Tyler Bilbo, Staff Writer
Ideology: Yellow Dog Democrat | Writing from: Georgetown University
In last week’s column, I argued that an increasingly unenthusiastic base of urban voters threaten Barack Obama’s re-election. As Democrats prepare for a Republican onslaught in the upcoming midterms, they cannot afford to lose sight of 2012.
If the Democratic Party exclusively focuses on 2010, they will potentially cede the Presidential election to Republicans. The most targeted Democratic seats in the House tend to be in more conservative rural and suburban areas that either voted for John McCain or went for Obama by a relatively small margin. If the party crafts a message that singularly targets their most vulnerable seats, however, they will alienate an already subdued base of urban voters. Likewise, the Obama administration cannot tack too far to the right in an effort to appease 2010 voters. As we approach this upcoming November, it is important for the Democratic Party to maintain an essential balance between its immediate goals of maintaining the House and Senate and the re-election of our President.
The types of urban areas that President Obama needs to target include our nations’ disproportionately poor inner cities. These communities were suffering long before the current recession as employment in the low wage service sector began to replace manufacturing jobs. While participation among this desperately poor demographic has always been low, Obama’s 2008 campaign galvanized an incredible amount of support among these voters. As I discussed in my article last week, however, a waning level of enthusiasm among these voters threatens the party’s immediate future.
It’s easiest to begin with a discussion about what the administration should not do. They should not continue a futile battle they have begun to convince people that the economy is not as bad as they think. To implore people that unpopular bailouts saved the economy is to send a message that Washington is content with the destitution of a crippling recession. People are suffering and they will continue to feel the pain of this economy regardless of how the Beltway elite interpret the pain of our most vulnerable citizens.
This is not to suggest that the Democrats should surrender to the Republicans and announce that they have failed to turn the economy around. Instead, they should move forward with this battle by emphasizing the reality that the economic recovery is an ongoing process while simultaneously implementing more radical reforms that contrast against the shameful triangulating of Obama’s National Economic Council.
Once they move forward with a more active set of economic reforms, the administration can begin focusing on a set of policies to target their urban base. It’s been almost a half-century since the Great Society’s comprehensive effort to mitigate the level of poverty that plagues the inner city. Since then, however, President Johnson’s progressive approach to reducing poverty has been replaced by the conservative ethic of doing nothing. After all, the desperately poor live in a self-destructive culture that will only be incentivized by a comprehensive level of assistance.
So says the type of conservative mindset that permeates prominent politicians within both parties. This misguided paradigm of urban poverty, however, does not have to remain a staple of American politics. If President Obama wants to be re-elected, it’s time to expand a weakening safety net that hasn’t been adequately touched since the 1960s. Such reforms would undoubtedly draw the ire of voters in vulnerable Democratic seats and could potentially throw off a necessary balance between the goals of 2010 and 2012. As President Obama’s popularity continues to sink, however, now is the time for a desperately needed shot of enthusiasm for one of his most valuable constituencies.