Politicians fight to save Main Street
Purcellville, VA — The shop on Main Street, with its neatly stacked bottles, gourmet cheeses and glass case full of fancy chocolates, will soon be closing for business.
People just are not interested in excesses these days and sales have dwindled.
“People stopped going out and shopping; people stopped having parties,” said Duane Harris, the owner of Purcellville Wine and Gourmet. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to make it.”
And while politicians on Capitol Hill – about 80 kilometres away – wrangle over a rescue effort worth $700 billion (Dh2.6 trillion) that they claim will help the Main Streets across America, Mr Harris said his shop will not be saved by the bailout.
“I am not too big to fail, but I guess I am too small to save,” he said.
A politician rarely gives a speech about the financial crisis on Wall Street in which he or she can resist a reference or two to “Main Street”, the rhetorically convenient and suddenly overused way to say “ordinary, small-town America”.
“There’s too many Main Street enterprises and families who are at risk here,” John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, told ABC on Tuesday.
Barack Obama, his Democratic rival, promises in a new television spot to “bring back our Main Streets all across America”.
Both candidates, and just about every other politician who is using the cliché, are hoping to strike a chord with US voters, many of whom still live in small towns centred on a commercial strip called Main Street.
To some the mere mention of that place conjures the very image of the American Dream: a road lined with family-owned shops and US flags, a place where war veterans and beauty queens are cheered in parades.
But to many, the American Dream is under threat, and they are looking to Capitol Hill for answers.
