DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Xavier_Onassis on July 31, 2008, 01:07:06 PM
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RICH OUT OF TOUCH ELITIST
The Nation, by Christopher Hayes
Ben Smith says I'm "yawning" at McCain's $520 loafers. I can see why he said that. My post on the topic was excessively arch.
So let me take off my irony hat and say this earnestly:
John McCain is an insanely rich individual. He is insanely rich because he married a woman who was insanely rich, who in turn inherited that insane wealth from her parents. They own more houses than I have pairs of shoes. Seriously. They have a super fancy credit cards that they carry a $225,000 balance on. He wears expensive shoes. I'm sure his suits and ties cost a lot, too. Whatever. That is what it is.
But, importantly, John McCain simply has no connection to working people on a personal level, and most likely hasn't for most of his political life. The only working class people he encounters are those who come to his campaign events, those who serve him at restaurants, and the small army no doubt employed to clean his ten houses. And, more importantly, he's the head of a political coalition that while managing to win millions of working class votes, does not have any real representatives of working America calling the shots in the party's upper echelons. His top economic adviser spent his entire career trying to stick it to the middle class and enrich the banking industry, which he later lucratively joined. Now that the very policies he pushed for helped create a massive ponzi scheme that is collapsing on the heads of the middle class he sniffs at the rubble and calls those people whiners. Whiners.
Now, if John McCain's policies were crafted to aid working people, to restore some basic fairness to our economy at a time when inequality is undeniably growing, wages are stagnating and a perfect storm of disparate factors have blown lots of middle-class folks precariously close to the edge of real financial disaster, I wouldn't really care that much about the fact that marrying a rich heiress has made him fabulously wealthy.
But John McCain's policies have been crafted explicitly to enrich rich people like himself: he is going to take money from the government and put it in his wife's bank account, and I mean that quite literally. (Look at this chart, via Matt Y) This has been the signature Bush/Norquist tax policy of the last eight years and the policy McCain wants to continue.
It is upwards redistribution. It is taking from the many and giving to the few. Under his plan you get a foreclosed home, an oil rig off the local public beach and some busted keds: he gets another house, another SUV and a shiny new pair of $520 Ferragamo loafers.
That may sound hyperbolic, but it's true. My ironic point was that we have the perfect makings of a full-fledged campaign narrative here: you have a super rich guy who got super rich not through any of his own genius or hard work (obvious proviso here about his undeniable courage and heroism in Vietnam, but that has nothing to with his net wealth). This super wealthy guy who has married into a family of millionaires flits around in private jets to his many houses while campaigning on an economic policy that tells working people that the economy is great, and if they don't think it's great they're whiners. Meanwhile he's pushing a tax code that would make him, his wife and his rich donors much richer.
At what point does it begin to set in that this guy is just another business-as-usual, out-of-touch rich guy?
Comments (0)
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<<But, importantly, John McCain simply has no connection to working people on a personal level, and most likely hasn't for most of his political life.>>
How can you say such a thing? He bombed the shit out of working people when he was in the Navy, maybe even on very low-level bombing runs where he could actually watch them running for their lives.
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well
I do remember the pilot strikes when he slammed the pilots for not wanting to do non-emergency over-time.
that situation got him off my x-mas list.
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But, importantly, John McCain simply has no connection to working people on a personal level, and most likely hasn't for most of his political life.
And it is the GOP who are the fomenters of class warfare?
What nonsense.
John McCain works in the senate. He has a staff. Unless all of his staff are millionaires (which i doubt) it stands to reason that he is in fact in touch with the working class, unless white collar workers are no longer considered working class.
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RICH OUT OF TOUCH ELITIST
The Nation, by Christopher Hayes
I don't know , but was this guy so bothered by JFKerry haveing these problems?
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<<John McCain works in the senate. He has a staff. Unless all of his staff are millionaires (which i doubt) it stands to reason that he is in fact in touch with the working class, unless white collar workers are no longer considered working class.>>
I think it's generally understood that when the ultra-rich are accused of being out of touch with the working class, it's generally understood that they do maintain some kind of contact with their personal service staff. Even J. P. Morgan must have had cooks, chauffeurs, manicurists, barbers, etc.
Anyone reading XO's comments with a grain of common sense would understand it to mean "no contact with the working class apart from a purely service relationship or an employer-employee relationship."
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well that depends on how his office runs
in the firm I work in some staff worker`s do so much the lawyer has no concept how things work.
quite afew of the attorneys don`t know how to do billing.
which is quite bad since that`s how thier paid.
and remember it`s not mccains job to know his staff.
but it would make his job easier if he did,and cut the chance of him drinking spit coffee
the real question would what kind of boss is he?
the kind who wants a 100 page doc copied in 5 min. no excuses=spit coffee
or the kind who tries to give the same request as early as possible and understand if it gets done late=get a free dessert
i say this because I do give free treats to people who does this.
note I never give spit coffee but I try very hard never to pi$$ off food servers.
