Alec MacGillis, NY Times Opinion: Who Turned My Blue State Red
MacGillis looks at eastern Kentucky and finds that it is the addicted relatives who are stuck on welfare that drive animosity to social programs. As in black neighborhoods, reservations, and declining rural, the real culprit is the stigma of chronic unemployment.
Looking at this reality, it is clear that the Blue Dog Democrats and New Democrats by not focusing on full employment like their New Deal predecessors have destroyed the strength of the Democratic Party.
It will take more than a Presidential candidate to turn this around. At this point every Democratic candidate should be outlining their plans for reducing the number of people on social programs by restoring a full employment economic policy. Then see what the nay-sayers say. Infrastructure repair, school funding, health care (community clinics in rural areas and urban neighborhoods for example), work programs for people released from prison — all of these are proven ways to get full employment. And all work so long as you administer them through government agencies that operate with a service ethic and provide salaries and dignity that are motivating. And hire enough administrators to keep people from spending all day at the agency, which is just another attack on dignity.
Administration restores the employment base in rural areas and local neighborhoods for people who are currently educated and working at just-as-job to get by. Federal money restores local economies in small communities.