Bush’s Class Warfare
Just a week before Christmas, President Bush gave corporate America two big presents. On Tuesday, his Federal Communications Commission changed the rules to allow the nation’s giant conglomerates to further consolidate their grip on the media by permitting them to purchase TV and radio stations in the same local markets where they already own daily newspapers. As a gift to the country’s automobile industry, Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency ruled Wednesday, over the objections of the agency’s staff, that California, the nation’s largest and most polluted state, and 16 other states, can’t impose regulations to limit greenhouse gases from cars and trucks that are stronger than the federal government’s own weak standards.
So far, no major politicians or editorial writers have labeled these actions “class warfare,” although this is precisely what Bush is engaged in — helping the already rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else. Class warfare is, in fact, the very essence of Bush’s tenure in the White House. In thousands of ways, big and small, Bush has promoted the interests of the very rich and the largest corporations. Corporate lobbyists have the run of the White House. Their agenda - tax cuts for the rich and big business, attacks on labor unions, and the weakening of laws protecting consumers, workers and the environment from corporate abuse - is Bush’s agenda.
For example, Bush has handed the pharmaceutical industry windfall profits by restricting Medicare’s ability to negotiate for lower prices for medicine. He targeted huge no-bid federal contracts to crony companies like Haliburton to supply emergency relief, reconstruction services and materials to rebuild Katrina while attempting to slash federal wage laws for reconstruction workers. He repealed Clinton-era “ergonomics” standards, affecting more than 100 million workers, that would have forced companies to alter their work stations, redesign their facilities or change their tools and equipment if employees suffered serious work-related injuries from repetitive motions. He opposed stiffer health and safety regulations to protect mine workers and cut the budget for federal agencies that enforce mine safety laws. Not surprisingly, under Bush, we’ve seen the largest number of mine accidents and deaths in years. Bush’s Food and Drug Administration lowered product-labeling standards, allowing food makers to list health claims on labels before they have been scientifically proven. His FDA chief announced that the agency would no longer require claims to be based on “significant scientific agreement,” a change that the National Food Processors Association, the trade association of the $500 billion food processing industry, had lobbied for. Bush resisted efforts to raise the minimum wage (which had been stuck at $5.15 an hour for nine years) until the Democrats took back the Congress earlier this year.
Virtually every week since he took office, the Bush administration has made or proposed changes in our laws designed to help the rich and powerful while harming the most vulnerable people in society and putting the middle class at greater economic risk. The list of horrors can be so numbing that one can lose sight of the cumulative impact of these actions. Taken together, they add up to the most direct assault on working people, the environment and the poor that the country has seen since the presidency of William McKinley over a century ago.
Bush has been a persistent practitioner of top-down class warfare , but the media rarely characterize his actions that way. In contrast, when progressive activists, unions, environmental groups, community organizations and politicians support legislation and rules to redress the balance of power and wealth, they are inevitably described as engaging in c lass warfare . Top-down class warfare seems to be OK, but bottom-up class warfare is apparently a no-no.
The class warfare rap is now being used against John Edwards, when he talks about challenging the power of the insurance and drug corporations. In a recent speech, Edwards said that his campaign was about challenging “the powerful, the well-connected and the very wealthy.” But wary of being criticized for fueling class resentments, even Edwards felt it necessary to say “This is not class warfare. This is the truth.”
Yes, the truth is that the rich have been at war with the rest of the country. It isn’t a question of “”rich against the poor,” which is often how leftists describe things. That leaves out most Americans. Its the very rich versus everyone else.
As Robert Kuttner observes in his new book, The Squandering of America, from 1966 to 2001, the wealthiest one-tenth of all Americans captured the lion’s share of society’s productivity growth. But it was the top one tenth of 1 percent that gained the very most. Those between the 80th and 90th percentiles about held their own. Those between the 95th and 99th percentiles gained 29 percent, while those between the top 99 and 99.9 percentile, gained 73 percent.
“But,” Kuttner writes, “it was those at the very pinnacle –the top one tenth of 1 percent of the population - one American in a thousand - who gained a staggering 291 percent.”
Wealth has become even more concentrated during the Bush years. Today, the richest one percent of Americans has 22 percent of all income and about 40 percent of all wealth. This is the biggest concentration of income and wealth since 1928. In 2005, average CEO pay was 369 times that of the average worker, compared with 131 times in 1993 and 36 times in 1976. At the pinnacle of America’s economic pyramid, the nation’s 400 billionaires own 1.25 trillion dollars in total net worth - the same amount as the 56 million American families at the bottom half of wealth distribution.
Meanwhile, despite improvements in productivity, the earnings of most workers have been stagnant, while the cost of health care, housing, and other necessities has risen. The basics of the American Dream - the ability to buy a home, pay for college tuition and health insurance, take a yearly vacation, and save for retirement - have become increasingly slippery. And for the 37 million Americans living below the official poverty line - $17,170 a year for a family of three - the dream has become a nightmare.
In many ways, America today resembles the conditions in the late 1800s that was called the Gilded Age. It was an era of rampant, unregulated capitalism. It was a period of merger mania, increasing concentrations of wealth among the privileged few, and growing political influence by corporate power brokers called the Robber Barons. During the Gilded Age, new technologies made possible new industries, which generated great riches for the fortunate few, but at the expense of workers, consumers, and the environment. The gap between the rich and other Americans widened dramatically.
