talking the language of the fat cats. And that speaks volumes in itself.

If nothing else, Huckabee will push the Democrats to the left even as Edwards pulls them that direction.

We have to win this one. And it's pretty apparent now that an appeal to the middle isn't going to cut it.

So let's have at it. It's a hard road, but we can see which way it's winding.

To the left.

And it's about damn time.

[watrwefitinfor]

1. Excellent analysis, Mythsage. (K&R)

[Joanne98]

2. The GOP business/war/religion coalition is BROKEN! First time since Raygun

The evangelicals are picking a POPULIST! :wow: I guess they decided those 3000 verses in the Bible about the poor meant something after all. Good for them.