TRUTH BE TOLD!

The following was published by my old sailor buddy 10 years ago and is worthy of going viral. He wrote it in response to something written by a guy named Episty. In light of the upcoming debate, I think it is something to read and keep in mind. Episty, you said, "In modem America, it seems, you're quite likely to stay in the social and economic class into which you were born." And this is a big surprise?? The right-wing core of the Republican Party has been hell bent on destroying the policies of the New Deal that led to the growth of the US middle class. They are basically the ideological descendants of the British Tories who were/are the defenders of the English privileged classes. They stood by tut - tutting as Industrial Revolution England saw horrible labor abuses while their inherited fortunes grew at labor's expense. To them, a two class world was seen as an altogether proper situation -- after all there always have, and always will be poor people_ - right? It's becoming clearer by the day that our current group of neoconservative thugs has put the US on the path that leads to 18th and 19th century British style Colonialism (we're even beginning to hear the term Pax Americana) but with a slightly different twist. Rather than downright ownership of the colonies, they plan to establish an iron fisted hegemony, backed by the military threat of the world's only remaining superpower. Unless something is done soon to stop this juggernaut, the inertia may be too powerful to stop. What puzzles me is how so many working class people in our country are duped by the likes of Limbaugh and his legions of wannabes into believing that the Republican party policies are in their best interests. As the cited article says, we are being Wal-martized. The end result is a low economic class that is unable to pay the taxes to educate their children and will be unable to buy the products that our cheap labor industries churn out. Of course, the owner/manager class will do fine, at least initially. With privatized schools, their children will get good educations and be welcomed into their family businesses regardless of merit. Unions will either be outlawed, or so vilified by PR barrages that they will die out. Workers will then be at the mercy of the benign nature of the owner/manager class and we know where that leads. Lest you Bushie/Rushies brand me a socialist, or worse yet, a communist, let me say that a well regulated capitalist socioeconomic society has proven to work just fine. The key words are "well regulated". The period between the time FDR took office and Reagan was elected saw America grow from a country devastated by the 1920s policies of Coolidge and Hoover to the most powerful, country in the world. Since then, with the exception of an amazing 8 year growth period under Clinton, we have had to live with the 19th century policies of Reagan and the Bushes. And before you tell me how Reagan saved the world by winning the cold war, that is pure and simple BS. The Soviet Union was well on the way to collapse and would have fallen of its own weight. Reagan just happened to be on watch at the time -- perhaps awake, but most likely not. So, if the voters of this great country don’t wake up and stop listening to the drivel of Rush, Fox News, Hannity, etc etc, and start looking at what the Republicans really stand for, we are doomed to become a 2 class, 18-19th Century socioeconomic society. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated