You know what Reagan did? He’d talk about a real Average Joe, Mr. or Mrs. So and So in Such and Such Town, what their aspirations were, what their dreams were. He would show what they did and how they didn’t want government hand outs, just to be left alone to live their dreams. Then he would talk about all Americans everywhere with similar dreams of owning their own homes and working hard to provide for their futures - that America was about THEM and their freedom not government. In doing so, he demonstrated what we’re all about. More effective, clearer than vague Leninist “empathy” (”to the masses”) or “compassion.”
“You know what Reagan did? He’d talk about a real Average Joe, Mr. or Mrs. So and So in Such and Such Town, what their aspirations were, what their dreams were. He would show what they did and how they didn’t want government hand outs, just to be left alone to live their dreams. Then he would talk about all Americans everywhere with similar dreams of owning their own homes and working hard to provide for their futures - that America was about THEM and their freedom not government. In doing so, he demonstrated what we’re all about.”
But what you’re describing is... empathy (even if wasn’t called that at the time).
Plus, you have a POTUS in office who I, and many others, believe is a narcissist (along with a lot of other narcissistic Weinercrats), and the biggest thing narcissists completely lack is empathy. They view their smothering Big Gov programs as “brilliantly” helping everybody (because they are the ones in charge of them, unlike those “anti-intellectual” types)- completely oblivious to the misery and pain they cause in everybody else. Obama can’t understand this misery- despite all the talk from the media about his growing up with a single mother, his supposed poverty (while attending an elite private high school), etc.- because there’s nothing there underneath for him to feel.
Yeah, ‘empathy to the masses’ sounds too much like ‘hope and change’.