Monday, January 29, 2007

Limousine Liberals

John Edwards, possible presidential candidate for 2008 has just purchased a 30,000 sq. foot monster-mansion on a 100 acre estate. Included in this huge $6 million property are two (!) squash courts, a swimming pool, a four story tower (!) and two (!) stages! (What is that all about? Has he turned all literary and Shakespearean on us?).

Yes, this is hypocrisy... and it's especially noticeable amongst the "elite left" (if there is such an oxymoronic reality). Look at the "limousine liberal" syndrome: politicians living mega-opulent lifestyles whilst calling for social change, or egalitarianism, to make it look on the surface as if they have the interests of the less fortunate, or average earner in mind). To preach "progressive values" while filtered by such wealth to the harsh realities of life endured by the average working class American to whom they are trying to reach (i.e. those 10s of millions with 2 jobs, no health insurance and no life).... doesn't quite compute.

I am not saying that "liberals" should be disqualified from earning megasalaries because of their political stance: it just kinda stinks that a public figure like John Edwards who claims to speak for "ordinary Americans", goes and purchases a spread like that. This is sticking the finger at his potential support base. For sure, he has every right to to earn whatever he can and spend it however he wants...but a 30,000 sq ft mansion with all those "extras" is a supremely inappropriate gesture for a left-leaning politician (that is, if he really is left leaning, of course). At least at the other end of the spectrum (the Rupert Murdoch, Enron etc. doctrine, and similar), there's no pretense to be something they are not: in their case, what you see is what you get, in all its sociopathic or even psychopathic, reptilian, ugliness.

I forget whose quote this is, but perhaps John Edwards and the Hollywood elite (for example) should take it to heart: "Money is like fertilizer. Pile it all up in one place and it starts to smell bad.... but when spread around, it will grow things"

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