John Whitehead's Commentary

"The very rich are different from you and me."--F. Scott Fitzgerald

In November, Americans will have no choice but to vote once again for a multi-millionaire. And as we see the religious fervor of the Democratic and Republican Conventions, which in essence are celebrations of the rich and famous, let us consider the facts and figures.

The medium American household income is slightly more than $42,000, according to the Census Bureau. Only about 2% of homes in America make more than $200,000 a year. Although this places the Bush, Cheney, Kerry and Edwards clans among the 2%, these people are so wealthy that they figure in the upper percentile of the richest people in the country.

George W. Bush, a former oil executive, major league baseball owner and governor of Texas, is not only worth millions of dollars, he is also intimately connected to the immense wealth of his father. Bush's vice presidential candidate, Dick Cheney, who once headed the oil services company Halliburton, has $15 to $75 million in tax-exempt bond funds and $2 to $10 million in stocks being handled by a global investment management fund.

John Kerry is worth millions of dollars on his own, in addition to his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who is heiress to the $500 million Heinz Company fortune. John Edwards, Kerry's running mate, actually earned most of his millions. His wealth comes as a highly successful trial attorney, winning more than $150 million in verdicts in the 1990s.

The concept that anyone, no matter their station in life, can someday be president of the United States is mostly an illusion. The idealistic spirit of James Stewart, the little guy fighting the corruption of the system in the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, has virtually been lost. And only the wealthy now have a chance to become one of those who hold high office. This is shown in what it costs to run for president. Bush and Kerry will both raise and spend in excess of $200 million for the right to sit in the Oval Office.

But the money train doesn't stop at the White House. The recent financial disclosure of U.S. Senators showed, according to the Associated Press, "how wealthy most of them are." Indeed, "the filings show that riches know no political boundary and that the Senate's millionaires are not limited to those from families of renowned wealth."

An example of the type of people who are supposedly representing our interests is Senate majority leader Bill Frist. Sen. Frist's fortune, and that of his family, is tied to the welfare of the HCA Hospital chain, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain. Senate financial disclosures reveal that Sen. Frist, his wife and children have transferred at least $10 million and up to $30 million or more in HCA stock into blind trusts. As a result of Frist's interest in HCA, his advocacy for recent legislation to limit hospital and malpractice insurer liability has come under attack. Frist also voted against patients' rights to sue their HMOs for failure to provide adequate treatment. These efforts by Frist have resulted in complaints by various watchdog groups demanding that Frist be deposed of any power to vote on these hospital issues.

The simple truth of the matter is that those who have, and have in abundance, do not have any connection with the working poor--those who live from paycheck to paycheck. The rich have an entirely different mindset. They are not caught in the exhausting struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis.

The very rich cannot adequately represent the average American for the simple fact that they, as F. Scott Fitzgerald recognized, are different from us. They have a very different concept of need from those of us who work for a living.

Just think about it a moment. When was the last time that Bush, or Kerry for that matter, actually shopped in a grocery store or ate at a fast-food restaurant? They have personal valets who care for their every need--something the average person cannot even contemplate.

And although some fervently support the rich who run for office, there are many who have realized that those who run the country do not really care about them. This explains voter apathy and why only about half of the eligible voters even cast a ballot in the presidential campaigns.

This is sad because no one needs governmental help more than those who work for a living. But if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we have little influence on government policies. We may protest, but in the end, we all acquiesce in what the government does. We do not really have a choice.

If the retort to this is that we can vote them out of office, this is no choice. Choices really do not exist when voting for the president. The matter is one of alternatives, not choices. It is simply a decision to cast a ballot for one rich man over another.

The American government seems to move along on a swirling tide of change that no one can control. Obviously, this is not true. As our congressional representatives vote on pork barrel projects and our government continues to enact stringent laws that effectively override even the Bill of Rights, we have to be concerned. If we are so free, then why in every speech given by a politician are we reminded of how free we are?

How to wrestle control of our government from the rich who run it is a question we have to grapple with if our democracy is to survive. Our Constitution's Preamble states that it is "we the people" who are supposed to be running things. But over time, the rich elite have taken control. And while most of us are fighting to keep the creditors away and being taxed to the hilt, those who rule us have no material wants and often escape taxation--period.

I, for one, fear the future if we do not return to the founding concept that it is the common man who, by participation in government, not just voting, determines how our government operates. As Abraham Lincoln said, "Wise men established these great self- evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity should look up again at the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began."

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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