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One wonders how much spit coffee McCain has drunk.
I do not think it really matters what he thought of Kerry, unless Kerry actually is running for president.
Juniorbush and Kerry were both rich. There was very little diffence between them with regard to wealth. There was Juniorbush's cultivated hyuk hyuk Tesass accent.
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<<note I never give spit coffee but I try very hard never to pi$$ off food servers.>>
Wiser words were never spoken.
<<One wonders how much spit coffee McCain has drunk.>>
Let's put it this way, if I were a Vietnamese, and if he were in my care, and if he had napalmed my women and children, spit coffee would be the special treat that he would get only once a year on Karl Marx's birthday.
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One wonders how much spit coffee McCain has drunk.
I do not think it really matters what he thought of Kerry, unless Kerry actually is running for president.
Juniorbush and Kerry were both rich. There was very little diffence between them with regard to wealth. There was Juniorbush's cultivated hyuk hyuk Tesass accent.
John Kerry actually did run for President , and I want to know if his getting ritch from Marrage bothered this commentater . I don't recall any Democrats being upset about that when their guy answered this description.
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John Kerry actually did run for President , and I want to know if his getting ritch from Marrage bothered this commentater . I don't recall any Democrats being upset about that when their guy answered this description.
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It is irrelevant to this election. I suppose you could do a search on his name and discover what he said.
I would have vastly preferred Gore, Dean or Edwards myself, but Kerry was exponentially better than Juniorbush .
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I think it's generally understood that when the ultra-rich are accused of being out of touch with the working class, it's generally understood that they do maintain some kind of contact with their personal service staff. Even J. P. Morgan must have had cooks, chauffeurs, manicurists, barbers, etc.
I think it's generally understood that when the ultra-rich are accused of being out of touch with the working class, it's generally understood that the the accuser doesn't have a pot to piss in and generally needs someone to blame for their miserable lot in life, a life of their own choosing, as they could have just as easily sought out a rich heiress and married her for her money... er charms.
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<< . . . as they could have just as easily sought out a rich heiress and married her for her money... er charms. >>
Purely out of curiosity, I found myself wondering whether it was Teresa Heinz Kerry or the second Mrs. McCain who had the greater, uh . . . charms??
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I believe Theresa married into money and then Kerry married that money. Perhaps Kerry appreciated a mate who knew an opportunity when she saw it.
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John Kerry actually did run for President , and I want to know if his getting Rich from Marrage bothered this com mentater . I don't recall any Democrats being upset about that when their guy answered this description.
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It is irrelevant to this election. I suppose you could do a search on his name and discover what he said.
I would have vastly preferred Gore, Dean or Edwards myself, but Kerry was exponentially better than Juniorbush .
If you felt the same about Kerry's Marrage to millions as you do about McCain's , then I shall not accuse you of hypocrisy
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<<I believe Theresa married into money and then Kerry married that money. Perhaps Kerry appreciated a mate who knew an opportunity when she saw it.>>
Come on, I need an answer to my question so I can choose which one of these guys to offer as a role model to my grandsons.
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I have found it far more entertainling to let succeeding generations choose their own role models.
My grandson is enamored with either Fisher or Price.
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but to be serious
you can`t fault any dude marrying into money.
I think kevin federlane is a american hero.
right now he`s the stable one of the 2.
it`s quite unfair that`s it`s ok for the man to support a woman but the reverse is considered wrong.
many marraiges are broken when the female can`t handle when the man makes less than her.
even men harrass the guy when this happens
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<<My grandson is enamored with either Fisher or Price. >>
Aren't they all! But who's gonna tell me, which of the two ladies has more charms? Which of Kerrey or McCain is the wiser investor, uh I mean more fortunate lover?
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No9t sure who is wealthier but in my opinion Ms. McCain is better looking, though Theresa seems to be a freer spirit.
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No9t sure who is wealthier but in my opinion Ms. McCain is better looking, though Theresa seems to be a freer spirit.
Teresa Heinz is much wealthier, being worth somewhere between $750M and $1.2B. By comparison, Cindy McCain is only worth about $100M. In addition, John Kerry is worth between $1M and $2M, John McCain is worth around $40M. In both cases, there are prenuptial agreements keeping their wife's assets separate.
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Cindy McCain looks like a Stepford wife to me. There is something about her that can only be described as, well, robotic.
Turns out, that since Stella Artois bought out Bud, now she owns stock in a country that <gasp!> does business with Castro!
Will John's campaign cause her to bail out, or will greed prevail?
We must all stay tuned.
Me, I am betting on greed.
Cubans will continue to sip on various Stella Artois owned brands. Imagine that a first lady as a purveyor of brew to not only Communists, but drunken Communists.
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Kerrey's the man. Mrs. K. is not only a way better ROI, but she's better looking, much more intelligent, drug-free and not in the least robotic. He's got it all. On the other hand, if Kerrey should ever feel the sudden need to have a couple of cases delivered to the house at 3:00 A.M. on short notice . . . fuhgeddabowdit.