Economic Populism in the Heartland

David Sirota argues that Democrats can, and are, winning in “red-state” areas with an progressive economic message. A strong case against the conventional wisdom that Dems need to either become more hawkish or embrace conservative cultural issues.

I have no particular stake in seeing the Dems win more elections per se, except insofar as I would like to see a party that emphasized protecting the worker and the small-farmer and made protecting local communities and the environment a priority rather than swallowing hook, line and sinker the corporate-globalist new world order being touted at the highest levels of both parties. Sirota makes clear that, in many cases, this is not an issue of expanding the nanny-state so much as leveling the playing field between, e.g. small businesses and big box stores like Wal-Mart.

(via Godspy)