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/

A Few Rays Of Hope

Unfortunately, many of the posts to these blogs are not optimistic. By constantly identifying waste, fraud, corruption, and inefficiencies that the political class perpetrates on American and its citizens, it does get a little depressing. However, in our short post today, lets look at a few hopeful signs for restoring sanity and freedom to the country and its citizens.



Lets start with a special election that will be held on Tuesday in Massachusetts for the Senate seat that was occupied by Ted Kennedy, a Democrat. Kennedy had held that Massachusetts Senate seat for the Democrats for decades. Massachusetts had gone for a Democrat for President all but once in the past sixty years or so. Massachusetts is one of the most politically liberal states in the union and votes heavily Democrat. Massachusetts has had a universal health care plan (one that is failing miserably) very similar to the one that the Obama administration and Democratic Congressman are pushing and crafting behind closed doors. However, despite all of the Democratic Party history, a Republican is on the verge to taking the seat out of the Democrat's column and moving over to the Republicans. The Democrats are so desperate that Obama actually campaigned there yesterday, an event that would have been unnecessary and downright absurd several weeks ago. It looks like that even in heavily democratic Massachusetts, Americans are starting to realize that the current political class, regardless of party, needs to be changed out and the status quo upset. And Democrats in control in Massachusetts cannot get any more status quo.



As a second ray of hope, I refer to a short article in the January 15, 2010 issue of The Week Magazine. The article consists of a quote from David Brooks who writes for the New York Times. A synopsis of Mr. Brooks' quotes include the following:

• According to a recent NBC New/Wall Street Journal poll, 41 percent of Americans have a positive view of the Tea Party movement. This makes it more popular than either major party.


• The Tea Party movement is against big government, big media, big business, and affluent professionals that appear to be conspiring to create "a self serving oligarchy - with bloated government, unsustainable deficits, high taxes, and intrusive regulation."


• A year ago, Obama's supporters had the passion, now the tea Party Brigades have all the intensity.

The Tea Party movement has gone from a rag tag, unknown entity that was ridiculed and mocked by the mainstream media and the political class as a bunch of right wing nuts, to a viable political force in less than a few years. A very, very good sign of hope that America is awakening.

Finally, we have reported favorable trends from a number of recent opinion polls, both in this blog and in "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." In one poll, respondents by a wide majority polled that they would vote to dump the entire Congress rather than keep it intact if they could. All valid polls that track Congressional approval ratings usually have the positive respondents numbering less than 30% and the negative respondents numbering over 60%. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that only 22% approve of what Congress is doing while 68% disapprove and the latest CNN/Opinion Research poll has the approval rating at only 22% and disapproval rating at a whopping 77%. In both polls, by a margin of more than 3-to-1, Americans are waking up to the incompetence, waste, and insanity that the political class is all about. Hopefully, this trend will continue and we can get to a point where politicians do what is right for the nation and its citizens and not what is right for their individual political careers, two often opposing actions.

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.