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8 Reasons Why American 'Leaders' Are So Out of Touch

A few supporting arguments for the Standard & Poor's downgrade.

Ever wonder why so many self-described “leaders” are so out of touch?

Wonder why the governing class is “shocked” by the current Standard & Poor's downgrade of the American economy?

This, while at the same time the public is not the least bit surprised.

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After all, they knew it was coming years ago. American families have already endured layoffs, home foreclosures, depleted savings, family shake-ups, heavier household debt loads, and more neighborhood drug and gang violence.

Or why the public long ago soured on the expensive and increasingly bogged down wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and mission creep in Libya—while their political “representatives” wring their hands over the corruption and the slowness of “nation building” abroad while neglecting it at home?

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(It was much the same way when Americans turned against the losing Vietnam War in the 1970s, years before the press or members of Congress got the drift).

Little has changed. The American people are way ahead of their self-described “leaders.”

Lots of reasons account for this divide—many of which are surfacing in our current civil strife. Not the least of which is corruption.

Below are eight of the most long-lived and obvious causes to consider:

  1. Most members of Congress, the state and local governing bodies are wealthier—by far—than the average taxpayer they represent. Guaranteed salaries, health care benefits, car allowances, gas allowances, offices, and staffers to help keep constituents at bay prevent incumbents from experiencing the pain of those they represent.
  2. Many elected officials live in a bubble. Instead of being “servants of the people,” they are “served by” lobbyists, stakeholders, and even the press who want access and special favors – hence, the source of unwarranted and undeserved praise heaped on many incumbents. Look at the corporate holdings of the parent companies of television and radio stations. There you will find the political bias of their commentators and “news” people. Follow the money.
  3. Few office holders are capable of turning on a dime and admitting they have erred. Instead, they double down. When households lose a breadwinner, they cut their expenses. Simple, no cable, no newspaper, no vacations, no luxuries, no new clothes, etc. They live within their means. Not the U.S. government—or even the states or local governments—unless they are constrained by some force of law. They simply borrow more. Hence, our debt problem, the S&P downgrade, and the cratering U.S. stock market.
  4. Those in power have one goal—retention of that power. What follows is bromides and empty rhetoric. They know what is best—even if they don’t read the bills they vote on, or understand the cost of what they just legislated. Give them a talking point and someone else to blame. The voter is “stupid,” “ill-informed,” a “nut,” the “fringe,” etc. Only the “elite”—who got the country in this mess—know what is best. Their condescension is boundless.  They remain clueless as to the cause of the American voters’ raging contempt for politicians; Rasmussen Reports show only 17 percent of voters "think the federal government today has the consent of the governed."
  5. Many elected officials lose their authenticity to the banks of cameras that record their every word or glance. They believe their own spin. If they can’t get a headline in the din of often meaningless debate, they sometimes revert to excess, i.e. “Armageddon,” “Satan Sandwich,” “terrorists,”  “going to the Dark Side.”
  6. They are afraid.
  7. They really don’t know what to do.
  8. They only talk to each other. Yet Lee Atwater, once a key Republican strategist, admitted going to bowling alleys to see, hear and understand what Americans were thinking.

Might be a good idea for the current crop of campaign consultants.

As California Gov. Jerry Brown predicted, “The next elections will be the war of all against all.”

Which may be why Brown is already hedging on his own run for re-election.

No incumbent is safe.

 

Colleen O'Connor, a former college history professor, contributes political columns to Patch.

 

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