It was also an era of massive immigration to the US from people fleeing political persecution and economic hardship. In the growing cities of the early 20th century, there were terrible poverty, child labor, sweatshops, slums, and serious public health crises, including major epidemics of contagious diseases.
But out of that turmoil, activists created a “Progressive” movement, forging a coalition of immigrants, unionists, middle-class reformers, settlement house workers, muckraking journalists, clergy, and upper-class philanthropists. They fought for, and won, better working conditions, better housing, better schools, and better public services like sanitation and public health laws. Those reforms began at the local and state levels, but eventually laid the foundation for a wave of reform at the federal level - the New Deal.
In 1939, in the midst of the Great Depression, the balladeer Woody Guthrie wrote a song about bank robbers and outlaws. “Yes, as through this world I’ve wandered, I’ve seen lots of funny men,” Guthrie wrote, “Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen.”
Throughout his Presidency, Bush has used his pen to sign regulations and laws that make the rich richer, allow big business to pollute the environment, reduce wages, and rip-off borrowers and consumers.
But Americans finally seem to have caught on. Iraq, Katrina, Enron, the current wave of foreclosures, and other events have helped wake them up to the reality that Bush’s top-down class warfare has done great damage to our country. We now may be on the brink of another progressive era. Bubbling below the surface is a new wave of social activism.
Today’s progressive movement is almost invisible to the mainstream media, but it is obvious to anyone involved in the struggle for social justice. It has many of the same elements as 100 years ago. There is a new wave of activism across America among labor unions, community organizations, environmental groups, immigrant rights activists, and grassroots housing and health care reformers. In the last decade, for example, more than 150 cities, dozens of counties, and now one state (Maryland) have adopted “living wage” laws to lift low-wage workers out of poverty, the result of solid organizing efforts by networks of unions, religious congregations, and community groups like ACORN and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. Environmentalists and unions - who were barely on speaking terms for many years - are now forging alliances to push for “green” jobs and waging joint campaigns, such as the coalition of Teamsters and environmental activists working together to clean up the Los Angeles/Long Beach port, the nation’s largest port and also its most polluted, and unionize the immigrant truck drivers.
Like the Progressive and New Deal eras, there is now a growing number of politicians at the local, state and national level who help give voice to this burgeoning movement. When they do, they are accused of engaging in “class warfare.” They should wear it as a badge of honor.
Peter Dreier is E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, and director of the Urban and Environmental Policy program, at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
Copyright © 2007 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
the democrats “took back” congress? i thought taking back our government was “off the table”…
“Today’s progressive movement is almost invisible to the mainstream media…”
And will CONTINUE to be so as long as articles like this omit Dennis Kucinich when he should be included in an appropriate piece such as this!
The Bush administration is also a proponent of top/down class warfare against foreign governments or social movements that attempt to either better the lot of their poor citizens and/or strive for national independence from the heavy hand of Washington.
However, there should not be bottom/up class warfare against the Washington plutocrats and their corporate, military and espionage machines.
Thus insurgents in Iraq or Afghanistan should not resist the US-led occupations, Venezuela or Bolivia should not redistribute economic resources to the poor, Russia and Venezuela should not nationalize privately controlled oil extraction and processing industries…and it goes on.
In other words, those who are warred upon and attacked do (or should) not have the right to fight back.
Forget any legal means to adjudicate this form of assymetrical, one-sided warfare. The US oligarchs dismiss the legitimacy of any form of international court.
Isn’t this the bully’s ultimate dream?
So in this authors historical narrative, there is a “wave” of un-regulated capitalism, followed by a “wave” of “progressive reform” followed by ANOTHER wave of un-regulated capitalism followed by ANOTHER wave of “progressive reform”? Ad nauseum? I would suggest the author dig a little deeper for solutions so we might get off the “wave” cycle.
THE ULTRA-RICH HAVE THEIR OWN INFRASTRUCTURE
Not that long ago, however rich one was, they still had enough in common with the masses to protect the same.
For example, one could not simply buy one’s way out of the effects of war, crime and pollution, so when they protected themselves from such problems through the political structure, everyone else benefited as well.
For the ultra-rich, this is no longer true. Consider the story of the eccentric Howard Hughes holed away in a Las Vegas hotel penthouse. Threatened with relocation by the hotel management, he simply bought the entire hotel.
The ultra-rich can now literally create the environment around them from the ground up in sufficiently wide circles to survive indefinitely, most anything short of a nuclear blast.
Pick an issue, any issue, and rest assured the ultra-rich are generally immune from it. Even a global economic crash that cuts output and wealth in half, perhaps as a result of climate change for example, would not phase them in their hardened bunkers of redundant protection.
As it should be, they would say, that the most “productive” members should survive to carry on in order to sustain the trickle down on which the less fortunate depend on for survival.
Before the ultra-rich, if not enough people pushed the wagon instead of riding in it, some would get out and help push. But among those in the wagon and on the ground pushing it were the owners of the wagon.
Now the absentee owner of the wagon is nowhere to be seen, jetting around somewhere in a Gulfstream giving orders to lobbyists and politicians on how to run the country. As long as the wagon holds its value, who cares who’s in it or pushing it?
