Politico reported yesterday that if Mitt Romney runs for president again he will make poverty one
of the three pillars of his campaign (the middle class and foreign policy being
the other two.) Ohio’s re-elected Republican Governor John Kasich said that in
his second term he would renew his call to help “people in the shadows”.
Jeb Bush is talking about income inequality and those who believe “the American
dream is now out of their reach.”
The media will view all of this as political positioning. Democrats will
reflexively find fault. Many of my anti-hunger colleagues will be cynical
and dismissive. But this is a moment in time too important to treat casually or
caustically.
If the first
responsibility of anti-poverty and anti-hunger advocates is to the poor and
struggling Americans we exist to serve, then we have a responsibility to seize
this moment and treat it anew.
We should be
reaching out to national Republican leaders and sharing with them what their
statehouse colleagues like Governor Sandoval in Nevada or Governor Snyder in
Michigan have done to promote increased school breakfast participation.
We should be generous in sharing advice and policy ideas for programs that
work. Most of all we should be listening with open hearts and open minds
to see if there is an authentic opportunity to work together.
While we know
there will be deep disagreements about the best means to the end, the fact that
there is an emerging consensus to treat poverty and inequality as a national
priority is a huge step forward. If a new door is opening, even if only a
crack, who knows what kind of breeze might blow through?
We may someday
soon look back on this as nothing more than lip service. But even lip service
about poverty has been all too lacking. At least for this week, Governors
Romney, Kasich and Bush are giving voice to something other than
politics-as-usual. Let’s makes sure that we do too.
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