Someone who can call out to the throngs of disaffected and disenfranchised people; Democrat or Republican, black, white, brown, red, yellow, rich or poor, young or old. Those who are completely and utterly fed up with the current political system.
The revolving door in the White House has ruined politics, ruined countless lives due to the malfeasance of the people in charge, ruined the hopes of lower middle class and lower class peoples who want to better themselves, ruined our national reputation among our allies overseas, ruined our ability to back up our words with actions when need be.
What we are witnessing today isn't the result of George W. Bush's mistakes and utter disregard for the rule of law. On the contrary, this country has been on a slow downward decline and it began not just 8 years ago, but over 40 years ago when Nixon was running for office in 1968.
The United States of America was making great strides towards equality across all lines; whether they were color-based, gender-based, or class-based.
The years following World War II saw great movements take shape. The civil rights movement, the labor movement, and the feminist movement just a short list from the many.
The Great Society was in full swing with Medicare and Medicaid being passed, aid for education increasing, the war on poverty taking shape, the aforementioned civil rights legislation being passed - all under the watchful eye of Johnson. But, that was until the year 1968 and the Presidential Election that November between Johnson and Nixon.
Johnson, despite the many successes of the Great Society, was also leading the country during the most egregious armed conflict to date in the history of the United States. Under his watch, he increased troop deployments to Vietnam from 16,000 in 1963 to 550,000 in 1968 following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964.
Not withstanding the successes of the Great Society for many people, Johnson was also facing the dim prospect of losing support in many states because of the increase in federal spending, the passage of civil rights legislation (which had a resonating effect in southern states), and the 4.5% increase in consumer prices. His popularity was declining and with the Presidential Elections of 68 not too far away Richard Nixon capitalized on that downward trend.
Richard Nixon had suffered humiliating defeats in the Presidential Election of 1960 and the gubernatorial race in California in the year 1962 and his political career seemed to be over as was the general consensus of many political analysts at the time. But, with renewed vigor he trotted on and decided to run for President in '68 with a young conservative columnist, Pat Buchanan, at his side.
It was during the run-up to the '68 election, during the 1966 mid-term elections, that would see Barry Goldwater's conservative ideology take a firm hold and place in American society. You see, Goldwater was the foundation of the movement, but it was the technical guile and political skills of Buchanan and Nixon who made it so. Nixon and Buchanan worked diligently to prod away at the base of the Democratic Party. The Democrats were in disarray due to the Vietnam conflict, racial disharmony that was still gripping the country, and the perceived elitist culture of upper-echelon Democrats.
From 1966-1968, Nixon and Buchanan helped to create and forge divisions within the Democratic party that resonate still to this day. Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech was one such catalyst. Within the speech, he spoke to Americans who do not express their opinions publicly, as opposed to the many who protested against one thing or the other; whether it be for civil right, against the war, just to name a few.
The Silent Majority that Nixon was speaking to consisted of older WWII veterans, blue collar workers from the industrial heartland, people from the midwest, south and western United States; those who typically did not involve themselves in expressing their political opinions, yet still retained a value for American institutions which they perceived were being attacked and dismantled by the counter culture movement. The results were phenomenal and set a precedent for conservative politics for some time with the end-result having Nixon defeating Hubert Humphrey (D) and George Wallace (I) by a resounding 500,000 votes.
That was 40 years ago. But, to this day, that style of politics remains in play. Divide and conquer. It's a practical strategy that works; in politics, in war, in the dismantling of labor movements, in the slow dissolving of basic human and civil rights, for example. It's been in the Republican playbook since Nixon and it's not going away any time soon.
That's why we need a populist in 2008. This country needs a person who will lead this country away from corrupt elites who run the show in Washington. This country needs a person who will be able to stand up to the corporatist ideology, abolish subsidies to corporations and businesses, and support the working men and women of this great country we live in. This country needs a person who will tax fairly those who work here and not allow the rich to live off the backs of the working poor. This country needs a person who will lift justice to it's rightful place. This country needs a person who will transcend the political divide and reach out to all members of this country, whether they are liberal, moderate, independent, or conservative.
That person is not John McCain.
That person is Barack Obama.
I plan to vote for him. I hope you do, too.