John McCain has been on the Republican equivalent of a Bed-Stuy tour.
Bedford-Stuyvesant was once a frequent campaign stop for Democratic
candidates who stood in front of destroyed or rundown buildings amid some of
the worst poverty in New York City, promising to fix the place with more
government spending.
McCain has been touring poor neighborhoods where the likelihood of his
winning votes is nil. In New Orleans, devastated by Hurricane Katrina, he
stood with the new Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, and pledged to the
residents of the 9th Ward, "the people of New Orleans, and the people of
this country that never again, never again will a disaster of this nature be
handled in the terrible and disgraceful way it was handled."
All of this is fine and it might even help diminish the usual slurs
Democrats use against Republicans about how they care nothing for the poor.
The answer to this is that if Democrats care about the poor, why haven't
they solved the problem of poverty? And the answer to that is that Democrats
need people to remain poor and, thus, dependent on them so they can get
their votes. McCain has repeatedly said he wants a "civil" campaign so don't
look for him to offer such a response.
Here is some advice for McCain: stop identifying with failure and begin
identifying with success. Before the era of entitlement and low
expectations, there were Horatio Alger stories about people who overcame
difficult circumstances and prospered. McCain should begin identifying
people who have overcome poverty and let them tell their stories of how they
did it. Those stories are better than the stories of people mired in
poverty, largely because of wrong decisions, who are doomed to remain there
because they've been told the best they can hope for is a government check.
Success becomes an example for others to follow. Stories about poverty
inspire no one.
Victory not defeat, achievement not failure ought to be McCain's strategy.
These American stories are really the story of America.
One doesn't "tackle poverty," like a football player. One shows the way of
escape and provides sufficient role models along with capital and moral and
educational structures that serve as ladders so people who want to climb out
of the hole can do so.