Put down that Valium and back away. Now.

The real problem with Washington, DC, I maintain, is that there seem to be sedatives in the water. On which note, I'm going to have to disagree with Mike Elk that elitism is at fault [1], as such, if only because I think that way of talking about the problematic Beltway disconnect from reality might hide solutions from the people who most need to look for them.

We talk about jobs here a lot, for example. Some people might hear jobs as just another in a long line of similar-sounding issues. Other people know that jobs mean livelihoods, and that changes everything.

A clerk position at WalMart is no more or less a job than being a union machinist in a fabrication plant. Both are jobs, both mean one less person getting counted in the unemployment statistics.

But a clerk position at WalMart is not a livelihood in the same way. Not even a little bit.

A clerk position at WalMart means that you live in constant fear of a management that regards you as a liability, that you get paid very little. It means that should you have a family depending significantly on your income, you will all, always live on a knife's edge of ruin.

A union machinist job means that you have the respect of your coworkers and that, standing together, you can make management respect you and treat you like partners in the business you help build. It means that you can take care of your family and don't have to be as afraid of the people you love getting sick or having unexpected expenses come up. It means better, cleaner, safer housing and good food.

Or, to really sum it up, there's my favorite line from the movie Bulworth:

"What the ****; how a... how a young man gonna take care of his financial responsibilities workin' at mother****in' Burger King? He ain't."

That's what jobs mean to people who haven't been working in the Beltway for a very long time.

Take any issue, try it. Forget about being so ****ing polite and professional, forget about not wanting to worry anyone, and get in touch with the existential terror that lives in the heart of every person. The fear of ending up broke, sick and alone on the street, helpless to prevent harm to the people you love, helpless to make their lives better, unable to be valued for your contributions. That fear is why people care about whatever they care about, why they look for distraction in whatever circus comes to town, and you better speak to it or you should just go stand in a corner and talk to a wall.

You could have gone to an Ivy League school, or a state school, or a community college, or you could have a GED, you can still forget what that fear means. If progressives want to reach people where they live, they must start acting like people's livelihoods, their fears, their health risks, are urgent to them.

Urgency can't be taught. It can't be conferred on someone by a particular set of life experiences, or their lack. You can't explain to someone how they should act or talk if something is urgent to them. The emotion itself, the drive and intensity, their presence informs action in a way that only a sociopath can effectively fake.

Or, to continue with the movie references, this is the Democrats' Rhett Butler question. Do you give a damn, or not?

If you give a damn, then it will be your mission to tell people that if they stumble, their fellow citizens and the government we all support will be there to catch them, to make sure that they don't fall all the way down, that there will be a couple mattresses between them and the floor. It will be your mission to tell people that you will work to make their employers treat them with dignity, that they don't have to fear for their families if they get sick, and that you will work for these outcomes because you value their presence and contributions.

Every issue raised by progressives comes to this question of whether we are all in this together, whether we all understand that everyone stands at the edge of their own abyss, their own Hell on Earth. Do we want to spare each other that suffering, or what?

That's really why LGBT families want marriage equality, so they can look after each other in case anything bad happens. That's why women want full coverage of their health care needs, because they risk everything when they become pregnant, because their bodies are more likely to break down in unpredictable ways throughout adulthood, and you can't guarantee them support in any other way. That's why all the people who can't pass as ethnic Europeans want racial discrimination ended, because it interferes with their ability to provide a good, dignified life for their loved ones and communities. That's why people in working class jobs want job security and enforcement of employer regulations on workers' treatment, because they have responsibilities they need to meet and for that, they need the cooperation of an employer that has a lot more power than they do.

What we should always be saying is, "The abyss can't have you." Or, if we really want to cut loose, "The ****ing abyss can't ****ing have you if I have a single ****ing thing to say about it!"

That'd work. Even if the person who said it went to Harvard. You just have to really mean it.