Argument for a Liberal Government # 2: It's All About the Benjamins

A note to poor people in America…

You need to stop whining about how the government doesn’t care about your needs, okay? I’m serious – please just shut the hell up.

The straight-forward fact is that the government DOESN’T care about your needs. It just doesn’t. And not only that, but any political candidate who’s advocating helping the poor (John Edwards, for instance,) is not poor themselves, and so are more likely to push for something a little more meaningful for them when they actually DO get power.

I don’t mean to to sound callous or heartless, here, but let’s face facts.

You don’t vote. I mean, I understand – between working to make ends meet, “Survivor” and beer, you just flat don’t have the time, do you? An hour every two to four years, man. That’s TIME-consuming. But what that means is that you have no power in our system. You don’t like what they do? Too bad. What are you gonna do? FIRE THEM? Not likely if you don’t vote. You gave up the power, you deal with the consequences.

You don’t protest in any meaningful way. You may bitch and moan and gripe and complain and maybe carry a sign and yell in front of a building somewhere in the hopes that you get on TV, but what difference is that going to make? You want to protest? Form a human chain across a major road in your city. If you link arms, the police AREN’T going to be able to separate you without violence… and trust me, with the prevalence of video cameras these days, that’s unlikely. But who cares, you’re not going to do it anyway.

You don’t donate to any political cause. I mean, I know that money is hard to come by. You COULD maybe give up your occasional Starbucks or candy bar for a month and throw that money into a pot to donate at the end of the month without inconveniencing yourself too severely, but what do I know?

And God knows that you’re not going to run for political office. You may have personal reasons – I, for instance, am unelectable in America today because I like sex – or it may just be a case of time and seed money. That’s tough. Now, having said that, I actually DID run for political office when I was living in Alaska. I didn’t like the tone of the political discussion in Anchorage, so I ran for city council and dragged the issue of providing reliable bus service to Anchorage citizens kicking and screaming into the arena. I may not have won (although I did net about 130 votes) but I did get the other candidates talking about that issue, very important to poor Alaskans.

But what do I know, from my current perch comfortably in the vanishing middle class? I mean, according to the US government, I make slightly more than the mean income for Americans, so I’m right up the middle of the middle class. But I tell you that I HAVE BEEN poor. I have seen hungry. I was unemployed with a wife and two kids in the most expensive state in the union for nine miserable months. But I guess that I don’t count in what I just said, because even at my poorest, I voted… and I protested… and I donated. You want to be heard? THEN BE HEARD.

So what does this have to do with a liberal vs. conservative outlook in government? Think about the presidents who have done the most for the poor, and you see a roll call of our most liberal leaders. Both Roosevelts, Johnson, Carter… even Kennedy, although to a reduced degree.

But you know what, your vote probably doesn’t matter, right? I mean, all the elections are rigged anyway. And one vote really CAN’T make a difference, right? At least… that’s what the conservatives would like you to believe.

Vote, dammit.

Peace.

Randal