Another example of the golden rule: when Repuglicans say “Look over there!” make sure that you look the exact opposite way—They scream “class warfare” every time some proposal for helping working people comes around, and then stuff their own and their corporate friends’ pockets at the direct expense of everybody else. It’s the Rovian ultimate extension of Hitler’s rule that you should always tell as big a lie as possible: “Reverse Reality.” Benjamin Barber said it well to Bill Moyers recently: the GOP’s main thrust these 20-30 years now has been to PRIVATIZE PROFIT while putting all RISK on the public. It’s what an empire does (colonize your own people) when it loses its frontier edge, as America’s was lost when Southeast Asia said No Thanks….”Doing this for political reasons” is another example—Clearly everything BushCo does is to solidify its short-term power, and so any criticism or active opposition is just their rivals being “self-serving,” as opposed to the GOP’s high-minded vision for the nation….And the Dimocraps except for Kucinich stumble under the wheels every time….
never in history has the welfare of so many been in the hands of so few. . .
of course you would want to protect your interests as expediently as possible if this were indeed true. put up a wall around yourself.
what will happen next?
Bad as Bush is, he has no monopoly on class warfare. Clinton was nearly as bad in his corporate deregulation, cutting of vital safety net programs, and assistance to corporations in moving to poor countries in search of chap labor not to mention NAFTA, CAFTA . . .
Barring the election of Kucinich or Edwards, expect more of the same as our insatiable ruling class continues to decimate us. Our only other defense is militant Class Unity.
Well, it is said that history repeats itself and this is a good example of that. Unfortunately, fixing this problem and equalizing the country took many years and much pain to accomplish. Conversely, the wrecking of America was done in a very short time with an evil administration and complicit Congress and media. The people that have managed to accumulate their great wealth will not relinquish it easily, so the ones that have been cheated cannot expect relief without a fight. Sadly , there are too many that do not realize the extent of the disparity and the fact it will worsen considerably yet. As long as Bushco kept the fear factor alive, many were distracted from the real problems that were being created, and now we have a terrible struggle to regain the America we once had.
fear and ignorance factor.
Once again, Drier, like so many liberal/progressive columnists attributes all kinds of horrible crimes to Bush, while ignoring both the historical context and contemporary reality.
Let’s just take two areas that he talks about:
1) EPA. The Clinton administration gutted the EPA’s regulatory powers by instituting a policy of “voluntary compliance” and a practice of bargaining down what few fines were assessed on recalcitrant corporations. This happened both when Democrats were a majority and minority in the US Congress.
2) FCC. The Clinton Administration’s rewriting of the Communications Act, SEC Laws, the Banking Act etc., in a wave of massive deregulation set the stage for Bush’s crimes in these areas. Clinton&Co gave him the tools.
Demonizing Bush serves no purposes other than covering the crimes of the DLC, the first Clinton Administration (and the one to come).
If Drier and other liberals/progressives seriously thought that Bush was as personally responsible as they claim for the many horrors that emanate from the corporate/political establishment that runs this country (and much of the rest of the world), they would work for his arrest, impeachment, jailing and/or execution.
Neutralizing the Demon would solve the problem from that point of view.
But they do not call for any serious action because they are a part of the same corporate/political establishment as Bush.
While it’s not surprising that Drier and his ilk are given so much space on the HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. website, it is disappointing to see that they are given so much space on CD.
We need to discuss tactics and strategy for constructive change, not to be clouded by this tripe from Drier and so many other distinguished professors.
Have a Good Solstice Holiday
“…Virtually every week since he took office, the Bush administration has made or proposed changes in our laws designed to help the rich and powerful while harming the most vulnerable people in society and putting the middle class at greater economic risk…”
- This is a particularly accurate sentence; its importance can’t be overstated. Class warfare is a central truth of American life — which is precisely why our rulers don’t want it ever spoken of, & rush to accuse anyone who mentions it of “engaging in class warfare.”
On the other hand, this sentence at the article’s end:
“…Like the Progressive and New Deal eras, there is now a growing number of politicians at the local, state and national level who help give voice to this burgeoning movement…” (ie, a class-conscious form of politics)
- this strikes me as far too optimistic. Class consciousness has been deliberately & systematically eradicated from American politics. It took several generations and a lot of TV to do that; and it will take a long time, and a lot of consciousness-raising, to reverse the damage that’s been done. An entire way of perceiving & understanding the world has been lost.
One of the prime stupidities of “lesser-evilism” is that its proponents don’t recognize that one of the main responsibilities of a political party should be to educate its members; to help them understand the connections between politics, society, & the members’ own interests. This is what socialist organizations try to do, & what militant labor unions used to do.
In the 2-party system, neither party educates its members, in this sense. The Republican side engages in a false & reactionary kind of “education” — Fox TV, Limbaugh, etc. Their argument is couched not in terms of social class, but rather in terms of nationalism, jingoism, being white & Christian, hating Mexicans & Muslims, “values,” etc. // The Democratic side, meanwhile, doesn’t attempt any education whatsover, because it is not interested in defending its voters’ own interests; it’s interested in defending big business & the MIC, which are inimical to its voters’ interests. Thus any line of thought that might awaken Democratic voters to thinking in terms of class interests, is something that the Dem Party wants to avoid, not encourage.
No matter what happens in Bush’s last days, impeached or not, better times are ahead for our children and their children because of progressive thinkers and activists who are a bit more evolved than the greedy investors in war and polluting businesses. Just like Latin Americans shaking off the boot at their necks, the United States will rise again! In the meantime, Canada may see a run on their border from their neighbor to the south. US.
celebrity,
Perhaps if you and others abstained from using the term ‘main stream media’ and started calling it ‘corporate controlled media’, the American people might actually start looking at things with their eyes open.
