Green's evolution from "being a Democratic hack to being more of a progressive movement person" originated in work he did for the party on the 2002 senatorial campaign of Tim Johnson in South Dakota, for which Green served as press secretary. It was there he saw the power of economic populism work for his candidate.Neoliberal economic policies and the warfare state are not the direction the United States needs to be going. And if either of the two major parties are going to exert real leadership to move in a more constructive direction, it will be the Democrats. It's efforts like that of the PCCC that are needed to get us there.
At one point in the campaign, Green says, a big agribusiness firm took out ads against Johnson -- who had a record of supporting family farms -- in every daily newspaper in the state. And Johnson decided to fight back aggressively.
"And there was a key moment where there was a press event at a local library, that was just flooded with all these local people in cowboy hats," Green recalls. "And there was this one guy who gets up there, and he's like, 'Look around this room. Look at all these cowboy hats. Pretty much every one of us is a Republican. But we're standing with Tim Johnson because he fighting for us for our economic interests and our family farms.' And I was like, huh, I mean, these are all people who are very pro-life, very pro-gun, and went to church every week -- culturally conservative -- but by being willing to pick the fight on economic populism issues, this Democrat was able to get their support. And if he hadn't, the only contrast in the race would have been on these cultural divide issues, and he would have lost."
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