Seems to me that candidates from the left should be pushing the story that Bush and the right-wing controlling the country have left us far more INSECURE than we were four years ago.
The international side to this is obvious; we're more isolated, with a healthier diaspora of hatred arrayed against us, than we were pre-Bush.
But domestically we're much more insecure, too.
Not only because Tom Ridge is caught up in the underBush grappling with the biggest bureaucracy in the history of the universe, instead of improving homeland security...
But more specifically because we've polarized the country between those who have, and the vast rest, dramatically.
Living wages have inflated to the point where it's at least $16 an hour around any major city. Meanwhile, the WalMartization of the economy means that five of the ten 'growth' jobs forecast for America are menial; fewer employees have health care help than ever; higher education has ballooned entirely out of reach for the withered middle class; and the minimum wage is stuck at 30% less (in real terms) than it was in 1968.
While the fires of class warfare aren't out of control yet (in part because we're employing the poor as fodder in Iraq?), our increasing insecurity everywhere will resonate this fall...
