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Our government has been taken over by the wealthy, it has been taken over by those who believe we need tax cuts for the rich and social services cuts for the poor. We have an election system that is decided largely on who can raise the most money. It is designed to make it nearly impossible for any poor person to ever have the resources to run a serious campaign for public office, and so we can be assured that our policy is created by the haves while the have nots are not even given a seat at the table.
But what happens when a candidate does speak out for the poor? Just witness the attacks on John Edwards. Edwards as we all know is a very wealthy man, and so he is considered to be a hypocrite for calling for more to be given to the poor while he keeps so much for himself. While it is true that Edwards is not a saint in his personal life and he does live a life of excess, we must recognize that the system is setup so that if he did not have extreme wealth he would have never gained the opportunities that he has today. He would have never been a Senator, and he would have certainly never became a candidate for President of the United States if he was just an ordinary working class citizen.
This is a very important point, because when wealthy politicians get attacked as being hypocrites for standing up for the poor then we are essentially ensuring that the poor have no one to represent them. This goes far beyond John Edwards campaign, it is a problem throughout politics. Every single one of our members of Congress lives a privileged lifestyle themselves, there are a select few that came from poverty themselves but the number is quite slim. By the time anyone makes it to Congress they are living a privileged life, and thus if they speak out for the poor they are very likely to have their hypocrisies pointed out.
The truth is though that everyone who has moral and ethical values is going to be a hypocrite from time to time, because our society is set up in a way that forces us to go against our values from time to time. How many of you have tried to quit doing business with all unethical corporations? It is virtually impossible to accomplish. How do you quit sending money to the oil industry when our entire infrastructure is built around oil? How do you ensure that you are only doing business with companies that pay their employees a fair wage when most of our economy has built by companies that have not always treated their employees well or paid them fairly?
Essentially our whole economy and system of government is set up in a way that requires people to choose between hypocrisy, greed, and indifference. Yes, there are lots of things you can do to live a lifestyle largely driven by your values, but any ethical person is sometimes going to engage in acts of hypocrisy. Until our entire economy and government is radically altered it is going to be nearly impossible to live a lifestyle that conforms completely to the best progressive ideals.
Politicians do not want to be called hypocrites, and neither do many potential activists. People know they are guilty of doing things that know would be better for society if they did not do. People don't speak out and demand change, because they know they hold some guilt.
And so people don't speak out for the poor in the halls of Congress, because like John Edwards they would be labeled hypocrites if they did. People don't speak out about global warming, because like Al Gore they also have big energy bills. Before we jump on people for being hypocrites we need to recognize the social factors that may be at play. If John Edwards was not extremely rich how would he ever gained the national platform to speak out for the poor? If Al Gore did not use a lot of energy how would he be able to transport himself around the world to raise awareness of global warming? And how would a common citizen call for reductions in greenhouse gases if they themselves drive a car?
Our government is set up in such a way that ensures it will be run by the wealthy until radical reforms are made, and as long as people attack those like John Edwards as being hypocrites for speaking out for the poor then we will ensure the poor never get a voice.
This is not about Edwards specifically, it is about our entire system of government and who it represents. If we want our leaders to speak on issues of importance, then we should not be attacking them when they do. We need to encourage those who have privilege to speak out for those that don't, and we are certainly not encouraging celebrities who have great influence to speak out if they think that they are going to be attacked for it.
The wealthy have set up a system to ensure that they retain their power, if we want to break that system we need people to fight that system.
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