The re-election of Barack Obama was amazing feat to behold. Populism won out over greed and disingenuous attempts to equate wealth and financial success with business acumen and righteousness. One would think the religious right component of the Republican Party and hardcore Tea Party auxiliary would look to the Bible for guidance. Yet it doesn't seem to occur to right wing pundits that every day people deserve to access the American dream. The voices of the least among us simply don't matter much to lobbyist driven Republicans.
Avarice is a deadly sin. Thousands of scripture passages point to the virtue of helping the poor. Yet the prevailing right wing wisdom blames the poor and glorifies greed as necessary to ensure the economic future of society. America has already gone too far down the road of confusing exploitation with healthy economic growth. The Cato Institute and a legion of other misnamed self-serving apologists comprise an entire dystopic infrastructure. Their mission is nothing more than helping rich bastards take even more of what they don't deserve.
To his credit, the President made a common sense case based on obvious truths abandoned by the right wing greed elite. Sensible tax rates and regulation are absolutely critical to making the American Dream a reality. "Re-distribution" and "Class warfare" have been accusations leveled at Progressives seeking to ensure a fair chance for everyone. In reality, we have had 30 years of reverse Robin Hood wealth re-distribution coupled with erosion of environmental and labor protecting regulations.
As a result the gap between rich and poor is historically large. Upward mobility is behind that of most of Western Europe and Canada. All of this is happening while rich folks are making out like bandits. Cutting taxes has indeed made the situation worse. Job creation and tax rates were higher under both Reagan and Clinton.
Children growing up must learn to get along with others. They may learn to collaborate, cooperate and pursue solutions that work everyone. Alternatively they may pursue a me-first agenda. Parents, teachers and other role models play a pivotal role in shaping development during these formative years.
Billionaires like the Koch brothers seem to have missed some key lessons in their socialization. Playing the capitalist game better than everyone else or inheriting wealth from a rich parent ought not entitle you to deny opportunity to anyone. If equal opportunity every succumbs to greed we will have lost our soul as a nation. The election of November 6, 2012 was a solid victory for everyone trying to access the American Dream. We need to make sure that the cost of opportunity is not dictated by those fortunate enough to have the wealth necessary to buy our government.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Voting Should be easy and consistent for everyone.
I voted today. It was easy. After arriving at the polls when they opened at 7am, I waited in line for 15 minutes and voted. I was number 90 at Marquette Middle School Madison Wisconsin. The atmosphere was energetic, organized and positive. This is what Democracy should look like everywhere. Too bad it just doesn't.
Unfortunately, voter suppression is alive and well in many places- especially where folks are poor and especially where there are efforts from state and local governments to make voting difficult. This is typically done to maintain power for those already in positions of dominance.
The biggest canard by those suppressing the vote is that we should take drastic steps to prevent fraud. There simply are very few cases of voter fraud that have ever been prosecuted. There is very little incentive to risk severe penalties including imprisonment.
Counting votes is really a simple thing. It does not require complicated hardware running proprietary algorithms. It should be a non-profit proposition. If there's one thing we as a society ought to subsidize, it's a consistent fair vote.
This is where the parallel universe that defines Right Wing World becomes a real menace. The so-called free-marketers actually claim that proprietary voting machines are necessary. In practice we have unverifiable vote totals being tabulated by machines owned by folks who have a vested interest in the outcome.
We need transparency and consistency if we are to have a credible voting process. Perhaps what we really need is a healthy dose of humility. We used to teach the rest of the world the fundamentals of democracy. Yet voting in Canada, the UK and elsewhere is demonstrably better in terms of participation and credibility with the general population. We should take a lesson!
Unfortunately, voter suppression is alive and well in many places- especially where folks are poor and especially where there are efforts from state and local governments to make voting difficult. This is typically done to maintain power for those already in positions of dominance.
The biggest canard by those suppressing the vote is that we should take drastic steps to prevent fraud. There simply are very few cases of voter fraud that have ever been prosecuted. There is very little incentive to risk severe penalties including imprisonment.
Counting votes is really a simple thing. It does not require complicated hardware running proprietary algorithms. It should be a non-profit proposition. If there's one thing we as a society ought to subsidize, it's a consistent fair vote.
This is where the parallel universe that defines Right Wing World becomes a real menace. The so-called free-marketers actually claim that proprietary voting machines are necessary. In practice we have unverifiable vote totals being tabulated by machines owned by folks who have a vested interest in the outcome.
We need transparency and consistency if we are to have a credible voting process. Perhaps what we really need is a healthy dose of humility. We used to teach the rest of the world the fundamentals of democracy. Yet voting in Canada, the UK and elsewhere is demonstrably better in terms of participation and credibility with the general population. We should take a lesson!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Everybody Needs Some Taxing Sometime!
Foolish myths trump common sense in Plutocracy USA
Is it ever the right time to increase taxes for any group of Americans? If we believe in pay as you go, the answer must be an unqualified "Yes". The economic success experienced by most Americans during the Clinton years bears this out. Yet now we are told by rich conservative profiteers that tax cuts for rich folks are the only hope for job creation and a secure future.
