Woo Sang-ho, "The Falsehood of Progressives? Wrong Target... 'Tears' Come Before 'Rusty Water'"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] Woo Sang-ho, a member of the Democratic Party running for the Seoul mayoral by-election, strongly refuted criticisms calling his election pledge 'elitism and emotional manipulation,' saying, "The places we must care for first are not those leaking rust-colored water but those shedding tears."

On the 29th, Woo Sang-ho mentioned on Facebook, "A political blogger wrote about my criticism of candidate Na Kyung-won, who sympathizes with the 2.3 billion won rust-colored water apartment, calling it 'typical 1980s progressive rhetoric that does not deviate an inch from the movement-right's characteristic elitism and dichotomous good-versus-evil concept,'" adding, "Delusions are free."

Woo said, "As someone running for Seoul mayor, if my statement that we should prioritize the housing of 230,000 semi-basement low-income residents over the 2.3 billion won apartment with rust-colored water sounded like progressive rhetoric nonsense, then the address is wrong."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He continued, "The essence is not about real estate prices," emphasizing, "It is about paying more attention to those enduring harsh realities at the margins of our society."

Woo stated, "Just as the saying goes that the most painful part of my body is the most important, the places we must care for first are not those leaking rust-colored water but those shedding tears."

This rebuttal by Woo is interpreted as targeting the criticism by anonymous commentator Jo Eun-san, who wrote 'Seven Proposals for Reform.'

On the same day, Jo Eun-san posted on his blog, including Woo's article, criticizing, "Worthless politicians who are only skilled in emotional manipulation rhetoric but lack any sense of reality are already rampant in the National Assembly," adding, "It seems they do not understand the economic correlation between the 2.3 billion won apartment and the 230,000 semi-basement low-income residents at all."

He further questioned, "Do you know who actually shattered the dreams of homeownership for the 230,000 semi-basement low-income residents first?" and criticized, "They have no interest in controlling housing prices and only use emotional manipulation of semi-basement residents to scrape votes, deceiving the people. Which subject, volume, or chapter of the Democratic Party’s textbook contains this manual of misconduct?" Along with this, he wrote, "The people must become wiser first."

In response, Woo said, "If I can wipe away the tears of the low-income people, I can and will do anything beyond being called emotional manipulation or decadence," adding, "Because I believe that is the duty of those who engage in politics in this land."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.