Sunday, February 1, 2009

Daschle as a symptom

Karen Tumulty at Time points us to one of her commenters making the broader point about Tom Daschle,

If you want to be outraged, it should be at the entire class oligarchy we have constructed, where most of our leaders haven't a clue how the other 99.9% of us think and live, and they're working full time every day trying to suck down a fire hose of money and perks. I believe that basic disconnect explains much of the sh*tstorm we're experiencing, whether from government, industry or the corporate media. These folks live in a complete bubble and you would be shocked to discover how clueless they are on a whole host of "real life" matters. And, it's easy to understand why: the rules for the rest of us literally don't apply to them.


Tumulty details some of the other details of the Daschle case but I think the above comment really captures the issue. Our political leadership on the Federal level, our media and our corportae leaders live in a different world entirely than most Americans. That inevitably leads to their ignorance about the issues, needs and lives of the rest of us. That can't help but affect the policies they pursue or the issues they report on and the perspectives they take while reporting.

Losing Daschle would be significant. He's been brought on to shepherd health care reform through the Congress, that's no small task and one that I think is perhaps the most important policy issue facing the administration and the American people. It's certainly the most important issue for me - its both an economic issue and a moral issue. Daschle though must go.

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