I am just as guilty for using the wrong terminology. Only recently a friend of mine pointed this out.
i simply don’t support the united states……..haven’t paid taxes since 2004.
i will not support my enemies (greedy warmongers).
i suggest others do the same. the “class warfare” terrorists have stolen our government and deserve NO support.
RichM:
Thanks for saying much more clearly and accurately some things I was trying to get to.
With few exceptions, the Democrats definitely don’t want to talk about bottom up class warfare. Case in point: at one Iowa debate, Senator Edwards mentioned income inequality and trying to help the lower classes. A few minutes later, Governor Richardson says, “I don’t want to get involved in class warfare” in reference to the comments by Edwards. What?! If you mention poverty exists, it’s class warfare? Anybody really think Richardson or the mainstream DNC Dems will save us?
PS: Bill Clinton was not a populist, but compared to Bush, he’s Eugene Debs.
Joe Tex
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/unsanam2
We are out of time. Talk and procrastination will NOT help. We are Nero to the world, fiddling away any hope for humanity. Snap out of it! Shake of the consumer delirium and put aside your fear.
SIGN THE DAMN PETITION!!!
I will hand deliver it to the UN!
texshelters (2:32 pm) — I saw that exchange in that debate, & it was indeed a perfect example of how the D’s as well as R’s run away from the entire topic. (This is one of the many things the 2 parties are in complete agreement on: There shall be no class consciousness — because it’s threatening to the prevailing social order, which BOTH parties defend.)
In one of the Gore-Bush debates in 2000, there was a precisely parallel moment. Discussing their tax plans, Gore brought up the issue of income inequality. Bush immediately countered by saying “That’s just class warfare” — and Gore felt forced to let the subject drop.
tj (2:21 pm) - Thank you for often saying exactly what I’m thinking. You were spot-on at 1:46 pm. // A Good Solstice Holiday to you, too!
you know the other day I waded through two hours of listening to a couple of renowned atheists discuss their hypotheses and one of them observed the potential hypocrisies many of us might be expressing (ok he was referring to whomever reads move on dot org) but how few of us would probably do something as extreme as for example not pay taxes. Hypocrisy in that these potential move on folks would then claim that this particular political geographical region we inadvertently ended up in through no apparent fault of our own is corrupt, say, for example for what we perceive to be an obvious class injustification - and yet participate in it by benefiting from all its luxuries and fineries, elegant dry wall homes and modern automobiles.
Ok he had a point. As if, this renowned atheist seemed to be implicating, that’s what we would naturally do were we to live here under these conditions. And then he gulped down a fistful of peanuts.
Ok, so, I’m glad to hear that there are some here who like myself will go as far as possible to not belong by any means necessary. Because then I know I’m listening to truth.
None of the candidates for president, with the possible exception of Kucinich, will offer any change in agenda. They will simply attempt to disguise it with different, perhaps less blatant, rhetoric.
Stop wasting time. http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/unsanam2
yet another piece that ascribes the behavior of the ruling class to simple greed. but it’s not their greed that drives them: it’s their desperation for cash to shore up their self-destructing financial system.
None of this Class War for the Rich would be possible without the Dems playing Good Cop.
Heck, the Democrats aren’t even offering the prisoner a cigarette anymore. And no, this is not of concern for the prisoner’s health.
As ColdWarBaby says, none of the candidates for president, with the possible exception of Kucinich, will offer any change in agenda.
And we’re seeing how Kucinich is being minimized or shut out wherever possible. The Cons know he’s probably our best bet.
Since we’re in the losing end of this class warfare, we should do two things - 1)write in Kucinich in November ‘08, and 2)stop feeding those corporate media hogs! Probably three - 3)stop paying into the huge military budget. I’m already doing that just because I’m on the next to the lowest rung on that class ladder.
One of Hitler’s first moves was to control the press. He succeeded and he ruled the German citizens and they allowed him to have his way, oblivious of the truths.
We were just plain lucky that Hitler was paranoid and he attacked Russia when he did. Had that and three other critical decisions he made, concerning the development and use of aircraft not occurred, WW-2 would most likely have turned out far differently.
Had Germany won the Battle of Britian, and by any yard stick, they should have, had Hitler not personally become involved in mlitary strategy. If Germany had managed to control the air over Europe, his atomic weapons program could have easily succeeded before ours did and he surely would have used atomic weapons and won the war.
Of course now Hitler’s shadow hovers over us, as the Nazis types still have the power and control the press here and in many other countries. __ The spectre of Hitler may soon rise from the ashes and soar again, as did the mythical Pheonix. Only the Nazi spectre is not a myth, and step by step Bush is marching us to the Nazi drumbeat.
Peter Sirois: That came from the article, not from me. I got a handle on the “corporate media”. Thanks anyway.
jerrys: I’m with you. When Rupert Murdoch starts paying a fair share instead of $0 then I’ll be a taxpayer agaiin.
“As a gift to the country’s automobile industry, Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency ruled Wednesday, over the objections of the agency’s staff, that California, the nation’s largest and most polluted state, and 16 other states, can’t impose regulations to limit greenhouse gases from cars and trucks that are stronger than the federal government’s own weak standards.”
If I’m not mistaken, didn’t the states create the Federal Government? Isn’t it up to the individual states and its citizens to decide how they will be “represented” and governed?
