FACES AND PLACES: Wealth, power and privilege (10/10/04)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Wealth, power and privilege

Listen to Ukrainian Democrats and they'll tell you that the Republican Party is the party of wealth, power and privilege, while Democrats belong to the party of the little guy, the working Joe, the sensitive party that is looking out for you.

Nonsense! Democrats are the fat cats. Think Sens. John Edwards, Ted Kennedy, Jay Rockefeller, Jon Corzine, Barbara Boxer. As reported by Karl Zinsmeister in a recent issue of American Enterprise, a study by the reputable Ipso Reid confirms this fact. "Comparing counties that voted strongly for Bush to those that voted strongly for [Al] Gore in the 2000 election, the study shows that in pro-Bush counties only 7 percent of voters earned at least $100,000, while 38 percent had household incomes of below $30,000. In the pro-Gore counties, fully 14 percent pulled in $100,000 or more, while 29 percent earned less than $30,000."

The Democrat "little guy" stereotype hasn't been true for decades. According to Mr. Zinsmeister, "whole blocs of 'little guys' - ethnics, rural residents, evangelicals, cops, construction workers, homemakers, military veterans - began moving into the Republican column" in the 1960s and 1970s when the Democratic Party was abducted by the wealthy, far-left elite.

Democrats today are still the party of America's rich, liberal nobility encompassing "financiers, academics, heiresses, media barons, software millionaires, entertainers ... Today's most aggressive political donors by far are lawyers - who donated $98 million to 2004 political candidates as of June. (By comparison, the entire oil and gas industry donated $13 million.) And rich lawyers do indeed tilt strongly Democratic: 71 percent of their contributions went to Democrats, 29 percent to Republicans."

Writing in the same issue of American Enterprise, Don Feder cites findings by the non-partisan National Taxpayers Union which rates members of Congress on every vote affecting taxes, spending, debt and regulatory burden. "In 2003," writes Mr. Feder, "the average Senate Democrat scored 19 percent - meaning the party as a whole voted against America's taxpayers 81 percent of the time. (House Democrats did slightly better with an average score of 24). House Republicans sided with the taxpayer 63 percent of all the votes cast. Republican senators voted against big government 73 percent of the time." So much for Democrats helping the taxpayer "little guy."

No presidential candidate exemplifies arrogant, patrician elitism better than John Kerry. The man reeks of elite power and privilege. He is a graduate of Yale, as well as prestigious prep schools in the United States and Switzerland. He successfully wooed not one but two wealthy women, his first wife, worth a mere $300 million, and Teresa Heinz, a billionaire. According to Mr. Zinmeister, he "lives in five houses, "one more achingly exclusive than the next - Beacon Hill, Georgetown, Nantucket, Fox Chapel, Sun Valley ... His life has been grand: hundred-dollar haircuts by Chrisophe, Old Master paintings, and expensive toys of all sorts."

Unlike most other American millionaires, Sen. Kerry has never created wealth. He has never run a business, met a payroll nor administered anything. He lives well because his parents, and his wives have made him rich. And yet, according to Mr. Zinmeister, he "is a fellow who has made no charitable donations for years on end, while excoriating other Americans for being 'hard-hearted'and 'greedy.' "

A huge cultural chasm separates the two political parties today. Just look at the people behind Mr. Kerry. We see demagogues like Al Sharpton, Al Franken and Maxine Waters. We find millionaires such as Jesse Jackson, George Soros, Michael Moore, Barbara Streisand, Jane Fonda, George Clooney, Sean Penn and Danny Glover. Other supporters include the Gay/Lesbian lobby, hell-bent for gay marriage; the abortion lobby fighting to protect infanticide; the National Education Association (NEA), resisting teacher accountability and school vouchers, and promoting school textbooks such as "I Have Two Mommies"; the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), whose goal is the eventual annihilation of all public expression of religious beliefs; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), hot on the trail of reparations from you and me; the anti-male National Organization of Women (NOW), still enamored of a unisex society.

The elite media also are in Mr. Kerry's corner - The New York (no famine in Ukraine) Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, PBS, CBS, ABC and NBC - all are breathlessly looking for ways to discredit George W. Bush. Finally, we find some 85 percent of Ivy League college professors who attack all free speech on campus that doesn't meet their narrowly defined, politically correct standards. Are these the kind of people Ukrainian Americans would invite for dinner?

Who supports Mr. Bush? We see Democrats like Sen. Zell Miller; African American intellectuals like Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele. We find the marriage amendment lobby seeking to preserve the sanctity of the American family; the family-oriented Concerned Women for America, with far more members than NOW; the pro-life lobby fighting to preserve the sanctity of life. There are veterans, groups that still remember the outrages of the post-Vietnam era, evils that Mr. Kerry helped perpetrate; most Catholic and Protestant clergy concerned with the steady erosion of America's moral fiber; "little guy" believers who live their faith daily.

There will be vacancies on the Supreme Court during the next four years. Do we want a liberal or a conservative making the appointments? Mr. Kerry has a litmus test: only judges who support Roe vs. Wade.

Mr. Kerry has been accused of being on all sides of an issue, a political flip-flopper. Don't believe it. He may say things today because polls and his handlers tell him to say them, but deep in his heart and soul he is a committed New England, jet-set liberal who is a charter member of the party of wealth, power and privilege. His Senate record proves it. He will never, ever be able to relate to the likes of you and me. Remember that on November 2.

Myron Kuropas's e-mail address is: kuropas@comcast.net. Dr. Kuropas is a co-coordinator of Ukrainian Americans for Bush/Cheney.

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