What "Joe the Plumber" reminds me of

I like movies - just about any kind of movie. I often am reminded of something in this or that movie when I see something in real life. That happened to me last week when I heard about Joe the Plumber and saw the progression of his story.

I am reminded of the phenomenon in which a large section of the population is intimidated to such an extent that they fear even making eye contact with the individual with the power or his supporters.

For example, in movies about brutal kings or dictators, there are always scenes with peasants cowering in fear avoiding eye contact with the dictator or members of the secret police. The peasants are just hoping that they can go one more day without being noticed.

They know that if they somehow embarrass or anger the dictator or his people, their lives will take a turn for the worse.

That's what we all saw happening in slow motion last week when Senator Obama came into the neighborhood where Joe the Plumber lived. Joe the Plumber embarrassed Senator Obama by getting him to admit that he is on some level a socialist.

Instead of addressing the real issue of being exposed as a socialist, Senator Obama, the people in his staff, the media, the entertainment industry, union workers and Democrats in general went to work destroying the reputation of Joe the Plumber.

The media is delving into Joe's life and is telling us things that we would probably not want people to know about us. For example, they are letting details of Joe's financial situation out.

Before we were told that most normal people don't go into politics because of the intense scrutiny that candidates have to go through. However, I think we need to modify that. People who don't want their lives turned upside down and inside out need to really think about being noticed by politicians and candidates Democratic Party along with any of their supporters.