Future generations will be paying for George W Bush's war-driven spending spree for some time. Yet the source of that debt gets glossed over repeatedly in our political discourse. Ryan-Romney continue to endorse Grover Norquist's approved nostrum of tax cuts always, under every circumstance, forever, amen.
Those who are not über-rich have been getting an increasingly rawer deal ever since the no-tax increase pledge became the price of admission to the Republican Party. Wealth hoarding and denial of opportunity to those who are down is the current state of right wing depravity. These are prime platform timbers.
Today, even maintaining a middle class life style has become increasingly difficult. Those below über-rich status are currently facing unprecedented barriers to upward mobility thanks to the no-tax increase doctrine even for super wealthy folks and even in the midst of the current debt crisis. To be clear, the insistence on perpetual tax cuts is fueling the debt crisis, not solving it!
That "debt crisis" was of course deliberately engineered by Republicans to provide extremely wealthy folks with even more opportunities to get richer. That's why their lobbyists get the big bucks. For those not paying attention, George W Bush did the real heavy lifting to move us to the financial cliff we are facing. Trillion dollar wars, Medicare forbidden from negotiating with drug companies, and debt interest due to abandonment of pay as you go are the major culprits. The Tea Party fiscal insurgents did their part as well, causing a downgrade of US debt. Tea Party debt zealots are enemies of the American republic, not defenders of it.
Mitt Romney and the boy wonder take great pains to distance themselves from George Bush. Yet they are running plays from the same Karl Rove playbook. They have bet everything on the electorate overlooking unprecedented, record filibustering from Congressional Republicans.
The folks who most deserve to be fired from public service are Tea Party members. They are responsible for the downgrade of US debt and the continued imperilment of the working Americans.
The final Presidential Debate should erase the idea in anybody's mind that Mitt Romney is a fiscal conservative. He is absolutely in favor of unrestrained defense spending even as he's slashing social spending. Romney favors spending WAY above levels requested by the military and necessary for national defense. A lean military is something Romney will never embrace. There is too much political capital at stake.
If elected, Mitt Romney would be the Defense Lobbyist in Chief. We as a country must reject Romney and his 5 point plan. We have a too much military-industrial spending now and our infrastructure needs modernization if America is to remain competitive and continue our recovery. The best course of action is to remove Tea Party obstructionists and their enablers from Congress.
Foolish myths trump common sense in Plutocracy USA
Is it ever the right time to increase taxes for any group of Americans? If we believe in pay as you go, the answer must be an unqualified "Yes". The economic success experienced by most Americans during the Clinton years bears this out. Yet now we are told by rich conservative profiteers that tax cuts for rich folks are the only hope for job creation and a secure future.
Future generations will be paying for George W Bush's war-driven spending spree for some time. Yet the source of that debt gets glossed over repeatedly in our political discourse. Ryan-Romney continue to endorse Grover Norquist's approved nostrum of tax cuts always, under every circumstance, forever, amen.
Those who are not über-rich have been getting an increasingly rawer deal ever since the no-tax increase pledge became the price of admission to the Republican Party. Wealth hoarding and denial of opportunity to those who are down is the current state of right wing depravity. These are prime platform timbers.
Today, even maintaining a middle class life style has become increasingly difficult. Those below über-rich status are currently facing unprecedented barriers to upward mobility thanks to the no-tax increase doctrine even for super wealthy folks and even in the midst of the current debt crisis. To be clear, the insistence on perpetual tax cuts is fueling the debt crisis, not solving it!
That "debt crisis" was of course deliberately engineered by Republicans to provide extremely wealthy folks with even more opportunities to get richer. That's why their lobbyists get the big bucks. For those not paying attention, George W Bush did the real heavy lifting to move us to the financial cliff we are facing. Trillion dollar wars, Medicare forbidden from negotiating with drug companies, and debt interest due to abandonment of pay as you go are the major culprits. The Tea Party fiscal insurgents did their part as well, causing a downgrade of US debt. Tea Party debt zealots are enemies of the American republic, not defenders of it.
Mitt Romney and the boy wonder take great pains to distance themselves from George Bush. Yet they are running plays from the same Karl Rove playbook. They have bet everything on the electorate overlooking unprecedented, record filibustering from Congressional Republicans.
The folks who most deserve to be fired from public service are Tea Party members. They are responsible for the downgrade of US debt and the continued imperilment of the working Americans.
The final Presidential Debate should erase the idea in anybody's mind that Mitt Romney is a fiscal conservative. He is absolutely in favor of unrestrained defense spending even as he's slashing social spending. Romney favors spending WAY above levels requested by the military and necessary for national defense. A lean military is something Romney will never embrace. There is too much political capital at stake.
If elected, Mitt Romney would be the Defense Lobbyist in Chief. We as a country must reject Romney and his 5 point plan. We have a too much military-industrial spending now and our infrastructure needs modernization if America is to remain competitive and continue our recovery. The best course of action is to remove Tea Party obstructionists and their enablers from Congress.
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