MoveOn.org has the video Robert Reich Explains the War on the Poor and Working Families.

On Robert Reich’s Facebook post, he asks if he is being too harsh with this video.

Here is the video.

I Democrats all over the country fail to make this the prime issue of the upcoming election, then perhaps they ought to lose control of the Senate, too.

An independent PAC is running commercials against Republican Charlie Baker for Massachusetts governor that hint at this issue. Martha Coakley, his Democratic opponent, ought to make it clear that Baker’s plan to solve whatever ills Massachusetts has by being harsher on welfare recipients is just part of the problem Reich is highlighting. Reich makes the point that you cannot fault people for not finding work when there are more people looking for work than there are jobs being offered. This puts the lie to Baker’s plan. This man, Baker, has no soul or no heart or neither one of them.

Am I being too harsh?

I have posted on this blog about the study of “cultural deprivation” as a sophomore in college as being my epiphany about what Ayn Rand didn’t tell me, and what was wrong about her philosophy. This was back around 1963.

It just dawned on me that there is probably still some literature floating around about this topic.

You can do a Google search on cultural deprivation theory definition. At the time I did this search there were only “About 1,410,000 results (0.40 seconds)” according to Google.

Wikipedia has a very short article Cultural deprivation. Part of the article states the following:

Proponents of this theory argue that working class culture (regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or other factors) inherently differs from that of people in the middle class. This difference in culture means that while middle-class children can easily acquire cultural capital by observing their parents, working-class children cannot, and this deprivation is self-perpetuating.

Some of the other Google references try to blame cultural deprivation on the parents of the deprived. This misses the whole point as far as what I studied. You cannot blame people for not teaching what it is that they aren’t even aware of. That is the self-perpetuating part of the Wikipedia definition. “Self-perpetuating” is not a value judgment on parenting skills, but it is a description of the facts of life.

If your parents didn’t educate you on cultural deprivation, then it may be that they were not aware of it themselves. Does it help to think about that to understand what it means for the cultural deprivation of others less fortunate than you. People whose parents have no experience nor any inkling of the importance of books and magazines in the home (now connection to the internet), can’t blame, and wouldn’t even know to blame their parents? This doesn’t even cover the fact that these parents are unlikely to be able to afford nor have the time to provide these amenities.

When you are working multiple jobs just to feed your family, and you are separated by distance from the support structure of the older generations of your family, then it is more difficult to provide these cultural amenities.

It is much easier for society to try to fill in some of what is missing at home. This is the basic premise of the Head Start program.

I just thought that you might want some links to the campaigns of a few candidates who could use your help. Right Now! – Put up lawn signs, contribute money, make phone calls, knock on doors, pass along these links.

I received an email from Don Berwick.

Dear Steve,

In the week that has passed since the Primary Election, I have received many emails and cards with kind thoughts and words of encouragement. Prompted by these and my own reflections, I’d like to share a few thoughts.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve as a candidate for governor, and the 114,000 voters who supported me are, without doubt, a future force for change.

To all of you, I have one request now: join me in full support of Martha Coakley and the Democratic ticket on November 4^th. Although we do not agree on all of the issues, I have no doubt at all that the Commonwealth’s future will be in excellent hands in a Coakley Administration. I cannot say the same about the prospect of four years under Charlie Baker and the Republican Party.

As for our efforts, I cannot thank you enough! My gratitude to all of those who supported me has grown ever stronger with the opportunity to rest and relax a bit. What you achieved on my behalf and on behalf of our shared agenda is amazing – far beyond usual expectations for a newcomer facing the uphill battle that we faced. I hope you feel proud.

We placed single payer health care on the map for our state and for the nation with more force than any prior political campaign in any state has managed to do. We stood firm in opposition to casinos for Massachusetts. We made the case for significant reforms in education, health care delivery, environmental stewardship, and criminal justice, as well as for world-class aims in our transportation system. And, most important to me, we highlighted poverty and inequality as the most important issues for our time, and articulated an agenda for the end of hunger, homelessness, and poverty in the Commonwealth. Together, we made it possible for candidates and the electorate to talk about these issues with heads held high.

I believe that the future well-being of the Democratic Party lies in its unapologetic and firm commitment to the progressive values that together we explored over and over again in this campaign: social justice, equality, and compassion in public policy. Our state and our nation are hungry for leaders who remind us all of our shared interest in these values and in human rights. The Democratic Party stands for those values and Martha Coakley will champion them.

Warmly,

Don

P.S. there have been many requests for the speech I gave on the night of the election. Click here to watch it.