Class Wars

Is America in a class war? Conservative vs. Liberal?


More and more it seems that the Conservatives want to conserve their wealth, power, values and influence at all costs. They accuse Liberals of wanting to spread the wealth around, calling them “socialists.” Both camps have been fighting it out for decades, but never has our nation seemed as polarized as now. On one end of the spectrum you have the wealthiest Americans and large corporations influencing elections and law makers and at the other end you have the poor, the elderly, and the working class. Many of us in the middle class, struggling to pay our bills and put our kids through college are being caught in the crossfire of this class warfare.

How dare the Wall Street crowd and the large corporations who were bailed out by American taxpayers put their Conservative friends in office so they can call for devastating cuts in education, healthcare and other programs that sustain the very life for millions of poor and elderly in this country while they, the wealthiest, enjoy their Bush era tax cuts and the profits from two wars draining our federal coffers. How dare they bring this country to near ruin and tell the rest of us “let them eat cake!” They are already enjoying record profits while the rest of America struggles to recover from their excesses.

Progressives need to step up and fight for not only the poor, and the elderly, but the middle class as well by yes cutting waste, fraud and pork from our state and federal budgets, but also calling for those wealthy corporations and Americans to part with more of their money through tax reform, closing loopholes and dare I say… even tax increases. Everyone has to feel some pain, if we are going to get out of debt. If union workers are being asked to give up hard won collective bargaining rights, then Wall Street bankers and corporations should give up their tax cuts and loopholes. They should bring jobs back to America!

The solution to our staggering deficit can't just be draconian spending cuts on domestic programs (only 14% of the budget) demanded by Conservatives and the Tea Party. Neither will a solution come from tax reform and tax increases on the wealthy alone. It must be a working compromise from both camps. It must protect our economic recovery and still provide for our poor and the elderly. Also, it cannot be financed on the back of a struggling middle class wondering how they will be able to afford gas in their cars to get to a job that may be gone, if the economy goes back into recession again.

Education, health care, social security infrastructure and national security are important. We can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater while the “rabble” shouts off with their head. Waste, corruption and pork must be found and removed and new efficiencies and technologies must be embraced. Blindly gutting programs that made this country great will not save it in the end.

Me thinks this current group of wealthy, out of touch lawmakers and Tea Party radicals are not up to the task. I hope they prove me wrong. The fate of this once great country hangs in the balance.

Food for THOUGHT…