Democracy: de-moc-ra-cy, government by the people; the common people of a community, as distinguished from any privileged class
According to the latest poll conducted by CBS "60 Minutes" and the magazine Vanity Fair,
61 percent of Americans want to raise taxes on the wealthy as the
primary way to cut the budget. The same poll finds that the second most
popular first choice for cutting the nation's budget deficit, at 20
percent, is cutting the military budget. That is, 81 percent of us--four
out of five--would cut the deficit by taxing the rich and/or slashing
military spending.
Only four percent of those polled favored cutting Medicare, the
government-run program that provides health care for the elderly and
disabled, and only three percent favored cutting Social Security.
President Obama meanwhile, appointed a so-called National Commission
on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (quickly dubbed the "Catfood
Commission" by critics) to come up with proposals to cut the budget
deficit. He named as co-chairs former Republican Senator from Wyoming
Alan Simpson, a troglodyte sworn enemy of Social Security who publicly
declared it to be "a milk cow with 310 million tits," and Erskine
Bowles, a retired investment banker and former chief of staff to
President Clinton who says he want to cut spending, not raise taxes,
which, when it comes to Social Security, means lower benefits for
retirees.
The writing on the wall appears to be that the White House, and
Democrats and Republicans in Congress, are looking to raise the
retirement age, currently 66, to 68 or 69, to reduce or at least limit
the inflation adjustment in Social Security benefits, and perhaps also
to increase the payroll tax on current workers. What they want to do is
balance the budget by screwing with our retirement. What they do not want to do
is raise taxes on the rich and on investment income, two steps which,
if taken, could fully fund Social Security indefinitely into the future.
Already, the president and Congress have agreed to extend tax breaks
for the rich, even though the vast majority of the American public wants
the rich to pay higher taxes.
A second poll, this time by CNN, reports that 63 percent of Americans
oppose the US War in Afghanistan and want it ended. Only 35 percent say
they support the war (now in its ninth year).
Yet the president, who originally promised he would end US
involvement in 2011, is now saying the US will "end combat operations"
in that war-torn country in 2014--a turn of phrase that doesn't even
mean the war would be ended that year (US combat operations allegedly
ended in Iraq last summer, but some 50,000 American troops and many more
private mercenaries are still there today and will be next year too,
unless they are thrown out by the Iraqi government).
Even on the matter of cutting military spending, and with the US
currently at war, a Financial Times/Harris poll found in November of
last year that a third of Americans thought cutting the Pentagon budget
was a good idea, and another third said it would not be a bad thing,
with only just over a third saying it was a bad idea. Only 30 percent
said that they were concerned that cutting military spending might pose a
security risk. Instead of cutting though, the Obama administration with
Congressional backing has continued to raise military spending to
record levels not seen since World War II, when the US was in a state of
all-out war and full national mobilization.
Last April, while Congress was considering the Dodd-Frank Financial
Reform bill, a Pew poll found that 64 percent of Americans favored
regulations placing a maximum limit on the permissible size of a bank.
Only 27 percent opposed such a limit. Yet Congress passed, and the
president signed into law, a bill that allows banks to grow even larger,
without any constraint on size.
A Pew Charitable Trust poll released last March found that 52 percent
of Americans favor setting limits on carbon emissions by vehicles and
power plants, even if such limits meant higher energy prices. Only 35
percent opposed such limits on emissions. And yet Congress and President
Obama have refused to offer up with any plan to limit CO2 emissions.
Finally, for decades, a majority of Americans have favored some kind
of national healthcare system, whether a fully socialized plan such as
that in the UK, or a so-called single-payer type plan where the
government is the insurer of all citizens, as in Canada. In May 2009, as
the battle over health care reform was heating up, a CNN poll found
Americans favored a government health plan by 69-29%.
What polls showed Americans didn't want was a system of private
insurers with a government mandate that everyone had to buy insurance
or pay a penalty. Guess what kind of "health reform" Congress and the
President gave them? Hint: It wasn't socialized medicine.
What's wrong with this picture?
On every key issue of public concern--protecting Social Security,
reforming and universalizing health care, re-regulating the banking
industry, ending America's endless wars, cutting the military budget,
and taking serious steps to combat global climate change, the government
in this supposed democracy has gone against the wishes of the majority
of the public.
Clearly, whatever it is, this is no democracy we are living in today.
No wonder the American government is so busy figuring out new ways to
spy on and monitor us citizens, to militarize police departments, to
construct ever bigger prisons, to restrict access to information, and to
control and intimidate the media! Instead of being of, by and for the
public, it has become the public's enemy.
Revolution: rev-uh-loo-shun, an overthrow or
repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or
political system by the people governed.
