Does a Gilt-Edged Education (and Newly Attained Privileges) Make It More Likely that a Politician Will Ultimately Prove to Be a Wimpy Sell-Out? — There May Be a Valid Gut Reason Why So Many Working Americans Detest Elitists

© 2011 Peter Free

 

20 July 2011

 

 

“Don’t join my unit, unless you’re willing and able to take my back”

 

When our survival is at stake, most of us have no use for wimps.  Or for people who casually sell us out.  The Honor Creed still pulses, somewhere in our genes.

 

So, why do we accept courage-deficient behavior from our political leaders?

 

 

The Wimp Test — two examples of failed leadership

 

A recent essay by Robert Sheer dissected truth from the rhetorical bull that politicians usually hide in:

 

Despite an elite education, effusive charm and brilliant wit, Barack Obama, like Bill Clinton before him, has ended up betraying his humble origins by abjectly serving the most rapacious variant of Wall Street greed.

 

They both talk a good progressive game, but when push comes to shove -- meaning when the banking lobby weighs in -- big money talks and the best and the brightest fold.

 

The defining moment of Clinton's capitulation was his destruction of Brooksley Born, the one member of his administration with the courage and prescience to warn him about the unregulated derivatives trading that ultimately led to the housing collapse.

 

For Obama, it is his decision not to nominate Elizabeth Warren to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she fought so hard to create.

 

Obama's refusal to take the fight to Senate Republicans by nominating Warren should be taken as the vital measure of the man.

 

This gutless decision comes after the president populated his administration with the very people who created the financial meltdown.

 

© 2011 Robert Sheer, Sorry Elizabeth, Wall Street Said No, Huffington Post (20 July 2011) (paragraphs split)

 

 

Why are courage-lacking sellouts considered good enough to lead the nation?

 

I wouldn’t have wanted either man (or their Republican equivalents) on my unit/watch/team during dangerous circumstances.

 

Would you?

 

 

Two not-trick questions

 

Why are so many of us taken in by the self-seeking lies that dishonorable politicians tell us?

 

Why do we tolerate a two-party system that has evolved into serving only the top socioeconomic one percent and nobody else?

 

You would think that the People’s future was not at stake.