For the present, Bush rules us GAIL and Pelosi and Conyers have assured it.
While I feel my future is not as crushed (being part of the upper middle class) as others, I still loathe how the rich take away opportunities. BTW, do we have any of the super rich on our side? It seems that although an extreme minority, there has to be at least one extremely rich person who cares about us. I’ve seen that in the film Born Rich, where the heir to the Johnson & Johnson corperation interviewed other rich youth. They were actually pretty depressed and found actually working to be more positive.
since the beginning of time…there has only been ONE sin it is the original and it is the ONLY sin=GREED !!when lucifer wanted to be more like god-was greed…when eve wanted ALL the knowledge=was greed….when the angel’s lusted for human women-was greed.the problem with greed,is there is no known antidote for it,it is insatiable,has no conscience,has no heart and knows no boundaries…..i believe this controversy is a very ancient one and here on earth,began with horus and the going forth….was quelled by moses,but not forgotten………i still want to see bush and his gang,outed and tried and hopefully convicted….for the sake of ALL of mankind !!
GlobalFriend,
I like what you’re saying in general, but I would hazard a bet that many of the readers here have experienced just how quickly that “upper middle class” thing can get yanked out from underneath. In ways that none of us here could probably assure you that it does, but, rest assured, it does.
Not that you shouldn’t feel like your future is or isn’t going to be crushed, just that nothing can be what it seems in about half a moment’s time. But I would have to be inventive to demonstrate the point which I don’t want to be.
But I too would agree that the super rich more than likely in more than one family have family member’s who are like “black sheep.” It would be a pretty natural phenomenon. That would be a tortured situation right now while your friends were in imminent peril and you feel you can do very little about it.
Warren Buffit, “Yes there is class warfare and we won it.”
Forget Bush…..he’s finished.
Feliz Navidad & Año Nuevo Prospero
warfare-they got…class-they have not….
And CNN is asking: “What would Jesus do?”
GDEBS__I don`t think you should use Warren Buffett as an example of the greedy, selfish rich folk. He started at the bottom and worked his way up, educated himself in how to deal with the stock market while working, and made a great success of his career. He has helped many other people who invested with him to make considerable gains in their assets. Also, he realizes that the wealthy owe something back to their country that allowed them to gain their wealth, and has stated many times that the estate tax ahould be retained for people in his group with great wealth, unlike Bush and his cronies preach.
I see that Rupert Murdoch has just sold eight TV stations to Robert M. Bass, the Texas billionaire, who was a Bush classmate at Yale and is a long time supporter of the Bush crime family. And so grows the Ministry of Truth.
Stop using terms like ‘top’,'rulers’,'upperclass’,'pinnacle’. Instead refer to the scum of avaricious, murdering, freeloaders who have usurped our government by the appropriate titles that they have come to deserve.
One person = One vote. All have the same rights no one is higher than another.
Nobody ever seems to say the word ‘capitalism’ around here.
One person one vote? That didn’t work very well in Ohio and Florida. It’s just supposed to be that way.
It’s either Edwards or Kucinich in 2008. Anyone else (with the exception of Mike Gravel) doesn’t represent the working class.
Much as I too am ready to attack Bush for giving Corporate America even more “gifts”, let’s not forget both parties in Congress who enabled him to do so just like they did in RAYGUN’s and even KILLTON’s (when it came to “free” trade, more union busting, privatisation, deregulation, etc …) time ! The fault lies in both Congress and the White House !
Unfortunantly, the powers who be want Killary, barring some miracle, or a serious blunder by her, she will be the next president. There is little chance for John Edwards or Kucinich, the ones who would be the best choice. A Republican will not be elected. ___ We’ll see of course, and then there may not be an election if Bush continues to have his way.
The basic cause of social problems is the following:
Those with the most needs have the least power; those with the least needs have the most power (Parenti: “Power and Powerlessness”).
i have registered as a republican…technically i have joined the enemy,so i may vote for RON PAUL,in the primary.
I have a question:
Is every small-to-medium sized town in the United States populated mainly by police-heads?
A couple years ago I sent in a letter to the editor, half jokingly, saying that for years I’ve not been able to find any marijuana to smoke and am planning to track down a state trooper and ask him if he’ll find me some.
The whole power structure around here went nuts. Not only did the newspaper editor inform me that the cops were upset, but a week later a uniformed trooper and a plainclothes trooper detective showed up at my door, just wanting to ‘chat’ with me for a few minutes in order to ‘ease their minds about a few things.’
Of course, they both acted real hip, and the undercover cop with the long hair even told me that he played drums and listened to Grateful Dead music. There’s no telling how many guns he had hidden under his clothing, but the uniformed trooper definitely had a big one hanging on his belt.
Everyone around this area seems to just adore the police. The troopers sometimes walk around in paramilitary SWAT outfits, in and out of the convenience store, and nobody even bats an eye. It’s like we’re living under a beloved occupation army or something. And if you level any criticism whatsoever at the police, no matter how rational or justified, you’re immediately labeled as a ‘cop hater’ or suffering from anti-police syndrome. You’re not even allowed to discuss Tazering or police brutality or anything of that nature on the local online chat board, or 10 people immediately start shouting you down.
