I’m struck today by what I view as my liberal friends returning to same-o, same-o just two months after the election. Whines about the environment. Whines about gay rights. Whines about race. Whines about the arts, abortion, business, Iraq and now Tsunami relief.

I watched a wonderful PBS documentary on Woodrow Wilson the other night on American Experience. Wilson had his faults, but he won as a Democrat on a “common man” platform. His domestic program, called the New Freedom, sought to extend opportunity to all and wrest power away from entrenched interests. He put in place anti-trust legislation, a Constitutional amendment to have Senators elected by public vote, workmen’s compensation, child labor laws, and the right of women to vote. He saw two Americas and did something about it.

So I’ve been asking myself lately, who speaks for the common man today? The big mistake of liberalism is that, by insisting that America is a mosaic of extremes instead of a melting pot, they’ve unknowingly denied the existence of a “common” man and, as such, their roots. That’s just fine with the Republicans. Here’s a bulletin: the common man is very much alive today, and he’s damned sick of hearing you whine about things that don’t concern him! He’s also searching for somebody who will listen.

Wilson’s party today sounds like a broken record of defeat, a hodge-podge of special interest hot-potatoes that don’t begin to touch the common man, and they’ll never beat the GOP unless they speak in a voice that the people recognize. That’s why I still believe the time is right for a third choice in American politics, one that will rail once again against big business and side with the common man — without all the baggage of those special interests.

One of the reasons I feel this way is that the Internet — and specifically the blogosphere — enables a new party. After all, what is the blogosphere but the common man speaking out? We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.

(Note to my liberal friends: the term “man” — as used above — does not denote gender.)

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