SANTA CLARITA, CA — In a recent email to his constituents, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon revealed his contempt for the “99 Percent,” those working-class, middle-class folks of his district who are fed up and frustrated with the abuses of power on Wall Street – abuses that have pushed the American Dream further and further away from their grasp.
McKeon states:
“Their villain is the 1 percent — the purveyors of power who the movement holds accountable for our fiscal woes.
As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, I support a somewhat different 1 percent. Despite ten years of war, we have been kept safe by 1 percent of Americans who have volunteered to wear the uniform, volunteered to stand a post and volunteered to keep us safe.”
McKeon’s premise is that the 99%-ers are wasting their time, futilely battling some non-existent corruption perpetrated by the financial elite, and the real 1% they should be paying attention to are the men and women who volunteer to serve in uniform.
He does not understand that volunteering to hold a sign, exercising one’s First Amendment rights to petition the government for a Redress of Grievances, is just as important to our democracy as volunteering to serve one’s country to defend those rights. He brushes aside the legitimate issue of corporate malfeasance as if it doesn’t exist, stating:
“It is the 1 percent, not the 99 percent, that will bring its integrity and its character into law, government and business and spread it to all corners of society. They are our greatest hope, and they are our way forward.”
With these two sentences, McKeon insults a majority of his constituents, completely discounting their concerns and aspirations. For an elected official to display such animus toward his own constituency exposes as much about his lack of humanity as his lack of intellect.
There is so much wrong with McKeon’s letter, it can hardly be explored in a single article.
For starters, McKeon’s prose is as befuddled as his mind. Exactly what is the analogy he’s trying to make? Is he really comparing the 1% of America’s wealthiest individuals to the 1% who serve in the military? (How many servicemen do you know who make over $350,000 a year?) He’s trying to associate two disparate things that have nothing to do with one another. The 99%-ers don’t have a beef with the men and women in the military.
Perhaps he thinks he is being clever, linking these two groups together because, well, they both have that “1%” denotation in common.
The problem is that his math is wrong. There are currently about 1.5 million active members of the United States Armed Forces. The 2010 census shows the total U.S. population at about 309 million. That means about .48% — less than one-half of one-percent — of the total population serves in the military. It is clear these two groups have nothing in common, not even the percentage.
There is no analogy here, no clever litarary device. Buck lacks the brain-power required for such thought-provoking exposition; he shouldn’t even try. If the purpose of his email was to show his contempt for the protestors in the Occupy movement and pander to the extremists in his consituency, then he has succeeded. But why? In an election year where he will have more serious challengers than he has ever faced, why go to such lengths to piss off a majority of voters? Once again, he demonstrates his ineptitude and his hatred in the same breath.
But if one chooses to muddle through his mixed metaphors and poor grasp of syntax and mathematics, it seems McKeon’s message to the 99%-ers is:
Instead of:
a) protesting against those who have perpetrated great economic crimes, by exercising their first amendment rights of free speech and peaceful assembly,
they should:
b) distract themselves by honoring those who serve in the Armed Forces.
Apparently, McKeon believes those two concepts are mutually exclusive. They are not.
We can be proud of the men and women who serve our country, while at the same time protesting the abuses and injustice of a system corrupted by the greed of the rich and powerful.
99%-ers Pay a Visit to McKeon's Santa Clarita Office
McKeon also wrongly insinuates that military personnel are somehow above the “Occupy” movement or do not identify with its causes. To the contrary, our veterans have experienced as much as anyone, if not more, the disastrous effects of Bush-era deregulation. How many veterans have lost their homes? How many have been unable to find employment once they reenter civilian life?
(Fortunately, Congress finally passed a small portion of President Obama’s American Jobs Act that provides tax credits to businesses that hire veterans.)
Veterans across the country are declaring themselves part of the 99% and joining the Occupy movement, sometimes at their own peril. Kayvan Sabehgi, a former marine who served in Iraq, was beaten by police at the Occupy Oakland rally on November 2, 2011. Does McKeon respect this service member any less because he held up a sign and took a stand for equality and fairness?
McKeon’s letter continues:
“Several months ago, I visited Fort Jackson, S.C., to watch 500 new recruits graduate from U.S. Army Basic training. They stood quietly and proudly at attention, with adoring families looking on, having volunteered to serve their nation during wartime. Eight of those young men and women were immigrants, earning their citizenship through their service. I am very proud that my granddaughter was among them.”
While we are all proud of our fellow citizens who choose to serve their country, McKeon should consider that many of those young recruits volunteered to defend our nation because they couldn’t get jobs anywhere else.
(If McKeon really wanted to show how proud he is of his granddaughter, he would have supported the very first bill that President Obama signed into law: The Lilly Ledbetter Act, guaranteeing women equality in the workplace. He voted against it.)
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon has been teetering on the downside of public opinion for quite some time. With this latest email he has etched his hatred for his constituents in electronic mail for all to see. There can be no doubt whose side he is on, and it is not the side of 99% of those he claims to represent.
Braddon Mendelson, Editor-in-Chief
The Buck Stops Now
“Defeat Buck McKeon”
