Political Privilege

By Andrew Hagen


People, including myself, often complain about lack of access to their leaders. The people that we vote for and support with volunteering, donations, or just talking about certain things with friends are nearly impossible to reach. How many ordinary people have met their representative, senator, or even president? And I don’t mean shaking his hand outside of a factory while they campaign, but actually asking them a question and getting a serious response, or maybe having a discussion with them.


I have never shaken the hand of or met any of my national leaders. As much as I’m not a fan of San Francisco politics, I have met and shaken the hands up and actually talked to many of the city supervisors. Granted, most things like this are very easy, and I am a member of a well-connected organization (that is open to anyone that wants to join), but it’s good to know that if I actually had a problem, I could possibly reach one of these people.


I realize that senators, representatives, and especially the president are extremely busy and have important things to do. But I do think that accessibility could be greatly increased. I think that many representatives have office hours or something similar in their home districts, but I’m not sure and if they do, I would imagine that they are rushed and essentially superficial meetings where the politician passes you off to their staff who are most polished at dismissing you and getting you out the door.


You are probably wondering at this point, where is this coming from and the answer is this. President Obama is coming through California, my current home state, and is making virtually only fundraising stops. So if you are super-wealthy and already connected, then you probably can meet the president if you want to, for a price. If you are a nobody who is just trying to get by but would like your president to understand what is going on below all the millionaires and billionaires he solicits money from, good luck.


I realize that there are millions of people out there that would want to meet the president and tell them their story or problems or whatever and it is essentially impossible, but I do think that access can be increased for the common person.


And maybe this should be something that the Democratic Party focuses on since they are supposed to be the party of the common person. Tea Partiers go home and shout a bunch of vitriolic one liners and get their crowds all riled up and ready to go. This isn’t what I am talking about either. Political rallies, especially during campaign season, are a dime a dozen. You can hear some talking points, some rallying lines, and that’s about it. I’ve been to these types of things and helped register voters. Outside of getting people signed up to vote, they leave you feeling a little vacuous.


What I am hoping for is a pipe-dream, and I would never expect complete access, but I do think that along with the widening gap between the affluent and everyone else, there is a corresponding gap between the politicians and the ordinary person. Obama only address the ordinary person when its campaign time. At least Republicans have the balls to never address the ordinary person. They have enough votes between the Christian right and economic extremists to get elected often enough. The Democrats have to get the votes of wealthy “independents” (who are basically just political attention whores) and then everyone else as well. They don’t really have organized social groups like the evangelicals in their party. Unions are dying and everyone else is fragmented.


If nothing else, I’d like to see an honest effort. I realize that my ultimate request is all but impossible, but I do think if there was any effort, then access could be increased at least a little bit. And I think something that would force the politicians to have to come to people and speak to them more directly would be legitimate campaign finance reform. Politicians spend way too much time raising money. And the various PACs and 527 groups that just flood the market with garbage intended to confuse and propagandize need to be gotten rid of too. The American person has shown that he is incapable of being responsible and shifting through the fake information and finding the real information and therefore people that actually have a sense of civic duty and responsibility need to reform the way we campaign so the spin is minimized and access to legitimate information and to our politicians is increased.


Free speech works if everyone has the same size megaphone. But when corporations are given constitutional rights reserved for individuals they get to use television shows and satellites, while the regular person gets some little megaphone with dead batteries in it. This is a perversion of the 1st Amendment and needs to be stopped. Politicians need to hear the voices of the working class outside of just needing their support during an election. Instead of convening panels of CEOs about jobs, how about bringing in some people from the working class too? The title of CEO means nothing in particular. There are smart ones and asinine ones (look at Donald Trump). Just like there are extremely bright common people and completely brain-dead ones. It gets very tiring to have only one side of the story presented to those that are in power. The CEOs and Wall Street don’t have our best interests in mind. Their patriarchal ego trip is nothing but a slap in the face to everyone that suffers when they get it wrong, as they often do.


Of course, I have no faith that this type of reform will ever take place since it would require all the connected and politicians to grow a conscience which, like my dream of having access to my politicians, is nothing but a dream, and dreams are becoming increasingly impossible in this supposed land of milk and honey.