The people who run our government don't have a clue who we are.
Trump is a perfect example, because he has so completely isolated himself from the real world. When do you think was the last time he bought something on his own? With cash? In public? When was the last time he even walked on a sidewalk in any city, much less down a road in a suburb. For that matter, when was the last time he was driven through one of those towns in which any of us live other than to get to a rally where he pretends to be like us?
And no, I'm not even talking about since he became "president." He was as closely guarded and isolated before he hunkered down in what was once the people's house. Other than his lowly employees, Donald Trump has no friends or associates that come even close to living the life of most Americans. And we should know by now that he only gets close enough to his employees to pick their pockets.
But what of the rest of those elected officials? In 2012, Mitt Romney provided some comic relief when he went grocery shopping, and before that, the elder George Bush was astonished to find that supermarkets had scanners at checkout. Nikki Haley may have known that you don't have to show ID to buy groceries, but she sure as hell doesn't have a clue what it is like to work forty hours or more at minimum wage, or even at median wage, and then go home and cook for a family. And I wonder when was the last time Nikki walked down the street to actually get somewhere, or went out to "run errands." Or rubbed elbows with any of us when it wasn't politically motivated.
Because that is when we see our elected officials. They show up now and then, less so these days, in order to remind us that they are one of us, when they aren't. They show up so we will believe they like us, and respect us, and want to help us, when all they really want is to get re-elected. And then they want us to leave them alone, and they do the same for us in return.
The media is no different. I heard someone (a presumed liberal) on MSNBC this week talk about tariffs and the cost of big cars, and how the added expense wouldn't matter as long as the price of gas remained at "record lows." Obviously spoken by someone who hasn't paid for gas in awhile. The rest of us may not realize that the price of gas began to increase the week after Donald Trump was elected, but we sure as hell know that it has gone up over $1 a gallon since he has taken charge of wrecking our economy.
It is no surprise that republicans don't have a clue what we all go through. They are wined and dined from the moment they are deemed to be political assets. If you have started off as a small business owner, it doesn't take long to get accustomed to the flattery, to living that better life and having others do your bidding. In fact, it feels so good that fear of losing the privilege may begin to outweigh things like doing a good job. And along the way, you begin to think all those people who are bugging you for government freebies are just whiners who don't deserve the handouts the way your real donors do.
That is how we end up with republicans who fight to kill healthcare, food stamps and social security, and with Democrats who will sell us out in the name of "working with the other side." If you think wondering how to make ends meet makes you feel insecure, imagine what it feels like to work in a cushy place like Congress and know you could lose it in two years. Poor things, living a good life that could disappear, know they need to kiss as much big corporate ass as they can for the day when they are no longer able to live off the government.
Of course, that is not how they see things. They don't. What they ignore won't hurt them. Our elected officials learn quickly to listen to those with the deep pockets, who provide them with the bullet points they use to make us feel like they are working for us when they aren't. It even helps them believe they are really, really working for us. When they aren't.
The delusion that fattening the rich will make us all better off has never worked, and yet we keep electing people who keep selling us that fairy tale. Apparently, we want to believe it as much as the politicians, who need to believe it so they can continue to work guilt-free to keep fattening the rich, who keep them just fat enough to stay loyal.
This is just a piece of the problem we have with elected officials who don't represent us. Here in SC, we have two single men (I am tempted to say "white men" because Tim Scott does a great impression) as senators. With their own great government benefits, they weigh in against health care; with no clue as to what it takes to raise children, they tell us what families need to be whole. They don't just opine, they vote: on wages, on contraception, on education, religion, and of course, taxation. Because they are really there to make sure that the rich don't pay taxes and the poor get nothing for free.
Trump is a buffoon, and his comment about needing ID to buy groceries was a moment of fun, but it was actually also a glimpse into where our politicians stand in relation to us: far, far away. From a distance, it makes it so much easier to lie, and cheat, and steal, and justify it with nonsense about what the simple folk do.
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