Is this just a local phenomenon distinct to western Maryland or is this kind of attitude indicative of middle America nowadays? Fifteen years around here and it’s always been this way. Their idea of ‘art’ around here is paintings of the local area that fetch money from tourists. I mean, that actually IS what is considered ‘art’ around here. That, and a handful of classic rock bands. If you wrote an anti-war poem and printed up ten copies and taped them to store front windows around here you’d probably be arrested. Several years ago some kids painted a couple of anarchist “A” symbols on a sidewalk downtown, apparently in the middle of the night, and the Chamber of Commerce acted like it was the Night of the Long Knives.
Now I realize this article concerns class warfare, but I thought I’d ask this (perhaps) related question anyway.
Thanks.
To reply to your question. I do believe that you wrote a pretty stupid letter to the editor.
CAPITALISM.
SERAPHICMOM, indeed you said it,__ GREED, or the LOVE of money, truly is the root of ALL evil.
As Colonel Adolphus Busch once stated durng an interview. “You can only drink thirty to forty glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.”
Well maybe so, but a person needs to try and maintain some sanity somehow. So I’ve often turned to humor.
A slogan for the Globalizationists: “Capitalists of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your conscience”.
This war is not new but the resounding alarm should continue. Too many Americans are still blissfully asleep and we must wake them up. We must — but know this, once we do, the real dogs of war — namely Blackwater ‘holy’ men — will descend upon us like holes in a sock and we’ll all be forced to make decisions we’d never even dreamed of. I’ll be damned if I let them in my house to ’search’ for anything….but guess what, they’ll be here and at your door too.
kem patrick,i dont believe i said that at all !i i said greed was the original and the only real sin.i did not single out or specify-money…i just said greed,,,greed covers any multitude of sundry things…..i never singled out one thing.please do not put your words into my mouth……..
mcpete,thanks for the link……the saudi connection is something i’ve been shouting about for a long time.i know a few soldiers in iraq and they tell me the symbiotic and sympathetic relationship of the bushes and all the royal elites and the saudi’s, really bothers our troops,they feel there is something rotten in dubai.
I think its high time for “Neocon Fascism Awareness Week”.
Hey calm down SERAP. I agreed with you entirely and was glad you had posted it.
I wrote, “GREED, then ___ or”. __ Greed can be of anything and (or) can be money. That’s juat a famous old saying I quoted. It may be written in the Bible. Take a pill, I wasn’t attempting to put anything in your mouth.
kem,o.k.,no problem…greedy is greedy..whether it’s money,power,oil,water,food or pencils…greed NEVER has enough…..i have chilled,but i will never take a pill..i do not want to join the( government-sponsored) pharmecutical ZOMBIE-NATION…………….PEACE.
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Too late for PEACE kid. I just blasted you on another thread because of your crappy commments to another poster. I see a lot of trolls and detractors end their comments with the word Peace. ___ You one?
If not, Okay. No more crap from me then either. This is supposed to be a learnig site and it can be fun at the same time.
No matter how many noble laws or regulations we enact, dark human nature seems to win out in the end. Disparity and exploitation, economic or otherwise, is the rule and not exception when it comes to the expression of man’s materialistic desires. Most take for granted that they must, inwardly, remain as they are, and the best they can do is believe in some kind of garbage until they reach heaven, utopia, a crystal palace, nirvana, or whatever. They are always looking outside of themselves for answers and saviors, when they should really be looking within.
Unless enough individuals transform themselves fundamentally, the world at large will remain a big-dog-eat-little-dog place. That being said, the lot we presently have ruling us are at as stone-hearted and greedy as I can remember. Perhaps Upton Sinclair’s book “The Jungle” should be required reading in school. Individual consciousness and social consciousness cannot be separated and compartmentalized, though we may try. What’s really in one’s heart always expresses itself in the end. Many if not most at the “bottom” now I dare say would behave as bad and maybe worse, if they made it to the top. That’s a big part of why the communist revolution failed; the communist ideology just didn’t jibe with the reality of human nature. If you want to change the world, end class warfare, and behave compassionately, do it by first striving to be self-honest and aware. Think that is easy? Just try it and see.
Execute the executive. Is this an alliteration?
What’s this I heard today on Al-Jazeera English about the FBI spending a billion dollars to develop a biometric database on all American citizens? They’ll be retina scans, gait recognition, software that will pick out your specific face in a large crowd, voice recognition…
They’re turning the whole country into a prison and we’ll all be inmates under constant surveillance. They’ll be looking at us from cameras in space, cameras mounted behind mirrors, cameras on top of buildings, cameras mounted on traffic lights, cameras pointed at our homes, and cameras at the workplace. And this’ll all be coordinated by the FBI through a big data base and software. It’s starting to seem like that Tom Cruise movie where the cops were arresting people BEFORE they committed crimes based on remote viewing.
We gotta get outta this place….if it’s the last thing we ever do….
A man who was elections were dubious at most,with more than half of the population opposing him has taken the most extreme positions. He never gave even a token of respect to the other half of america and what they think and want. Basically, we have a demonic possession of our presidency that hopefully can be exorcised soon. However, all of the judicial appointments of this illegitimate president will be with us for decades. Decades of more misery, stupidy and mean spiritedness against the american people. That is why I do not understand why the democrats have cooperated with anything this man has done. They should have held up everything until this bully caved in..but that has not happened.
The problem with practically all of Common Dreams articles is that they address the glaringly obvious as though it were some sort of revelation. After much hand wringing the readers (and writers) go back to whatever they do without addressing the real situation at all. Just remember, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fucking around.
The top one percent simply believe,that they have the law of nature on their side, the strong survive and the weak die! Leaving out one very inportant ingredient, “compassion”.
