OtherWords

Four years ago, a plumber by the name of Joe Wurzelbacher injected a bit of a debate over inequality right into the heart of the 2008 presidential race.

Now four years later Joe the Plumber has largely faded from view. He's running a lackluster campaign for Congress, as a conservative Republican. And the issue that gave Joe the Plumber celebrity status -- wealth redistribution -- has more or less totally disappeared.

Last week, the second presidential debate of 2012 came and went without a single mention of the word "inequality" or America's incredibly top-heavy distribution of income and wealth.

Maybe one day Americans will live in a society that shares. Maybe one day our presidential candidates will even talk about sharing.

He has lived a life nearly as large as his heart

McGovern worked to unleash the power of grass roots activists. He worked to open up the nominating process of the Democratic Party beyond elite party insiders. For my generation, he was beloved for his courageous opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

McGovern challenged his colleagues with a candor seldom heard in Washington, he said, "It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes. And if we do not end this damnable war those young men will someday curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us."

“President Obama owned Governor Romney in their second debate on issues of foreign policy, women, immigration, and the 47 percent. He even leveled a fatal blow regarding Benghazi. Don’t get me wrong: Mitt was no wimp, and Obama was no progressive, but Obama had the better plans, the better attacks, and the better handle on the truth than Romney,” writes Karen Dolan of the Institute for Policy Studies.

A quick review of presidential track records shows that giving the rich tax breaks doesn't spur job creation and economic growth.

In the real world, many government programs help the middle class, like the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, health care and college grants. Cutting taxes and government hurts people in the middle and on the bottom more than the wealthy. A hundred years ago, G.K. Chesterton wrote, “The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly. The rich have always objected to being governed at all.”