Division in America

A dysfunctional Society

America is divided

Who and what set us on this divisive path? Certainly it wasn’t the Progressive Liberals who turned this country of ours into a Capitalist Oligarchy. It is clear that the accusations of the far right are not just unfounded but ridiculous. When we hear them say that the Liberal Progressives want a class war I just get angry. A class war they say and it is the Extremist Far Right Republicans who have been eroding and hurting an already beleaguered Middle Class.

Redistribution of Wealth is what they are saying, not really taking into consideration that the REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH has already taken place: it has gone from the poor and the middle class to the very wealthy and the corporations. The Republicans assured this outcome by systematically giving tax cuts to the rich and even subsidies and give always. 

In his speech after winning? the Illinois primary Romney promised prosperity…but be real, prosperity for whom? If you have a Romney who proposes not just a continuation of the failed policies of the past…the very ones that got us into this financial mess and even goes further than that to make it even more profitable for the rich and the corporations, slashing more of the social programs so that they not only keep their tax breaks and subsidies but the Republican Budget (Ryan’s) is a carbon copy of the one they had last year and that budget by all accounts would add to the deficit not eliminate it.

In contrast, Democrats are stating it very clearly:"Our budget does a few key things," Ellison said at a news conference. "One, it investments in America's future by creating jobs up front, with the proper investments. ... Also, it preserves our safety net. No cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. It persons the tax code. Our tax code needs to reflect the resources available across America to pay for the needs of Americans, and not exempt people or give them a break simply because they have the money to get people to give them tax breaks and loopholes. And finally, it is a fiscally responsible budget; it is a budget that reduces the deficit."
The details of how the budget accomplishes that will be released on Thursday. But the basics are that the budget allocates more than $2 trillion over 10 years to specific job-creating activities, ranging from school and transportation reconstruction to boosting clean energy and manufacturing businesses. It pays for that investment by ending tax cuts for the top 2 percent of Americans; ending loopholes for oil, gas and coal companies; and closing other corporate tax loopholes.
By contrast, said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Calif., "Republicans on the Budget Committee are going to press forward with a budget that asks ask low- and middle-income taxpayers to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction, while giving massive tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and preserving huge giveaways for the big oil companies."
Ryan, when he presented his budget on Tuesday, said that the only two choices America faced was a future of debt and decline and a future under his budget, in which the federal government would stop supporting economically struggling Americans, but would continue to prop up the wealthy. The Progressive Caucus' budget shows that there is another choice: jobs and economic security for all Americans, in which each segment of the society contributes based on the extent of what they have.
"This budget is a contrast," Grijalva said, "and we are very very comfortable presenting that contrast to our colleagues and to the American people."

There is one thing that Republicans are not abandoning and that is that stupid Reagan TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS theory. It didn’t work then and it never will.

The general attitude from Republicans as we have seen is that they should block and do everything in their power to make the present government and President Obama fail so they can take it over once again and set us on the same destructive path as before.

It is no longer a secret nor do they even try to mask it or hide it. The Republicans represent the interests of the wealthy and want to screw the middle class. We had a perfect example this week with one Senator blocking very important legislation that would have extended unemployment benefits. Never mind that he took this stand because he said “it is the principle” but to do so with people’s only way of financial income is downright insensitive and cruel. There was even one of his buddies that said that why give them unemployment extensions, that only encourages them to not go out and look for work.

And the American people would dare protest? The arms of repression have come down on Occupy Wall Street hard and brutally. The protests of last fall were squashed, repressed with excessive force. But let us all be warned: this Occupy Wall Street movement is not going away, it is going to return with a vengeance this spring.

It is always amazing to me that the Republicans begrudge a few million dollars to help those less fortunate in our society yet they have no qualms about spending billions in an unnecessary war they got us into and they even lied to us and the world in order to benefit the oil companies. Our deficit is so high because of these wars, our financial chaos was caused by their incompetence and the millions of people affected by this should never forget who caused their grief.

Yet, Republicans and the ultra right conservative pundits are accusing our President of being a socialist and a welfare President. I ask you this: If President Obama was a socialist, would he not have nationalized the banks when they went belly up? They were bankrupt and nationalization of the banks would have been totally acceptable. Also, when the car companies in unison announced they were about to go into bankruptcy, the U.S. Government could have also taken over and nationalized them. Obama was very clear on this and he said: (paraphrasing) that he had no intentions of taking over nor did he want the car companies to be in government hands.

I don’t know if you are aware, dear reader that the Castro brothers has declared President Obama to be on top of their “blacklist”. Now, if he was a Marxist-Socialist as these wing nut ultra right fanatics claim, do you think that the Castro brothers would have been so unkind?

We Democrats, progressives, liberals and the otherwise sane general public should get off our collective asses and tell the Republicans that we are not going to take their bullshit anymore. We are going to pass whatever legislation is needed to make sure our country survives and the poor and middle class can thrive again.