I gotta say...........the latest gaffes from Hillary Clinton about her financial state have put me off on her more than I expected they would. Her comments that she and her husband were flat broke after leaving the White House or that they're not truly well off. Total, tin ear crap.
Living in an American family that makes about and maybe possibly sometimes below the national median income (about $50,000 for the household) I have a hard time understanding how those who make more than that can't make a go of it.
We can argue about relative costs of living in one part of the country or another, or debt load, or whatever...but I have serious doubts that Hillary and Bill Clinton have had to hunt coins under the couch for milk money any time in the recent past....
...not that it matters.
What matters is that the folks representing us MUST
a. Understand what it is to live at or below the median income in this county
or
b. Understand that they don't understand what it is to live at or below the median income in this country and just take our frickin' word for it.
Preferably the first.
What concerns me the most about Clinton's comments is that she fancies herself one of us. That she believes she does Get It. But that she internally doesn't Get that she's in a stratosphere of financial privilege far above the single parent, the working family trying to simultaneously work and afford child care, the folks who choose to live a lean life in a school district where their kids get the best shot at positive, prosperous educations and connections, or the family that just tries to get by day to day where a dead car alternator is a major obstacle to getting to work and you have to rely on family, neighbors, friends.....or nothing at all....to both fix the car AND get to work and bring the kids to school and buy toilet paper for that week.
This is THE fundamental problem in the United States. The folks running things DO NOT UNDERSTAND at a frighteningly fundamental level what MOST of Americans experience. They simply don't understand in a pitifully, terrifyingly naive way.
If Clinton is another one of the many politicians among those who cannot grasp the baseline experience of most Americans....she should not have the job as President. And in fact, she shouldn't put America in the position of having to turn her down to the benefit of some Republican schmuck who can talk like he gets it but doesn't give a shit.
This level of understanding is not a simple thing to fake if you don't get it. And Americans can see through it because we LIVE IT. EVERY DAY. Every WEEK. Every YEAR.
Ms. Clinton....if you don't get it. Don't run.
Warren gets it. Warren GETS it. She UNDERSTANDS what is happening in this country.