WHY WE MUST GET OUT THE VOTE THIS NOVEMBER

IS PRIVILEGE THE GATEWAY FLAW?

I have friends who are wealthy. Wait, that's a lie.

I have friends and family who are comfortable, to a greater or lesser degree. Surely, some of them are struggling more than I know. We all struggle; that's life in America these days.

But is it, really, in the world of great privilege?

I guess we mere mortals find it hard to understand a world in which our crimes go unpunished, our character flaws aren't held against us, and our basest instincts and urges don't cost us anything. Boy do I feel sorry for those people! Wait, that is also a lie.

I'm wondering whether a life of privilege is worth protecting? To those who live it, certainly, but how about to the rest of us? To what lengths ought a person go to keep living the life they've become accustomed to? How far will they go?

I propose that it might be important to consider these questions - all of us. I propose that my very comfortable friends think about what the privileged might do to protect the status quo, and to recognize that they themselves are not among the group possessing great privilege. I propose that my less comfortable friends give thought to the politically-motivated policies that affect our lives, even policies they themselves may support, through the lens of suspicion for a little while, and consider that some of the policies they support may not be in their own best interests. Ask yourselves who benefits from the policies the poor are subjected to.

I propose that we all spend a moment to think about how public policy has always been about protecting the assets of the kings of industry. These days, however, public policy is geared more and more toward protecting the assets of even the idle rich, who provide nothing to the rest of society.

It was only when workers began to demand conditions that didn't degrade or abuse them that workers started to have a real shot at living the American Dream (though the phrase was coined later in history than the first worker's movements). It was only after workers won rights to safe workplaces, and outlawed child labor, and demanded a minimum wage, and earned the protection of labor laws to help prevent abusive employment practices, that workers began to enjoy the American Dream. The wealthy, the bosses, the politicians...none of them would have fought for what workers had to win in order for workers to elevate themselves into the middle class.

Somehow, those days are gone. The American Dream has turned into a puff of industrial smoke, in a fire lit by politicians who care nothing for you and me, for the benefit of the captains of industry, or any wealthy donor who helps them into office. But believe this - the relationship between pols and donors is strictly quid pro quo. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

Union busting. Fighting an increase in the minimum wage. Fighting against being held to the same standard as every other employer in providing health benefits. Outsourcing jobs overseas. Moving corporate headquarters offshore to avoid paying taxes to the U.S. Treasury. Limiting hours available to employees. Influencing Congress to direct the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division to providing ever-more guidance to employers about how NOT to steal wages from employees (rather than letting the Wage and Hour Division do its job to go after such employers for recompense on behalf of wronged employees).

These are all symptoms of a world in which there is such utter privilege for some, and none for the rest of us. These symptoms are NOT a reality that we must embrace. America has no caste system, and we are NOT members of the feudal system.

These issues, and so many more, are why it is important to VOTE in the mid-term elections. It is our duty to protect the way of life WE benefit from, and the fundamental truth is that our politicians have been serving the wrong masters for far too long. If regular, ordinary Americans don't vote to put the brakes on our corporate-supporting, wealth-loving lawmakers, we will get what we deserve, forever doomed to a life of making ends meet (because employers have all the power), to struggling daily to educate and feed and care for our families (because the wealthy have all the power), and to feeling more and more disenfranchised from OUR government (because the politicians owe the powerful, and take our power from us).