Jim Webb on populism, Rubinomics, and his grandparents during the depression.

madfloridian

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Wed May-21-08 11:18 PM
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Jim Webb on populism, Rubinomics, and his grandparents during the depression.

When I watched him tonight on Countdown, I was impressed with his explanation of the Scots Irish people. I have done a lot of genealogical research, and one, maybe two, of my lines came into the US through North Carolina. I have followed some as they traveled south west into Georgia and Alabama. They all ended up coming to Florida eventually.

I have read family books from others who have researched these lines, and they were a proud, strong, and may I say stubborn bunch. I am like Webb, I do not like the stereotyping. There were other factors in play. One of them was the way Hillary and Bill Clinton were campaigning there...which did not help.

Webb's comments:

ABC interview with Webb

Webb, whose 2005 book Born Fighting looks at how the Scots-Irish have shaped America, said Wednesday that he bristles when it is suggested that racism is behind Obama's paltry performance among this group.

"When I hear people say this is racism, it gets my back up a little bit because that's my cultural group," said Webb. "This isn't Selma, 1965."

During his Wednesday interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Webb touted a 2004 op-ed he wrote for The Wall Street Journal in which he not only argued that diversity programs have had "an unequal impact" on white ethnic groups but also expressed his hope that an alliance could one day be forged with African Americans.

"The key thing," said Webb, is "if this cultural group could get at the same table with black America, you could really change American politics because they have so much in common in terms of what they need out of government."

I also remembered his interview with the Washington Post in June of last year. He spoke of his grandparents in Arkansas and how they weathered the Great Depression. Only a good man can be so simple, clear and eloquent in explaining something like this.

I remember my grandparents and parents talking about the hardships during that time, so this was hitting home.

Jim Webb speaks of his grandparents in Arkansas during the depression..

Sen. Jim Webb is talking about his mother's family, which lived in hardscrabble eastern Arkansas during the Great Depression and was so poor "there was nothing -- not even money." The Democrats built their party around such people, Webb is saying, while the Republicans never cared about them.

Webb quoted a part of a song by Alabama..Song of the South.

"Well somebody told us Wall Street fell,

But we were so poor that we couldn't tell.

Cotton was short and the weeds were tall.

But Mr. Roosevelt's a-gonna save us all."

Here is more of what he said in that interview that was impressive.

That kind of populist anger is part of the Democrats' past, and Webb argues that it's the party's future as well. But he worries that "the people at the top of the party don't comprehend the power of that message" and that as a result the Democrats may miss their best chance in a generation to reconnect with the American middle class.

"The Democrats need to embrace the fact that the greatest issue in America today is economic fairness," he says. He argues that if the Democrats construct a "fairness agenda" that tilts toward workers and away from corporations and the rich, "they will win big." John Edwards hasn't had much luck so far with the issue, which he has made the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. But some influential Democrats, including former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, share the focus on fairness.

Jim Webb had some not so kind words for Robert Rubin and his Rubinomics during the Clinton administration.

Webb says the future of the Dem party lies in rejecting Rubin wing of party.

"He criticized what he called 'the Rubin wing of the Democratic Party,' after Robert E. Rubin, former President Bill Clinton's Treasury secretary, saying those Democrats share the same problem as many Republicans: 'We're not paying attention to what has happened to basic working people in the country.' He said of the freshman Senate Democrats, six of them take a 'populist' view, and said they are bringing needed reinforcements to the Senate: 'We've got a number of us that pretty well see the economic issues the same way. I think that's the Democratic Party of the future."

Only 6 in the Senate with such views. Not nearly enough.

Webb reminds me of some members of my mostly Republican family. Other than their failure to see through Bush and the dangers he brought this country...they have accomplished much and have a common sense way about them. I see that in Webb, though I know some of his views are more conservative than mine.