Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Political Fallacy



I saw the image above at Mock, Paper, Scissors and it got me thinking. My first thoughts were, why does McCain need so many cars and homes for just he and Cindy? Why do they need a pick-up truck? Why does he need three golf carts, one I understand maybe, but three? So I went through the usual liberal thoughts on what a rich asshole McCain is and he is and I will never ever ever vote for him.

But then I started to think about Obama. We get this image that he is a regular guy, that he is not a rich asshole. He only has one home and only one car. Hmmmmmm.... well maybe they only have one car because Michelle only needs one car for her and the two girls, OK. And they only have one home, in Chicago, because, well, Michelle and the girls live there and that is Barak's primary home. But then where does he live when he is supposed to be in D.C. for Congress and how does to he get to work? Ya see, we think of Obama as this regular guy, he does not have a lot of homes and cars like McCain, but he still probably has a condo in D.C. or the surrounding area. Maybe he rents this condo and maybe he owns it, but either way, he has a residence in DC. And where ever he lives, I am relatively certain that he is not taking the bus or Metro to work. So either he has a car in DC, he rents a car or the Congress provides a car for his use, but then who is paying for this car if he doesn't own one and who is paying for his residence in DC if he doesn't own one?

We like to think of our presidential candidates as just like us. We like to think that they have jobs like us and houses like us and cars like us, but this is simply untrue. In order to be involved in politics on the national level, you have to be wealthy. You have to have the money to put into getting your campaign started. You have to have the money to keep yourself going if your campaign struggles and supposedly you should have the money to be able to afford to go to these fundraisers and such. So you have to be wealthy. It bothers me when we try to think of candidates as anything other than wealthy. While we struggle to pay bills and many are struggling with mortgage payments, neither of these candidates has these issues. Maybe Obama grew up in a family that struggled, but he has not had these same issues in many years. So lets face the fact that neither of these men are working class and both are in the upper tax bracket and worry more about their policies and not their financial situations.

5 comments:

Little Merry Sunshine said...

Quite a few Senators live together in DC because it's so expensive.

In fact, there was a story in the NY Times about Senators Durbin (D-IL), Schumer (D-NY) and Reps. George Miller and Bill Delahunt (also Dems) living together.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/garden/18roomies.html

joshhill1021 said...

Thank you for the information LMS, that is really interesting and good to know.

The Cunning Runt said...

Your point, My Friend (...shit, now I can't even say that without visualizing Old What's-His-Face...) is well taken.

I'm not so interested, though, in thinking of a President or Pol as "being like me" as I am in thinking that he's "caring about me."

There are ultra rich people (think Bill Gates or George Soros)who do good things with their money, and I refuse to hate them for their success.

But then there are the greedy scum who suck the blood out of working people to buy their Island Retreats. Them I have no problem disliking.

Comrade Kevin said...

As others have said, wealth is not the problem. It's tempting to paint all of the rich with a broad brush, but there are many wealthy people who do use their resources responsibly.

It's an oversimplification to use money as some qualifying factor. In reality, morality, honesty, and humility are the traits in short supply in many Americans. And I wish we find a way to encourage this kind of behavior because a lack of them has contributed to where we are right now.

joshhill1021 said...

CR and CK- You both hit my point exactly. The money is not the issue, but I feel like that is the focus sometimes. We point out that McCain is wealthy, but really that is no the issue, it is how he handles the wealth and his views on the issues that matter to me like abortion and foreign policy that I have a problem with.