We complain about political rhetoric, but we go for a lot of it too (Part One)

One thing communicators know is, you can bullshit a bullshitter. That's because bullshitters allow themselves to be bullshitted just as easy as the next guy (who is usually something of a bullhitter himself).

An example, briefly safe to offer moments before the 2016 presidential election heats up:

Democratic politicians always talk about the middle class, rarely mention the working class and almost never utter the word "poor." That's because they don’t want to remind us that there are poor people, which is a real buzzkill in a hopeful-sounding campaign speech.

And yet, reminding us there are poor people and proposing sensible ideas for dealing with poverty is ostensibly a main function of the Democratic Party. And wanting alleviate poverty is one of the reasons many of us think we are Democrats is it not?

I am a Democrat not because I’m afraid some middle class factory worker will not be able to afford a new boat, but because I’m afraid he’ll have his house foreclosed on and fall into poverty. And poverty sucks in this country—a lot less than it sucks in Haiti, but more than it sucks in anyone’s dream of a great society.

And poverty is attached stubbornly to race, as anyone can see. “I think it’s terribly sad that only black people live in this neighborhood,” Scout said on a recent sortie to the West Side Chicago school her mom teaches in. It’s also terribly sad that Democratic politicians won’t discuss the most stubborn shame in America.

It wasn’t always this way. Listen to Robert F. Kennedy talk about poverty, right down to the “dilapidated” housing in the “ghetto.”

Democrats will bullshit us just as much as we let them.

Let's stop letting them.

Don't get cocky, Republicans. Tomorrow, you get yours.