The Political Class: Just Like The Kindergarten Playground

Believe me, I do try to look for the good in our politicians. However, they constantly remind me of what it was like in the kindergarten playground at lunch, let's not do anything construction, let's just call each other bad names. This analogy came to mind today when I read that Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone, speaking for the Democratic National Committee, tried to characterize Tea Party members and their supporters as elitists. My personal definition of an elitist is someone who pictures themselves as better and more deserving of favored treatment than others around himself, usually because he has a self perceived superiority in intellect or wealth, in other words a snob. I am assuming that Pallone was trying to portray Tea Party people as out of touch with regular voters and that regular voters have little in common with the Tea Party positions.

This gets me back to the kindergarten analogy. Rather than engage in straight forward debate of the issues, the Democrats, in this case, would rather throw derogatory names around and try to win with public relations spins and not facts and performance. The truth is, if the political class was serving this country, and eventually solved a major problem or two such as the drug problem, failing public schools, energy vulnerability, foreign affairs, rising health care costs, etc., the Tea Party movement would not exist. Now that it does exist, problem solving and intelligent debate goes out the window and personal attacks and political maneuvering reign supreme.

Beyond this childish way to address the issues, who really are the elitists in this country today? If you believe an April CBS/New York Times poll:

• According to the Denver Post and the poll, Tea Party members are not right wing kooks.
• On average, Tea Party members are better educated and slightly more affluent than the average American.
• 57% of them support gay marriage or civil unions.
• 65% of them support legal access to abortion.
• A plurality of them do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be President.

Hardly sounds like elitists to me. And even if they were, why not engage them in debate and argue the issues rather than stand behind childish press releases?

Who are the elitists in this country? Consider the following analysis from CBS News from late 2009 which summarized work done by the Center For Responsive Politics:

• 44% or 237 members of Congress are likely millionaires while only 1% of the overall United States population are millionaires.
• Four out of the top five richest people in Congress are Democrats.
• These top five are all worth over $200 million each with two of them worth about a quarter billion each.
• Fourteen out of the top twenty five richest people in Congress are Democrats.
• The median net worth of the people serving in the Senate is $1.79 million, indicating that quite a few more than half are millionaires.
• These estimates do not include their salaries or the worth of their homes and other residences so that these estimates may be on the low side.
• In a disgusting conflict of interest highlight of the analysis, the Center For Responsive Politics noted that "in some cases, [lawmakers'] wealth is being derived form the very companies that in many cases benefit from taxpayers. The top companies at which members of Congress are investing, many of them are TARP recipients that have received billions and billions of dollars from you and me." These companies include Bank of America and Goldman Sachs.

Take these elitist type numbers and combine them with two more facts about the American political class: Bill and Hillary Clinton have earned well over $100 million over the past decade or so and are about to spend anywhere from $3 million to $5 million to marry off their daughter in the very near future. If you divide the low end of the estimate by the expected number of guests (500), we see that the Clintons are about to spend $6,000 per guest at their daughter's wedding. Nothing says elitist to me than that obscene number.

Thus, Pallone should maybe stop calling people names that do not correspond to the facts of life. Tea Party members are much closer to the average American than those serving the political class and even if they were not, kindergarten name calling is no substitute for honest and open debate of the issues. Tea Party people are entitled to their opinions without harassment from politicians.

This topic brings a number of Steps from "Love My Country, Loathe my Government" into play:

• Our old favorite, Step 39, which would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, would certainly help destroy the elitism aura the political class likes to shroud themselves in by bringing in dedicated Americans for a short amount of time to serve their country without becoming so self centered that they view any differing opinion as a threat to be wiped out and not a chance to debate for the good of the country.
• Step 41, a Step we do not talk about often, also comes into play here in that this step would not allow any Federal politician whose net worth was over $3 million to draw a Federal salary. If you are worth $200 million, as some of our current politicians are, than your Federal salary of $170,000 or so is about .085% of your net worth, i.e. it is a fly speck relative to you bank account and balance sheet. This money would be held by the Treasury as a small contribution to offsetting our national debt. You should be in Washington to serve the country, if you can afford to do it without a salary, that is what you should do as a symbolic way of helping to fix our financial straits.
• Step 42, another step we do not talk much about, is also in play in this area. Many past Presidents, but especially Clinton, have left office and made untold millions of dollars after their term was up. Step 42 would set criteria for them to start paying back the country for their Secret Service expenses if their income or net worth exceeded certain thresholds. For the Clintons, and their $100 million earnings, with more to come in the future, the American taxpayer should not have to pay for their Secret Service protection. The wealth they have accumulated is a result of their time in office should be used to pay for their own protection.

Nobody wants to relive their kindergarten years but, unfortunately, we seem to do it just about every day when politicians throw around names rather than solutions. That is why we need to execute our own solution in November and throw all incumbents out of office and finally graduate at least to first grade from an issue resolution perspective.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Also visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/