Good Ole’ Boys Club
I have been flirting with the idea to run for US Congress in 2020 so I attended a meeting yesterday to learn more about the process. I learned quite a lot.
The presentation addressed that we have a growing problem in today’s political climate. A majority of politicians are three things:
1: Old
2: White
3: Men
And they are right.
Just how bad is it? an article from Scholastic breaks it down.
The U.S. population is 51 percent female. In Congress, however, just 10 percent of the lawmakers are female.
The U.S. population includes 12 percent African Americans, 9 percent Hispanics, and 3 percent Asian/Pacific Islanders and other groups. Congress, however, is 87 percent white.
The median age of the U.S. population is 32.9. Yet the median age of the members of Congress is 53.
We clearly have a representation problem.
The good news is there is more awareness about this misrepresentation and more organizations are forming, like Close the Gap, that give people who are young, minorities and women a better chance to win.
But there is something most people don’t talk about.
Income inequality.
The reality is, most politicians are lawyers, ivy-league educated, wealthy business owners, have wealthy families or are wealthy themselves. At a time when income inequality continues to worsen the privilege of creating and passing laws is only afforded to the wealthiest Americans.
But none of those things represent what most Americans are like. Especially from my background.
I have spent my life living in Connecticut and California, who rank 2nd and 4th in income inequality respectively. I grew up lower-middle class. My mom was a single parent receiving government assistance just to survive and care for my autistic brother (and she still is). I spent most of Jr. high and all of high school not knowing if the house I was living in was getting foreclosed on. My dad had an incredibly stable construction job, but after the housing market crash of 2007 his job never truly recovered. Now he’s a delivery driver.
I remember in 8th grade the only reason I was able to go on our DC class trip was because my father’s boss loaned him the $500 necessary for me to go.
And despite all that, I was still fortunate enough to never have to live on the streets or go without eating.
This experience has shaped the way I see the world today.
People are not poor because they are lazy. They are poor because caring for a severely autistic child IS an unpaid full-time job. They are poor because it can take over a decade to become a legal US citizen so immigrants can’t find good paying jobs or get a college education. They are poor because their jobs were destroyed from automation or economic conditions. They are poor because they were forced to walk away from their homes after interest rates soared as a result of mortgage corporations fucking over the middle class.
The event I attended was all about how millennial's/minorities could run for office. They talked about how it WAS possible to run if you were young, a POC or a woman. What they didn’t discuss, however, was how you could run if you were poor or middle class. Maybe you could run for some local positions and make an impact on your local community. But even then, good luck trying to balance a full-time job and running a campaign. When you’re wealthy, you have the luxury of campaigning full-time AND paying for staff as needed.
When it comes to running for congress when you’re not rich… Good luck.
We were told that in order to run for congress we would likely have to raise $1M by the primary, and another $1M in the general election. We were told to “make a rolodex” of every single person we had ever met and ask them for money. We were told, and I quote, “if you can’t raise 80% of the money just from that list it’s probably not worthwhile running”.
That’s $800,000 just from people you know.
If you’re wealthy, that’s probably not too bad. Simply put together a list of all the CEO’s you know and you’re set. Maybe they form a super PAC and you can raise ungodly sums of money through your personal wealthy network. Worst comes to worse, simply throw your own money in the ring.
Too bad the poor and working class don’t have that same luxury.
Rather than spend time meeting people in your community we were told fundraising was the most important activity and we would have to spend 30/40 hours a week just making phone calls to ask for money.
While they admitted the system was broken, that’s, “just the way it is”.
I left feeling completely defeated and riddled with insecurities. But I guess that’s by design isn’t it? Wealthy people won’t give someone like me money. I have no connections, no meaningful net-worth, and no desire to tow the corporate line or be a boot licker.
If I’m going to run I want to do it the right way. I don’t want to grovel for money from wealthy individuals and corporations who don’t care about us. The same corporations that make getting healthcare prohibitively expensive. The same corporations that create robots that take jobs while fighting to make unions obsolete. The same wealthy people who have politicians in their back pocket.
We spend so much time dumping on poor people, immigrants, minorities and each other's political views. Maybe it’s time we all stop kicking those who are below us and start asking questions to those who are above us.
Maybe it’s time our politicians put down their silver spoons and lift up the communities they’re supposed to represent.
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