We don't have government of the people, by the people and for the people as our founders intended. The US was designed to be a republic but it has long been evolving into a plutocracy. The wealthy have a disproportionate influence over the government. As our political system evolves economic inequality increases giving ever increasing control to large corporations/industries. Large corporations are controlled by an elite class whose objectives are to protect and grow the corporation and increase their. The elite control the corporations from their positions as corporate executives and Board directors. Appointments to the Board and the compensation of the Board members are determined by the Board not the shareholders of the corporation. I believe the GOP only represents the corporate plutocrats although it claims to represent fiscal conservatives, social conservatives (Christian conservatives) and Nationalists. While the professional politicians of Democratic party are not above being influenced by the plutocrats, its base of liberals wants to replace our plutocracy with democratic socialism to ensure Social Justice for all.
How long has it been since we had a fiscally responsible Republican leadership? They talk small government but in the last 30 years they've outspent the Democrats. They preach Nationalism while supporting their corporate sponsors who have moved much of our manufacturing offshore and driven up immigration limits to hold down domestic labor costs. Nationalism is just an excuse to spend taxpayer money on the Military-Industrial Complex, which as Iraq has taught us, only increases Corporate profits. The Corporations are even supplying a Mercenary Army whose soldiers we seem unable to control and who make 10 times as much as our Enlisted Soldiers. They call for increased border security but refuse to control illegal immigration through which we have a low income labor force.
They claim to be our moral leadership but care nothing for Social Justice. How Christ-like is that? They oppose all social programs. They opposed the creation of SCHIP and its refunding. They oppose Health Care Reform because reform will reduce Corporate profits - not because they want to protect Grandma from the Death Panel. Starting with Reagan the maximum income to qualify for social assistance was decreased and thus the Near Poor class was created - too poor to enjoy a minimum standard of living but not poor enough to qualify for assistance. It forced some borderline Poor-Near Poor families to choose between "working and having less" versus "not working and having more." Marie Antoinette is supposed to have said, "let them eat cake" when she was told that the peasants had no bread to eat. Ronald Reagan showed the same lack of compassion when his administration declared ketchup to be a vegetable so that they could reduce the cost of Head Start school meals. Yes, indeed, a true American Hero!
The Republicans demonize the poor in the eyes of the middle-class so that the middle-class blames all taxation on the poor. They Republicans leverage this Class hate to generate the votes to maintain their power in the government. When they enact tax cuts, its only the rich that see the direct benefit, the middle-class and the poor will benefit from "trickle down." Has anybody seen any of that action?
Obama and the Party of Change want to reduce if not eliminate Social Injustice. To stimulate the economy, which the Corporate Plutocrats had raped, Obama spent money on infrastructure projects to create jobs and immediate spending. He subsidized local and state governments whose tax revenues had shrunk, threatening to close schools and layoff firemen and policemen. The Republicans solution would have been another tax cut for the rich. Why they cried should the middle-class allow Obama to spend its hard earned money on extended unemployment benefits and road and bridge repair. Their argument has been very successful. They have convinced half of America that Obama's stimulus spending is doing nothing but putting the middle-class in deeper debt. Does the middle-class think that tax cuts for the rich would have been less costly and stimulated the economy more quickly?
The rich and the Republican Party that serves them is laughing all the way to the bank.
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