Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Government of the Rich, By the Rich, and For the Rich.

Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich by SocialistWorker.org

As usual with the socialists, they are outstanding when it comes to identifying the problems we have in our society. But then, when it comes to what to do about it, they are dead wrong.

CALL IT the 1 percent election.

They may feign interest in the lives of ordinary people in their drive to win votes--visiting small-town diners and hobnobbing with the "common man"--but the leading contenders for the Republican nomination rake in enough money every year to rank at the very top of the U.S. income ladder.

And it's not just the Republicans--top Democrats, including Barack Obama, may talk more often about economic fairness, but they certainly don't deny themselves the kind of wealth that the vast majority of Americans won't see in a lifetime.

That's because from top to bottom, both parties in Washington are committed to protecting the wealth and power of America's elite few. And why not? The vast majority of them are a part of it.

Very, very true. A majority of the people in DC are millionaires. So, is it any wonder that they all got together and compromise on issues like extending the Dubya/Obama tax cuts for the rich, or for constantly lowering capital gains taxes, or that in general its the working people of this country that have to pay all the bills.

This provides a stark lesson about capitalism: An entire class of people does no actual work, but still makes fortunes--and it can buy an entire political class to protect and expand its wealth at the expense of workers and the poor.

That's exactly the system we have today. We have a class of people who do zero real work. They don't really have a job, except managing their 'investments' and spending their money. But we have a political system that is so tilted towards money that they dominate it. And of course, its tilted towards money and their domination because they made it that way.

However, this article falls apart on two counts. First is that it completely ignores the Ron Paul campaign. A very typical thing on the left these days, as his campaign isn't very useful for this sort of propaganda. Its the pin that punctures their balloon.

And, the conclusion it makes is that elections don't matter and that no one should bother with elections, and that instead the way to change the world is to go camp in a city park. Wrong!

Abandoning elections just leaves the rich and powerful even more firmly in power. Once they the rich and powerful win the elections that the left seems to want to abandon, they then use their authority as Mayor or Governor to send in the police to break up the campground in the city park. So, while the left will then churn out even more propaganda about how awful this is, they tend to forget or ignore the point that the reason these people were in charge of the police was because the left ran around telling everyone that elections don't matter.

Elections do matter. And there's a very simple path forward through elections. Teach voters that not only do elections matter, but the easy rule to follow for change is simply to stop voting for rich people. And not to vote for the candidates who have lots of the money of rich people backing them. STOP ELECTING THESE PEOPLE. That's the answer.

There's other names on the ballot. Heck, to even create this propaganda piece the socialists had to ignore the Paul campaigns presence on the ballot. Everywhere I've lived, there's usually at least one name on the ballot of someone who isn't rich and who doesn't have millions of rich people's money behind them. Try voting for these people for a change.

In electing Obama, the voters picked a millionaire who was backed by huge amounts of Wall Street and corporate money. In 2008, the money had shifted so completely to Obama that the McCain campaign declared that they'd accept public financing because they weren't able to raise money. The most bizarre political sight I've ever seen was the left, and especially the unions, working so hard to elected a millionaire backed by corporate millions. What a surprise that this didn't bring change. I'm shocked.

Try not voting for rich people sometime. Try voting for people who live in your neighborhood. Or who work the same jobs as you do. If they aren't on the ballot, help put one there. Elections do matter. And elections can be a powerful tool for change in this country. People just need to learn how to use them.

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