Our Leadership Has Lost Touch With Americans.

          This week the Kennedy’s series was on television again. It’s a three or four part series that takes the viewer through Joe Kennedy’s death, JFK’s presidency, Bobby Kennedy’s run for the presidency, and a bit about Ted Kennedy’s life. According to the way the Kennedy family was depicted, they spent most of their time debating which Kennedy was going to be president, when the next party was going to be, and who was going on the next trip to Europe.

It occurred to me while I watched and later when I reflected on the series that few families could be more disconnected with a typical American family than the Kennedy’s. For example, I never saw a single Kennedy go to work. They were usually just running for office or getting chauffeured to their next activity. I never saw a single Kennedy talk about having to pay their taxes each year, pay for a college tuition, shop for food, get a mortgage, or where they were going to get the money to do any of these things.. Other than Rose Kennedy’s depiction of a pseudo-minimalist by turning off the porch lights on their megamillion dollar home, there was never any indication that the Kennedy’s were ever concerned about how much they spent, how much they earned, or their financial future. No family could be more unlike an American family.

Maybe that’s the real problem with politics.  As we continue to elect people who are simply no reflection of the American family, we wind up with a total disconnect between our representatives and Americans. In fact, the only real connect with Americans that our congressional representatives have is the surveys and polls that  allegedly report what Americans are currently thinking.

It seems almost ludicrous that in the current American situation, we must have a survey that reports that the American people are concerned about the loss of equity in their homes and their current jobs. The very fact that Congress needs a survey to quote from or to read on these important issues clearly shows the tremendous disconnect between Congress and the American people. 

And I fear we are going to do it again hoping for different results. In other words, we can not even pass the ubiquitous sanity test. Where is Harry Truman when we need him?