I am a speechwriter and a published columnist and essayist living in NYC.   I graduated from a notoriously liberal NE college, and still consider myself a liberal.  Though, I will admit that people scratch their heads often when I say that.  I think that the foundation of liberalism is openminded exploration of issues — but that seems to have become lost.  While I have been invited to blog on rural issues at another site, I decided to begin to test out this idea here.

Most Easterners have no understanding of what coping with big government means because we simply don’t have an intimate experience with it — nor do we understand the west, where up to 50 percent of the land base is owned by the federal government, leaving the people who make a living from that land base feeling powerless and overrun.  Perhaps the largest change that occurred for me was when I began to explore American ranching is this:  I no longer believe that government is the answer to much of anything; it can’t police itself; it becomes rent seeking and power hungry.  I would turn our land resources over to America’s farm, ranch, timber communities — with the agricultural extension colleges as a resource — if I could.  I trust their decency, resourcefulness, and knowledge.  These stories are untold, however, and they are persuasive.  In fact, I would go further, my experiences in rural America, right after some horrific losses in my own community after 9/11, went a long way to restoring my trust in people. 

Francis Fukuyama writes about the loss of social trust and how it imperils a nation.  Much of the “dialogue” on the web now seems to be undermining what had been one of our greatest resources.

Right after the election and the appalling response in the media to Sarah Palin, the Wall Street Journal tried to resusitate “frontier values”.  Where did they look?  Alaska, Montana, Wyoming.  Nope.  Henninger did a piece on the deep past (Davy Crockett, I think); and they published a review by Glenn Reynolds on a science fiction work that considered the frontier prospects of Mars.  I like both men, but these two pieces entirely ignored the frontier that is still with us, the frontier values alive and well in our own people  It annoyed the hell out of me that the premier paper in terms of Republican opinion couldn’t find the Republican base.  At a meeting of public lands ranchers in Salt Lake City, I recounted this story and got an ovation.  

I have been frustrated in bringing these stories East in a way that this audience can hear. So, I don’t know if it would work for rural Americans to contact me here with some of these stories; the abuses continue out there and are rarely told here in the East.   I might then also try to open up a blog-diary on Daily Kos (well that may be going too far) to translate them there.  I suspect that is a losing proposition.  More than ever, it seems to me that we need to begin to have a visceral understanding of the inanity and inertia that big government brings to living your life. 

America’s rural communities understand humility in action.  Arrogance gets you bucked off, stomped on, or dead.  We need to restore those values — which even a NY liberal can celebrate – to the public forum.  I am not certain how to penetrate the dogged convictions of my fellow liberals that we are better than the rest and will confer from on high solutions for one and all.  But, I am willing to give it a shot

August 13, 2009

Chairman Tim Kaine

Democratic National Committee

Dear Chairman:

Re: The self-indulgence of the DNC “mob” ad and the Democratic leadership

I am a life-long Democrat.  A graduate of Rahm Emanuel’s alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College, I also consider myself a liberal.  I am now organizing against the re-election of Nita Lowey (a Democrat) in Rockland County, NY.  See this web site for a description of her infuriating telephone town halls and the disenfranchised Democrats in her district that resulted (as well as a remarkably clear and concise view of the problems with health care reform). 

The democratically-challenged and politically inept response to those town hall protestors on the part of the DNC and the leadership was exasperating.  You apparently viewed the town halls as a venue to make a sales pitch.  This was not “dialogue” because you were not prepared to change or incorporate concerns. 

The first disastrous town hall meeting that came to my attention offered viewers the staggeringly condescending Kathleen Sebelius – talking down to the protestors, tilting her head in impatience, whispering to Arlen Specter, answering in non-sequitors (“I am not in Congress” – entirely beside the point of the complaint.)  The last straw was when she whined, “I have never seen Congress working so hard” – at a time when the American people are on their knees with work and worry!  How cloistered can you possibly be?  You were treated disrespectfully because your entire project at these town halls was essentially disrespectful

Then, we get the embarrassing and insulting “mob” ad.  It’s political ineptitude is staggering.  Who let Woodhouse run amok like that?  In every way possible you denied President Obama any post-partisan credibility, and you demonstrated that we are not on the side of concerned Americans in the center, especially the elderly.  What besotted self-indulgence!  Independents, blue dogs, and even liberals like myself – all sitting at home looking for the mute button.  

The American people are facing a tenuous economic and cultural landscape with an essentially unknown President at the helm.  The Party decides to push through not one, not two, but three thousand page bills that the members of Congress have obviously barely digested themselves, let alone allowed the American people to digest.  The complaint that I heard voiced most often at these town halls:  “read the bill!” 

I can’t believe that you are all so self-deceived, so cavalier with the health of the Republic, that the potential unintended consequences of both the cap and trade bill and the health care reform bill (such as it is ) don’t give you pause as well.  What If?  The What Ifs should scare the bejesus out of you.  They are certainly scaring everyone else.  What if employers opt to pay a cheap penalty and drop insurance coverage for workers, therefore, forcing us onto a public option?  What if the public option forces a transfer of costs onto private insurance?  What if the over-hyped green jobs pitch (even Paul Krugman and Rob Stavins don’t buy into that one!) doesn’t materialize quickly enough to offset the jobs lost due to cap and trade?  What if the drag on an economy in intensive care is larger than anticipated? 

Your best defense against all of those unexpected negatives is the brake of bipartisanship. Right now, it seems to me that the Gang of Six is working legitimately toward good centrist solutions and they should be given the time, support, and props that they need.  You should want to demonstrate that you are fair, just and measured; that you are willing to do your due diligence, listen, vet, and listen some more. 

Stop talking down to Americans!  Stop pushing them too far!  Stop treating them like the enemy!

Flabbergasted and offended,

(my real name)

New York

Cc:  David Axelrod, Kathleen Sebelius, Chuck Schumer, Nita Lowey, Nancy Pelosi, John Dingell, Harry Reid, Susan Collins, Kent Conrad, Cynthia Lummis