Of the Few by the Few for the Few
Tip of the Hat
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized the current conservative administration as running a "government of the few, for the few and by the few....For six long years our hardworking middle class families have been invisible to this president."
May 12, 2007
I cite this because we've had discussions here about how to crack the so-called 'liberal elite' frame when in reality Conservatives are the party primarily of the super-rich and the right-wing-Christian which are two powerful elite groups. This frame I think makes a great starting point for any discussion of progressives (nuturing/expanding freedoms) vs conservatives (spartan mortality and behavior police)
This is a memorable surface frame, but also draws on a deep frame already in place, a phrase and an idea used in Lincoln's statement at the Gettysburg Address.
http://showcase.netins.net/[…]/gettysburg.htm
It tells a story as well which is critical to an effective frame. One side is comprised of the few (wealthy/elite/conservative) and have been abandoned by mainstream America. The otherside is then the group described by Lincoln-- for and by the people. Hence the many must rise against the few.
[Note- I noticed we don't have a CLASS tag. Perhaps we do not need one-- common good and equality are surely the values associated with any discussion of class. But given that class is one of the most over-looked issues in our country, it is interesting that even we - a collection of committed progressives don't have a tag for it. Again I don't know that we need one, but it still gave me pause.]
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New! Life, liberty and the pursuit of property.
DavidP,
"Of the few, by the few and for the few" is such a great phrase. I used it yesterday with a response to one of my email buddies. I then posted that response to Wag the Finger on "Honest Conservatives."
I especially like your connection to Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
In an essay on the American Dream by an essayist whose name escapes me at the moment from The Fetzner Institute, I learned that Thomas Jefferson had wanted to use John Locke's phrase of "life, liberty and the pursuit of property" and that Ben Franklin had been one of several framers that eventually won the day and changed that one word from "property" to "happiness."
The American democratic experiment is a progressive one, not conservative!