In a 1991 speech, given to the Trilateral commission by David Rockefeller he said:
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time magazine and other great publications who directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march toward a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”
Senator Barry Goldwater in 79 said “What the trilateralists truly intend is the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. They believe the abundant materialism they propose to create will overwhelm existing differences. As manager and creators of the system they will “rule” the future.
It’s the reason why I call the Republican’s ‘The Robber Baron’ Republican’s these days! They remind me of what I have read in history books about the period in the late 1800’s. They remind me of the people of the era. Why any working person votes for Republican’s is one of the mystery’s of this world? These people have let it be known time and time again they hold literally no respect for the person out there trying to make a living day to day. Some administrations haven’t been quite so obvious in their contempt for working people as this administration has been. But, still there are people who will go to the polls and slit their own throats by voting these people in office. I am not certain if they have been so dumbed down by right wing propaganda machine they don’t know any better? They can’t think enough for themselves to realize these people aren’t their friend? Or these people have voted Republican for so long and don’t have the backbone to take a look at what they are voting for? But, either way they fall into the rhetoric trap the Republican’s lay down for them every election. They use the hot button issues like abortion, gays, guns, taxes and religion to steal votes. And people will vote their own rights away to make certain they country is abortion and gay free. It doesn’t make a gram of sense.
People who have chosen to blame others for the choices they have made, choosing to direct the anger they feel for themselves, toward others.
Not class warfare.
Just unfelt anger being directed at others and being explained away and justified with any rationale imaginable; any rationale other than the truth; the truth is that none of it is justified; the truth is we are all responsible; it isn’t someone else’s problem, not in cause or effect; when we stop seeing the problem as the rich or the poor, the smart or the stupid, the strong or the weak, we begin to see the problem is us; then change can begin.
We will solve this problem together or not at all.
Dishonesty and lack of caring are the biggest threats America and the World face.
It’s obviously time to fook some people up, and I really don’t care who get fooked up, just as long as it isn’t the guy in a ragged old army jacket panhandling in front of Nieman Marcus. 50 people pass him by before he gets a coin!
It’s obviously time to fook some people up!
I’ve been running a large progressive online (email-based) discussion group for over seven years, and in my experience, people who describe themselves as ‘progressive’ are just as intolerant as anyone else. Perhaps even more so, because they generally have very large egos, believe that their own personal agenda is more important than the overall health of the group, and have even shown their willingness to destroy the discussion group if they are not allowed to dominate it.
lets not forget the regressive that started “class warfare”, the idiot the Republicans adore more than money itself
Ronald Wilson Reagan
In a democracy, if the rich are too rich, the poor rise up and vote for leaders who put in place more progressive taxes; in America, they sit around telling each other it doesn’t matter if they vote because, no matter what they do, the rich will still be too rich.
If anyone thinks the class disparity is bad now, just wait! When the debt we have accrued from the Iraq attack and occupation and the plumetting value of the dollar really hit, we peons will all be begging in the street.
And do not for a minute think a Clinton will improve the situation.
MIFTIN: As per the new technologically assisted “surveillance society,” I lived in the Florida Keys in the l980’s-l990’s and noted that there were on those tiny islands: highway patrol, marine patrol, sheriff department, police department, DEA, FBI, and whatever else, covert or overt. It hit me that so many are in uniform and thus must answer to their authoritarian masters, and once Bush got into power, the thought that someone so callous could call the shots on so many armed (mostly) men, was absolutely chilling.
For a humorous, if dark portrait of where the society that lives by and through fear ends up, see BRAZIL. It’s becoming almost prophetic.
Many US cities incorporated in January for the new year and thus become “Capricorn entities.” Capricorn is the sign of Saturn, and is extremely conservative and pro-tradition. Most traditions are in support of top-down status oriented hierarchies. (Phil Donahue, Lewis Lapham, Ben Franklin are some ENLIGHTENED Capricorns.) Key West and Atlanta, Georgia are both Capricorn cities. And Pluto–the planet of ultimate destruction that leads to eventual rebuilding–is headed for Capricorn, a zone it’s not been in for 248 years! Capricorn can relate to privations, and definitely carries a harbinger of severity of many sorts. It also feeds off fear. Atlanta has the water shortage which may fit into a larger survival pattern over the course of the next decade as Pluto will remain in Capricorn for more than 15 years.
Money is being made from surveillance and weapons and those things intended for CONTROLLLING citizens. This is a major Capricorn tenet. There will be great strides made in challenging this force, and the US will be in some kind of civil war or accelerated strife from late 2009 and especially 2010 and thereafter. I ask myself just about every day if I should stay or go. Loved ones hold me here, but NOTHING else… answer is therefore pending.
The middle class got a piece of the Bush tax cuts, and there is some remaining loyalty, especially among retirees. But the middle class buys homes and cars, goes to restaurants, pays health insurance and school taxes… and it is disappearing. Disappearing as good jobs go abroad or as the qualifying income inflates farther out of reach.
To trade with the world, a nation has to add value to something. We don’t do much of that any more. We just consume. Things are really starting to fray. Chrysler is in limbo, our local Pontiac dealer closed, housing is dead in the water, and Christmas shopping is way off. Fewer and fewer people and businesses can afford health insurance. Soon it will be car insurance, doctor and dental visits, investments and banking, rent money… that go away. 16 years of unregulated globalization and 7 years of voodoo economics and war have taken their toll.
