Exceptional Leadership in Championing Underclass Cause?

[adios]

Who are the exceptional leaders in championing the cause of the underclass in America? Besides a name I'd be interested in opinions of why you feel that way.

John Edwards?

John Kerry?

Jesse Jackson?

George Bush?

Kweisi Mfume?

Julian Bond?

Congressional Black Caucus?

Louis Farrakahn?

Bill Cosby?

Harry Reid?

Nobody?

??????????????????????????????

Please feel free to offer up anyone you believe to be exeptional. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

[Beer and Pizza]

Let me make my first politics post answering this easy question.

No one on the list can be considered the champion of the underclass. They all have personal aggrandizement motives mixed in with what ever altruistic motives they may have. It is more about raising money or gaining personal political power.

Bill Cosby is probably the closest to a true champion of those on your list, but for him it is a part time thing.

[adios]

Just to make it clear if anybody has a leader that I didn't post please offer one up as I would appreciate their thoughts on the matter. Thanks for the response.

[Beer and Pizza]

The true champions fly under the radar without garnering a lot of publicity, so we won't know their names.

[ QUOTE ]
Let me make my first politics post answering this easy question.

No one on the list can be considered the champion of the underclass. They all have personal aggrandizement motives mixed in with what ever altruistic motives they may have. It is more about raising money or gaining personal political power.

Bill Cosby is probably the closest to a true champion of those on your list, but for him it is a part time thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sir, may I have the pleasure of buying your next 6-pack and extra-large-with-whatever-toppings-you-want?

BTW, OP, why isn't Teddy K. on the list? If ever there was a champion of the downtrodden, huddled-together-in-cardboard-boxes masses, it's tha Teddy Bare!

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[JackWhite]

Anybody who addresses the failing government run public school system in many cities would be a great champion of helping the poor. In addition, those who acknowledge that having 3 out of 4 kids born out of wedlock in some cities is a sure fire poverty creating engine. People who raise those issues are great champions of helping the poor.

The people you listed do not have much of a track record on addressing those issues, though.

[sammysusar]

basically i would say if someone is looking for a politician to help the poor i would say they are looking in the wrong place.

[andyfox]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020325/newfield

[warlockjd]

Noam Chomsky

Corporations (and the plutocrats) are getting wealthier than ever at the expense of the 'common man' as he gets poorer; this is a worldwide pehnomenon.

Chomsky expresses this the best and is the only one with somewhat of a coherent plan for reversing it.

[MMMMMM]

[ QUOTE ]
Corporations (and the plutocrats) are getting wealthier than ever at the expense of the 'common man' as he gets poorer; this is a worldwide pehnomenon.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't believe this is true in aggregate. Rather I think that those entities are indeed getting richer, but so is the "common man". Moreeover, those entities in myriad ways provide direct and/or indirect avenues for the common man to become enriched.

If you want to look at this in a significant perspective, just compare the average standard of living in this country now with the average standard of living, say, in the early 1900's. The poor (with the exception of the homeless) now live far better than did much of the middle class in those days. Go back to the 1800's and the poor today live better in many ways than did even the wealthy of that day.

The rich don't make the poor poorer; they make the poor richer. Wealth builds on wealth, and material progress builds on material progress; the history of humankind is of a continually increasing material prosperity in the long-term perspective. GZranted some reap more benefit from this than do others, and sometimes the disparity is great, but in aggregate the overall march is towards greater prosperity for the human race as a whole.