Letter to the editor: You and your children will never be accepted into the elites
I recently watched the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on TV, and I was continually struck by one thing in particular. I wonder if others watching had the same impression.
It didn’t have much to do with the testimony of either the applicant for the job of Supreme Court Justice or the witness claiming that she was sexually assaulted by the applicant. No, it was subtler and kept gnawing at me because of my admitted advocacy for working people and disdain for the wealthy and privileged elites of this great country.
The applicant, Brett Kavanaugh, went to a Catholic-run high school in upscale Bethesda, Maryland where his parents paid something in the vicinity of $60,000 per year for him to attend. Georgetown Preparatory School is a small elite school where the wealthy of the Washington D.C. area send their kids to live and study with other well-to-do students. Another graduate from the high school is Neil Gorsuch, recently appointed to the Supreme Court. The school is known for its exclusive, clubby atmosphere where everyone is expected to be accepted to major Ivy League schools upon graduation. Brett Kavanaugh was accepted to Yale as a “legacy student” because his grandfather attended there. Everyone who attends Georgetown Prep consider themselves above the rest. They know that they are going to be important elitists exempt from the rules and restraints of general society.
Oddly, a Catholic Jesuit facility, the school has a reputation for serious partying and alcohol consumption. Several of the private schools in the area have published a joint letter warning parents of the dangers of excess alcohol use and partying. Local girls from nearby girls’ schools are eager to attend the parties at Georgetown. After all, these boys are wealthy and expected to become the movers and shakers, especially in Washington D.C.
The witness alleging sexual assault by Kavanaugh when he was attending Georgetown Prep also attended an exclusive girls’ school nearby. It was obvious from her testimony that she too was a privileged child. Her testimony was sophisticated, straightforward, and believable.
Kavanaugh’s testimony, on the other hand, was that of a privileged bully demanding that he be given his “right” to a lifetime appointment to one of the most powerful positions in the country, whether or not he actually sexually assaulted the witness or perhaps others. He made no pretense of being sophisticated in his response, instead shouting, demanding, and blaming anyone in the room that he thought might be between him and what he thought was his “right” to have.
Kavanaugh’s indignity at the possibility of not getting what he wanted brought out his supporters at the hearing who were mostly other privileged and, in some cases, very old senators who have been in office for years. When the final vote came down, the so-called moderates voted to appoint him, including one particular senator from Maine (the home of George H.W. Bush) who was close friends with the Bush family and the Kavanaugh family. Another example of the insidious and adulterous relationships snaking through the Washington mess that is hidden from the rubes back home.
I am not here to debate whether or not Kavanaugh should be a judge or whether the witness was actually his victim of sexual assault. I am here to paint a picture to my friends here in southern Utah. I am speaking to the poor, the ranchers, the construction workers, the homeless, the guys and girls struggling on Wal-Mart pay and even to those who have decent jobs with benefits and pay. You need to know that there is another world swirling around the nation’s capital and other big eastern cities. It is a world where wealthy kids grow up with no understanding of your or my existence, lifestyle, or problems. They are the elite and the privileged, and like pedigree dogs they breed and associate only with other elite and privileged youth and eventually adults. They are the people on the Supreme Court, they are the people who buy elections to Congress, they buy the lobbyists, and they are in the corporate boardrooms giving themselves huge bonuses.
In the meantime, you and your children struggle along with your mundane lives trying to feed your families, perhaps make enough to take them on a vacation, pay their health insurance, and send them to the public schools with the hope that they might get into one of the local colleges, even if it means enormous student loan debt. You must understand, though, that you and your children, no matter how qualified, no matter how smart, no matter how intelligent, will never be accepted into the elites.
I am not a socialist or communist, not a Democrat or Republican, not in the Green or Libertarian. I do believe in the original concept of the Founding Fathers that everyone should be equal and have equal opportunity. I believe that the Constitution that they left us was meant to grow and change as we grow and change. In the same respect that the Constitution was amended to outlaw slavery, it needs to be modified today to stop the decay and corruption in the government by the privileged few. That change needs to return to the simple idea of a voluntary congress not a lifetime retirement home. We need universal term limits on every federal elected or appointed official in the congress, the courts, and executive branch. We need to stop the lobbying and buying favors from the legislators. We need to stop the elite, privileged bloodsuckers who are stealing our democracy. Only when we get money and corruption out of politics, will we be able to vote for competent representatives who will legislate based on compromise and for the benefit of all.
We are neighbors, friends, and relatives. We have different ideas, but the real strength of our country is and has always been our willingness to discuss, compromise, and get the best ideas from all sides. In this perilous time, we are on the brink of losing that ability and with it will be the loss of our democracy.
That’s what I think anyway.
Ed Stewart
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
How to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or letter to the editor to The Independent
Do you have something to say? Want your voice to be heard by thousands of readers? Send The Independent your letter to the editor or guest opinion piece. All submissions will be considered for publication by our editorial staff. If your letter or editorial is accepted, it will run on suindependent.com, and we’ll promote it through all of our social media channels. We may even decide to include it in our monthly print edition. Just follow our simple submission guidelines and make your voice heard:
—Submissions should be between 300 and 1,500 words.
—Submissions must be sent to editor@infowest.com as a .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf file.
—The subject line of the email containing your submission should read “Letter to the editor.”
—Attach your name to both the email and the document file (we don’t run anonymous letters).
—If you have a photo or image you’d like us to use and it’s in .jpg format, at least 1200 X 754 pixels large, and your intellectual property (you own the copyright), feel free to attach it as well, though we reserve the right to choose a different image.
—If you are on Twitter and would like a shout-out when your piece or letter is published, include that in your correspondence and we’ll give you a mention at the time of publication.
Ok, dont agree with half your rant, especially the Kavanaugh diatribe, as he was accused of gang rape by the third victim, and no doubt any man would be pissed off. On the logical side, term limits are a great idea. But you missed a biggy. So big I think you almost throw out the baby with the bathwater. – reversing Citizens United through effective legislation, otherwise it is a battle of billionaires. On elitism, that is a problem, but not the core problem, rather a symptom. An individual from Utah can make it into that circle, but it requires brilliance and a little luck. You have to get accepted into an an Ivy League or major military school, or become a brilliant wealthy entrepreneur. Not easy, not impossible, just geographically unlikely.