We may be headed for a depression or third world status. More questions than answers. The only bright spot is reduced economic activity will reduce CO2 emissions and buy us some time on that much greater problem.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Bush’s War is more Ass War than Class War; biggest loser wins.
There was a time when your average investigative reporter and newspsper editor earned enough money to keep him/her (mostly him) in the middle class. Now, they all earn so much money, they are very wealthy, millionaires even, and have no clue what it is like to be middle class or poor. I wonder what Woodward and Bernstein were earning before Watergate. That is why the most appropriate acronym for the mainstream media (which is not even remotely mainstream any more) is M$M.
Where can we run to?
When I was a little kid, a newly wedded couple who lived down the street, feared America would get into WW-2. They found good jobs at a new resort hotel on an island in the Pacific and moved there in August of 1941. __ Oops, they were both killed in a Japanese bombing raid in January of 1942. __ The grass was greener.
If I end up living in a third world country because you guys didn’t Christmas shop, I’m gonna be pissed!
In about 20 years or less we will be living in a third world country,making wages on par with the Chinese and it will have nothing to do with going Christmas shopping or not.
It will have to do with the offshoring of our jobs to cheaper markets and an influx of immigrants willing to work for much less..
We the average American are being soldout to build and maintain the riches of the top 1%.
It asolutely amazes me, that they can still get young men, and women to sign on a dotted line, to fight wars for them. When it is likely that when they return, they will not beable to find jobs, because the very same corporations, are selling their country out.
It takes little imagination to see Blackwater representing privitized storm troopers. They will be used to intimidate the public into silence and accommodation. The threat of a growing storm is gathering strength each day. The Achilies
Heel is money or a lack of it. Consider Mother Earth an ally and global warming a necessary evil. Get ready for the ride of your life.
The Republicans, along with their Corporate Democratic allies, are leading us into a perfect storm. That storm will be a combination of unsustainable consumer debt, government debt, devalued US dollars, the mass demands that the baby boomers will place on resources, and the dissappearing pensions, healthcare, and security most of us used to get at our place of work. And that storm will produce insurrection. That is the real reason the government has been arming itself with increasing police powers and decreasing constitutional rights for its citizens. The Corporate Fascists are not afraid of terrorism. They are afraid of the peasants that are bound to be fed up one day, at which time they take to their pitch forks and storm the castle.
KEM — Regarding you post of the 24th at 3:22 am: “newly wedded couple … feared America would get into WW-2. They found good jobs at a new resort hotel on an island in the Pacific”
Part of the human moral dilemma is taking action and doing things for the right reasons, regardless of consequences. Would you agree that their actions voiced a powerful statement (then and now)?
Being that it became a “world” war - as they are all now days - there really is (and was) no protected place, right?
Let’s be open to acknowledging your neighbor’s choice, as they did successfully follow their dreams (and avoided being killed by Nazis).
Aren’t their dreams (and following them wherever) a worthy and empowering thing to recommend to people with their whole lives before them?
I believe that your story (regardless of its tragic end) can also serve as an example for other’s to live life passionately, beyond mere circumstance and coincidence, and having courage in those days (as now) and acting in spite of FEAR is empowering to me.
I believe that I would have liked to know your neighbors better.
Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed »
Okay, so everybody needs to buy something at Walmart today or this little dancer ends up siphoning gas out of his neighbors Buick! That goes for you too, Mahatma Gumby!
DREAMER TOO — Excellent and powerfully empowering observations that warrant repetition (Thank you):
American, heal thyself.
Self-inspection and responsibility to the global community (lifeboat) at large is our path to salvation, withdrawing from the brink of disaster.
Just left Pris 2 days ago, hated it. Too many women adorning themselves in murdered animals as a ?fashion? statement, too many acting as if it is us only, not the admin., and they get the gift of morons BFF Sarkozy!
In Germany now, Dusseldorf, they realize what bush has done and the majority of Americans sre trying to get rid of it. They are incredibly friendly and caring towards the American Citizens situation. Amsterdam next, hope I do not spend too much time in the ‘cafes’. I will leave this country, MY COUNTRY, I have been at it since Vietnam, if he is not only Impeached but tried, convicted and placed in a Black Site of WE the PEOPLES choosing, I am gone. F it, enough, I have had enough. France, non, cochons!
Talk and talk, I am tired of emailing, calling, petitions, Vote Calls, bills, Congress, Senate, Committees and the entire bush admin. I want to stop ignoring my family so they can have our country back, I want to live where I am free again.
Paris, ‘the morons’, whatever else I spelled incorrectly, it’s 6:02 AM in Germany
The tentacles of class warfare are forever expanding:
http://projectcensored.org/newsflash/ElectromegnaticWeapons.pdf
Of course, that’s not been widely used.
Banking, S&L, sub-prime lending, rampant usury in our society, gas price gouging, oil wars, no-bid contracts, obvious kickbacks, and that whole shebang is the real front of the class war.
Cheers to Peter Dreier. He’d make a great advisor to the president.
Don’t give up folks.
The darkest hour is right before the dawn.
Something very big and positive will happen very soon.
Don’t be taken by suprise.
Believe it or not:
http://www.Share-International.org
P.S.
Man’s future is very bright. It has the words “right human relations, sharing, justice, co-operation, social democracy” on it. These are the last days of an ancient battle, the last days of cosmic cycle that has lasted almost 100,000 years.