[Vision2020] Politicians Should Protect the Poor, Not Pander to the Rich

[Tom Hansen]

"This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores.  Some people 
call you the elites.  I call you my base."

- Presidential candidate George W. Bush (October 20, 2000, at the Alfred 
E. Smith memorial dinner)

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"You cannot serve both God and Money."

- Matthew 6:24

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>From today's (February 16, 2008) Spokesman Review -

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Politicians Should Protect the Poor, Not Pander to the Rich 
By Donald Clegg 

I always enjoy synchronicity. Or, as my dictionary somewhat longwindedly 
says, "the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly 
related but have no discernible causal connection." 

I'd already started this column, including one of my favorite epigrams by 
Dubya, when I read an editorial by Providence Journal columnist Froma 
Harrop which included the same quote.

And, still more synchronicity, she's also been reading investigative 
journalist David Cay Johnston's new book, "Free Lunch" (Portfolio 
Hardcover, $24.95).
 
The subtitle, "How The Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves At 
Government Expense (And Stick You With The Bill)," pretty much says it 
all. 

Johnston's last book, "Perfectly Legal," described the reworking of our 
tax code to the benefit of the super-rich. "Free Lunch," which sometimes 
reads as if written by Stephen King, describes the adverse effects of 
these changes on virtually everyone not in that tippy-top 1/10th of 1 
percent – a mere 300,000 Americans.

A measly 300,000, with as much income as the bottom half of our country's 
citizens. Can you say 150 million people? Hallelujah.

Put simply, we're getting the shaft. Put simply, the playing field is as 
straight as a funhouse mirror. Put simply, millions upon millions of 
Americans have virtually no chance at all, right from the get-go, because 
they lack the myriad advantages that the haves and have-mores take for 
granted. 

Proper nutrition, early childhood education, adequate daycare, ready 
access to good health care – to name just a few basics that a civil and 
just society should provide – are so beyond the reach of many that we 
might just as well be living in Mexico, Brazil or Russia.

Johnston notes that these are the countries whose distribution of wealth 
most closely resembles ours at this moment.

But, hey, "I mean, people have access to health care in America. After 
all, you just go to an emergency room." (George W. Bush, Cleveland, July 
10, 2007.) Why worry?

Contempt for the poor remains the standard for many of the privileged, of 
course, as well as those, shall we say, of a particular political (and 
often religious) persuasion, whether privileged or not.

A couple of more quotes:

•"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were 
underprivileged anyway, so this – this (she chuckles) is working very well 
for them." – on evacuees at the Houston Astrodome, in the wake of 
Hurricane Katrina, having been dispossessed of home and belongings.

•"Poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen not to 
be rich, doesn't mean you're willing to kill." –Washington, D.C., May 19, 
2003.

While I'm at it, let's go for one more:

•"The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the 
powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and 
mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of 
our moral sentiments." – circa 1759

So who's behind door No. 1? That would be Barbara Bush, mother of the 
compassionate conservative Christian lurking behind door No. 2, G.W. Bush.

The third? Just that author of "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of 
The Wealth of Nations," the good Scotsman Adam Smith himself, who might be 
a bit ticked at the distortions of, and uses put to, his magnum opus some 
200 years later.

I put to mind these quotes when I consider our priorities, which are part 
and parcel of our beliefs, principles and morals.

I place a priority on equal opportunity for all, equal treatment for all, 
and I have a certain fondness for the third clause of Article 6 of the 
Constitution. You know, the one that goes, "No religious Test shall ever 
be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the 
United States."

I put to mind these quotes when I consider, this political season, the 
usual pandering by almost every candidate to the religious vote. 
Specifically, of course, the Christian vote. And most specifically, the 
fundamentalist Christian vote.

Who has the most, of the rightest kind, of Jesus? Who cares?

My question is this: Who has the most contempt for the poor? If that's 
your man – or woman – you lack all "Christianity," no matter what your 
religion or lack thereof.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow,
Idaho

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