The Real Victims of Real Class Warfare

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Real-Victims-of-Real-C-by-Reverend-Anthony-W-110902-246.html



Take a good look at the picture above. This is a real picture I took today in downtown Manhattan. The woman with the sign was holding up plates made up of magnets she had created and was selling on Broadway. What would drive someone into having to humiliate oneself in this manner? She had no choice. She had recently lost her job as an Administrative Assistant in NYC and could not find work. Her husband's salary kept her just above the threshold for Medicaid and they could not afford the medical coverage at his job. So as a diabetic, she needs insulin and is forced to the streets to try and hustle some money. Welcome to the real battlefield of class warfare in this country.

We hear the term class warfare thrown around carelessly by the right and their propaganda network, Fox News. When? Whenever someone has the temerity to suggest returning the tax rates to the 1990 levels. You remember the 1990s? The last time this country had a decent economy? Returning to the rates of the 90s would essentially mean that the richest people in this country would need to pay more in taxes. But that is anathema to the Republican Party and the Fox noise machine. So they trot anyone they can in front of the cameras to cry class warfare!

The idea behind the crying is that it is somehow unfair to point out that the rich are rich and therefore should pa y more than the poor. That those who do are pitting one class against another. But the cold hard reality is that the ones who truly wage class warfare are the Republicans and the ruling class. They do it by changing the poor into the lazy and the rich into the job creators. Those are the talking points. The democratic talking point is much simpler. If you make a lot of money, you should pay a higher tax rate than someone who does not. There is no warfare involved -- just the facts.

But the opposing talking point is designed to actually wage a war of words. To demonize the poor, as somehow being totally responsible for their plight in life. I have had conversations with good people on the right, who simply do not get it. In their minds if you make $250,000 per year, you are not rich. To them, the poor are lazy and deserve what they get. To them everyone in America has the same opportunities. Unfortunately all of those premises are absurd. But they believe them because Fox reassures them every night that it is true.

More at the link --

[midnight]

1. K&R! This is why the nurses have come to Washington.... They are damn tired of

Wall street like interference with basic necessities of life...

[Starry Messenger]

2. k&r

[The Midway Rebel]

3. k&r

I don't know my country anymore.

:argh: