The Politics of Envy?

The Politics of Envy?

By Richard Gingery

Republican Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, has accused President Barrack Obama of practicing the “politics of envy.” I am not sure how Barrack Obama responds to the charge, but my own response is, “Hell yes, we’re envious!” The 50,000,000 of us who have no health insurance and the millions more who realize we could lose our health insurance at any moment for reasons we are not allowed to question are envious of a man who is so wealthy he can afford to “fire” his insurance company if it does not live up to his expectations. And unlike most of us, even if he is blessed with a pre-existing condition that would cause us to be denied, he can get on a group policy of his choosing through one of his companies. The one American in two who finds himself or herself either in poverty or at risk for moving into poverty must have a little envy for a man who is wealthy enough that whether he wins or loses his race for office, he will still have a roof over his head and food on the table. And the eight and one-half percent of working Americans who remain unemployed take no comfort in the fact that Mitt Romney, and indeed all the major contenders for the office of President are financially so well positioned that none would have to work again. In an unjust society the envy is real, and so are the politics of envy. Those who would deny the politics of envy, like Mitt Romney must have been, to paraphrase former Oklahoma coach, Barry Switzer, “born on third base and thinking they got a triple.”

Our envy has little to do with the size of the bank accounts of presidential contenders. We don’t care all that much about what they have in their stock portfolios. Our envy is not about the size of their home (or homes), nor is it about the make and model of the cars they drive. Our envy arises from a growing inequality of opportunity. The opportunity to have good health care unencumbered by the threat of bankruptcy should we face sudden and unexpected medical bills is shrinking even as we draw ever closer to full implementation of the “Affordable Care Act.” It is bad enough that a college education is moving beyond the price range of the average middle class American, but it is even worse that so many states have our primary education programs on the chopping block. Even more fundamentally, the voice we are given in our democracy is no longer equal to the voice of a rich American, for we can speak with but one voice, while that rich American speaks for himself and through his corporations who are now also regarded as possessing the rights of humans. Not satisfied with having two voices for our one, the rich and powerful in many states are taking all the steps they can to limit the voices of middle and lower class Americans through new laws designed to get at the virtually non-existent crime of “voter fraud,” effectively squeezing thousands of good Americans out of their right to vote.