Poor People Should Be At The Center Of The 2020 Conversation
“Then he will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on his left, and say, ‘Get out, worthless goats! You’re good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why?
Because — I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited or cared.
“Then those ‘goats’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn’t help?’
“He will answer them, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me — you failed to do it to me.’ -Matthew 25:31–45
The war for the very soul of our nation has begun. We are still over 500 days away from the 2020 presidential election and have been presented with 24 Democrats running for president as well as President Trump’s re-election announcement. Yet as the candidates prepare their speeches, gear up for debates, traverse the country, and repeat their talking points, they must keep our nation’s most important audience in mind: the 140 million poor and low wealth people.
Repairers of the Breach is continuing to facilitate the needs of the poor and low wealth through Moral Witness Wednesdays and the Moral Action Congress. Our efforts have been noticed and have already been oppressed by the current administration. While attempting to deliver a petition last month with over 5,000 signatures calling for an end to the attack on affordable health care, create humane immigration policies, end child detention, and more, we were blocked by members of the U.S. Secret Service. If the Trump administration cared about the people they are serving, they would have heard the demands of the thousands of people who put their name on that petition. The people are not the priority for our current political leaders, but that must change with the next election cycle.
The growing gap between the rich and poor in this country is a direct result of policy decisions made in Washington and in our state capitals. But those decisions have been supported by well-funded myths. Corporate interests have sent their representatives here to preach personal responsibility and the dangers of government intervention. But the truth is that we must take collective responsibility for the inequality that unjust laws and systems created. God didn’t make us poor. Greed and abuse of power did.
Poverty is the moral crisis of our nation and cannot be ignored. Our nation’s politics have gotten in the way of its moral character for far too long. This is why I went before Congress, to testify before the House Budget Committee about the moral crisis that poverty has become in America. This is not a Black crisis or a white crisis. This is an American crisis that must be addressed now.
The presidential candidates have an opportunity to truly make our country great and to make it work for those who need help the most, the poor. If you focus on what it is that makes poor people poor, you can then address the social issues like women’s rights, environmental rights, and LGBTQ rights. Why is it that women are now facing a radicalized attempt to take away their rights in states around our country? It’s because of radicalized voter suppression that has gerrymandered the districts to benefit those currently in power who make those laws. Why has the minimum wage not been increased by Congress since 2007? It’s because of voter suppression.
If we do not raise our voices at the polls then we cannot hope to obtain the change that we seek. And we cannot hope to unite our voices at the polls if we do not have a candidate that is focused on changing our country to benefit the poor instead of the wealthy.
Our moral agenda is not a movement FOR the poor, it is a movement WITH the poor. That’s something that anyone who claims to want to better our country ought to remember. You cannot truly better our nation without meeting the people where they are and getting to the root cause of their suffering.
The Poor People’s Campaign recently released “The Poor People’s Moral Budget.” This budget calls for cuts in defense spending and an end to tax breaks for the rich so we can invest that money in the nation’s poor and low wealth who need it the most. With that money we could restore the social safety net, improve wages, and provide better services to the poor. This budget report also condemns the immoral agenda of voter suppression and gerrymandering, because as we all know, we cannot possibly hope to change the direction of our nation without people in elected positions who truly care about the people.
Without the poor, we cannot win, and if we are not fighting with the poor, then we do not deserve to win. We cannot afford to wait on this broken, immoral system to sound the alarm. We — as Americans — as people of every color, race, creed, class, and religion — we must be the alarm.
Repairers of the Breach is building a moral movement and is a cosponsor of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. To learn more about both, visit www.breachrepairers.org.
