The View from the Meadow
Observations of the Passing Scene
Political and Social Commentary by Dave Satre
The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America
How the Democrats can Take Back America
A book by John Sperling
I know John Sperling to be highly intelligent, very principled, innovative and a self-made billionaire who is known to support just causes. A man from very modest beginnings, a poor student and non-reader in high school, John discovered his intellect when he went traveled the world with the merchant marines and went to college after WW II. He once told me that he was in his mid-forties before he realized that he could accomplish anything he set his mind to. And his accomplishments are many.
When he grew discouraged with the higher education system in this country as a member of the humanities department at San Jose State University he decided to start his own for-profit university. That alternative educational organization, now known as The University of Phoenix, introduced many innovations to the education field. It also made John a billionaire. Now, at age 83, Sperling has grown concerned over the political situation in this country, which he sees as a dangerous division between ultra religious conservatives with lockstep Republican loyalties and free-thinking Americans. John, along with his co-authors Suzanne Helburn, Samuel George, John Morris and Carl Hunt, researched this situation for a year and a half to formulate the theories contained in the book The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America. The result is a solid game plan for the Democratic Party to reclaim control of this country. The disorganized Democrats, who are at the political mercy of the well-oiled Republican machine, lack the political know-how of the Bush Regime. But the answer is simple: the Democrats merely need to concentrate on their |
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base --- like the Republicans do. They should just forget about the so-called Red States (the Retros) and target the progressive voters in the coastal and Great Lakes (Metro) states. Here they hold a permanent majority that will win national elections without a single electoral vote from the Retro states.
The Democrats haven’t changed much since the famous Will Rogers statement, “I don’t belong to any organized political party --- I’m a Democrat.” It’s time they woke up. The game has changed and the Republicans have mastered it.
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The Democrats need to target their message to solidify their base, which will give them a majority. In the past few decades the Metros have shown a tendency to vote for Retro candidates on occasion, but the Retro voters never vary. The ideologues never question the Republican Party and automatically rubber stamp their candidates in the polling booth. The last Northern Democrat in the White House was Kennedy, and before that it was Franklin Roosevelt. The Democrats need to develop a platform that appeals to thinking people and establish discipline in the party. Sperling contends that Americans tend to believe the rhetoric of the Reagan Republicans that blamed welfare for bankrupting America, but the truth is the Retro states, those so commonly displayed in red on today’s political maps, are the real culprits. They control the national government and benefit from a disproportionate number of government programs. |
Sperling sees Americans as discouraged and looking for some way in which they can participate and make an impact. The Great Divide offers a framework for change. It offers hope.
Maybe hope is on the way, after all.
The book is available on Amazon.com
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