Monday, September 5, 2011

Get Involved. It's Your Right and Your Responsibility.

     It would be interesting to get clarification from, or hear more debate with, conservative pundits and columnists crying "class warfare" at the suggestions that a small, wealthy minority could stand to "share the sacrifice" themselves-you know, maybe pay just a little more back into the system they have benefitted from so significantly, in order to address the financial crisis we are apparently in. Class warfare began long ago,  led by both sides of the aisle (although one side is more tightly connected to these special interests). Remember when the wall of defense began to go up around the uber-wealthy game players that banked, mortgaged and invested our economy into the red? A diversion campaign began, laying responsibility for the nation's fiscal woes, on public employees. It is their "lavish" salaries, pensions and benefits that we just can't afford (no talk about why we suddenly couldn't afford it). It was at this time "shared sacrifice" was first used by the protectors of the privileged (noteably any contributer, e.g. Sarah Palin, on FOX) as the right thing for public employees to do. Don't they understand? We just don't have the money!...and so on. Basically "take one for the team".
     This is why it's more important than ever for people to pay close attention to politics and their rights as voters. The scope of big government has grown, and republican or democrat doesn’t really seem to matter because they have both joined in protecting the very wealthy and powerful people who crippled our country’s economy. The investment and finance sector that played monopoly with pensions and investments risked or ruined the livelihood of many, and these greedy folks still manage to escape responsibility. Not only that: their wealth and influence continue to rise while their victims continue to fall into debt, unemployment and despair. Change is clearly overdue, but don’t expect conventional processes to bring it.  Consider the emergence of potential challengers for the presidency-even the president himself. President Obama has made some weak attempts to draw attention to the undeserved trust and respect given to Wall Street and “fat cats”, but his references are lazy shots over the enemy’s bow without any substance or specific suggestions for change. His challengers and their media PR arm (fair, balanced and unafraid) parrot the version of “shared sacrifice” that labels middle class workers as “overpaid”, their pensions as “entitlements”, and the wealthy game players as “job creators”. They even go so far as to put out fervent, heartfelt Christian prayers that our government will free these enslaved wealthy from their regulation bondages-thus reaffirming our “American Exceptionalism”. Even republican candidates suggesting a more grounded conservative approach (Ron Paul, Buddy Roemer) are dismissed by these deluded extremists.



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