8-20-08, 10:10 am
Two major labor organizations, the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) teamed up with Brave New Films this week to promote a new video titled 'McCain's Mansions: The Real Elitist,' which links John McCain's personal wealth to his basic misunderstandings of the economic crisis facing working families.
Both Brave New Films and the AFL-CIO sent the video to their e-mail lists totaling more than 550,000 people. 'McCain's Mansions: The Real Elitist' documents how McCain's personal economic privilege and affluence puts him out of touch with the struggles of ordinary working Americans in a recession economy.
The video features pictures of six of McCain's ten estates, some valued at over $1 million each. The footage captures Cindy McCain boasting about purchasing private jets to fly around for campaign events. Also, McCain's $520 designer Italian shoes play a part in the exposé of the Republican candidates personal elitism and disconnectedness from ordinary working Americans.
Additionally, the 4-minute video contrasts the struggles of working Americans to keep their homes in the mortgage crisis with McCain's statements blaming those who lost their homes as being lazy or stupid.
The film's producer and Brave New Films founder Robert Greenwald noted that 'within the last year over a million Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure, with potentially millions more to come, and yet McCain, who has collected ten houses to himself, finds it appropriate to lecture the public about cutting their vacations short and picking up second jobs.'
'Americans should be asking themselves whether McCain is really on their side,' Greenwald stated, 'or if he agrees with his friend Phil Gramm that we're just a 'nation of whiners.''
The video was release as part of Brave New Films' 'The Real McCain' campaign.
On the release of the video, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, 'John McCain has shown little concern for the struggles America's hard-working families face in an economy crippled by the policies of the Bush administration.'
'The reality is that John McCain, who helped create those policies, has ten houses and flies around the world in a private jet,' Sweeney added. 'He simply doesn't understand the challenges America's working families are facing because he isn't remotely affected by them.'
Andy Stern, president of SEIU, said, 'Most working families today do not have homes that have anywhere near ten rooms. John McCain has ten houses.'
'Many working people in America have to work two and three jobs to provide for their families and pay their car loans,' Stern added. 'John McCain hops on a private jet. Is it any wonder why McCain champions a George Bush agenda of cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy, helping oil companies turn record profits, and leaving working families to fend for themselves?'
Greenwald, agreed, 'John McCain pretending to be a friend of working Americans while flying around on his wife's private jet in $500 loafers would be laughable if it weren't such a dangerous charade.'
Watch the video:
