Don't Bother with Politics Unless You're Rich and/or Connected

I have to run to North Jersey for a birthday, but I wanted to quickly point to two articles, which paint a depressing picture of the possibilities of politics as a profession as well as the reasons why some political groups excel while others fail.

First, there's an article in the latest issue of In These Times called When College Ends, So Does Activism: Why selling out is a depressingly rational choice for many graduates. Here's a bit from the article:

Because of the growing cost of college, these tiring, low-paying gigs or unpaid internships are increasingly inadequate options for left-leaning graduates. With state and federal legislators redirecting funds away from universities, college tuition has outpaced family income for the past 15 years and inflation for the past 30 years.

The burden of payment has also been shifted to the students. Loans have replaced interest-free grants as the most common form of recompense, resulting in a system whereby the average student today, according to the Center for American Progress, graduates with debt almost three and a half times that of graduates just 10 years ago. “The typical student is leaving with about $19,000 dollars in student loan debt,” says Tamara Draut, author of Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead. “And that is going to create a financial pinch when they get their first job.”

Health care is another concern. A 2006 Commonwealth Fund study found that since 2000, 2.5 million people between the age of 19 and 29 lost healthcare coverage, bringing the grand total of uninsured 20-somethings to 14 million. Among the lucky few who can pay for and get through college, 40 percent will lose their familial coverage after graduation, with under-funded organizations unlikely to pick up the costs of employer-based healthcare.

These financial burdens disproportionately affect students of color and those from less secure economic backgrounds, whose need for job stability is generally more pressing than that of their classmates. “It’s always been hard to attract class diversity in the progressive movement. It’s largely been dominated by people who have family backgrounds that enable them, for whatever reason, to take a lower salary, particularly if they are just starting out,” says Draut. “I think the problem is that now it’s become even more challenging.” All of these factors lead even the most socially conscious graduates away from progressive politics toward less-fulfilling career fields.

This is precisely the position I find myself in, as do many/most of the people who I know who want to work in politics as a career. It seems almost completely undoable for those of us without trust funds and health care.

The next article reminds me of a conversation I had a few weeks back with a girl who comes from a very wealthy background. I was talking about how I don't know if I can stay in politics because I cannot risk being without health care again. Her response was "Oh, I could never go without healthcare". Well, duh, for some of us it isn't a choice.

Anyway, the other article focuses on the group Generation Engage, whom I don't really know much about, but which is run by the kids of a few well-to-do politicos, and which surprise, surprise, has no problems getting funded or getting other politicians to work with them.

The discussion between Gore in his Nashville, Tenn., home and youth groups in New York, California and North Carolina was arranged by Generation Engage, a nonprofit group trying to get more young people involved in politics. It was founded by Talbott and his brother Devin, sons of Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott, as well as Justin Rockefeller, son of Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.).

...

But bringing young people into the corridors of power is only part of the equation for Talbott. Equally important are the monthly "ambassadors meetings" with young adults that the group sponsors in all of its locations.

"We can't just be a roadshow, or it won't work," Talbott said.

Generation Engage has an annual operating budget of just more than $1 million, a full-time staff of nine and offices in the Washington area, New York, Virginia and North Carolina.

The rapid growth of the organization, founded after the 2004 elections, has opened it up to criticism that the founders' family ties helped its rapid rise. But Rockefeller says, "I don't play the 'son-of-Jay' card."

Talbott acknowledged that when they first started, they were treated "like a couple of kids trying to get attention," but he said that now "the model is working on its own."

I don't want this to seem like I'm criticizing Generation Engage for what they are doing, because from what I can tell it seems like a good organization. But saying "I don't play the son of Jay--who just happens to be from one of the richest families in the nation and, oh yeah, a Senetor--card" strikes me as pretty silly. Of course you play the son-of-Jay card, because you are the son-of-Jay card. I don't know if that's good or bad, on the whole, but I do know that the fact that only well-to-do and well-connected politicos are making it in this "movement" is a big problem