Posted on 08/25/2004 4:08:56 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - No sooner had George Soros vanished from the media spotlight when another liberal billionaire stepped up to the microphone. Yesterday it was John Sperling's turn to offend Republicans by disparaging everything about the so-called red states.
The 83-year-old Democrat and John Kerry supporter released his book, "The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America," which chronicles a winning strategy for Democrats, according to Sperling. Ignore conservative values, he advises, and return to the days of FDR's liberalism.
Sperling, who unsuccessfully tried to clone his dog but had more luck with his pet cat, appeared on the U.S. political scene several weeks ago when he began running newspaper ads that divided America into "retro" and "metro" camps.
The cool and hip metropolitans -- represented by Kerry, Hillary Clinton and Michael Moore -- always come out on top of their retro counterparts - President Bush, Newt Gingrich and Mel Gibson -- at least in Sperling's world view.
"The Republican Party under its current leadership protects the interests of its crony capitalist benefactors in Retro America and the rich in general," according to the book. "To a large extent, this political agenda is backward-looking and inappropriate to the interests of the people living in Metro America."
Among the other differences: Sperling says there are 245 Nobel laureates residing in metro states and just 23 in retro states. Metro states pay substantially more in taxes, yet retro states end up getting more in federal subsidies. The tiny retro states (with 35 percent of the population) have greater control over the presidential election than the substantially more populous metro states.
Sperling is spending $2 million of his own fortune on the retro vs. metro campaign, but he insists he's not trying to divide America any more than it's already split. He uses the familiar red state vs. blue state map, except he defines 25 states as retro and 25 as metro.
He wants Democrats to take his advice by proposing ideas like universal health care, universal child care, universal pre-school and universal school lunches. He said those ideas alone would win over 16 million women who otherwise wouldn't vote.
But those items weren't on display the Democratic National Convention last month, and it's unclear if Kerry will divert from his terrorism and economic agenda to focus on those domestic issues.
Part of the problem, according to Sperling and his associates, is that moderate Democrats are resisting the liberal agenda. Sperling and a colleague repeatedly ridiculed the centrist Democratic Leadership Council nearly as much as they attacked the GOP at Tuesday's press conference.
"In other words," Sperling said at the conclusion of his remarks, "the Democrats have to get rid of the DLC, they've got stop triangulating and they've got to figure out who the hell they are."
The DLC's policy director, Ed Kilgore, doesn't see things quite the same way. Kilgore said Sperling fails to recognize that not all states, or all Americans for that matter, can be easily lumped into two camps.
"The book fails to acknowledge that there are 10 to 13 states that fall in between metro and retro America," Kilgore said. "Winning a presidential election requires winning a majority of those."
Meanwhile, Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson didn't mince words when responding to Sperling's attack on the GOP-dominated "retro" states.
"The ads are extremely condescending for those of us who happen to come from the Midwest or from the South," Iverson said. "Their ads further attempt to divide America rather than bring it together. It's a message that the American people will reject."
While Sperling and his associates are more in line with the MoveOn.org wing of the left -- the same Fenton Communications folks who helped build the MoveOn powerhouse are handling his campaign -- he's also a loyal Kerry supporter.
He proudly boasted Tuesday about helping raise $750,000 for Kerry earlier this year. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Sperling personally has given $117,000 to Democrats or left-leaning causes just in the 2004 election cycle. Kerry received his $2,000 donation on May 27.
According to the Boston Globe, Sperling has teamed with Soros to fund ballot initiatives that would legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.
And like Soros, the billionaire Sperling has no problem spreading his money around. He made his fortune -- estimated by Forbes at $1.2 billion last year -- by creating the for-profit University of Phoenix. In recent years, he's poured some of his money into the failed attempt to clone his dog.
Now he wants to change the course of history by handing the Democrats a playbook for the 2004 election. But considering Kerry's distance from Soros -- his ideas, not his money -- the campaign seems likely to take a pass on Sperling's plan.
(Robert B. Bluey is a staff writer for CNSNews.com.)
Why stop there ?!? How about raising the minimum wage to $50 dollars an hour, universal home ownership, universal automobile (new of course) ownership, and mandating 12 weeks of paid vacation a year... That should be good for at least another 20 or 30 million votes...
Of course all this will be paid for by "asking" the richest 2% to contribute more... unfortunately to pay for it all we would have to raise their marginal tax rate to 500%, but they are just mean ol' rich and its time they pay their "fair share". Of course in a few years the nation will be bankrupt and inflation will be running about 50% annually, but who cares as long as democrats can win votes?
Where has hanoi jane spread her money to the dnc and hanoi john?
At 82 he should have served in the military, yet I can find no reference to it.
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Thanks for the info on the school. Perhaps his enrollment will drop around 50% Heinz now that you have posted the connection and name of the school.
I hope the rats take this senile old fool's advice and completely divorve themselves from reality.
Two points, this time:
Metro? Isn't that sort of like a Yugo with less leg room?
Here in Colorado (not Denver/Boulder), most people accept you as you are and you can go to most establishments and see people from all walks of life. They also don't care where you come from as long as you are decent. Not much distinction between different classes.
I would not fit in with these Urban type of people especially in LA with my political viewpoints. Everyone even the poor drive nice cars but beneath the surface, how heavy are they in debt to support the lifestyle of keeping up with the Jones' ?
Even though I live in a modest house (paid for), have a Master's Degree and have some wealth as in stock investments (enough to where I can buy a Hummer or MB if I want to), if you see me, I am no different than any other average person.
read later
"He favors a black leather biker jacket and a Greek sailor cap".
http://www.thelemming.com/lemming/issue1/music/judas%20priest%20copy.jpg
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