As is seen in election after election, almost half of the electorate is supportive of the Republican Party's acclaimed goal - bringing down the U.S. Government. The rural south and mid-west are reliable supporters of the Conservative Right even though its plain that Republican goals have long centered on privatizing all government services and functions. The political process, now fully privatized, is in the final stage of destroying centralized government in favor of a plutocratic oligarchy. The U.S. Government is so deeply mired in debt it can never recover its former role as an arbiter of social and economic justice. The last of American's collective wealth has been transferred to the financial interests that are now, in effect, the government.
Political designs or influence will always, without exception, promote its self interest in spite of any inimical damage to the populace, and in spite of every allowance that provides for the national well being. Politicians, without exception, must always seek conformity of the citizenry. Lockstep conformity translates to power. Convincing the citizenry by argument, no matter how irrational, is the successful politicians reward. The Republican Party has been remarkably successful in convincing Americans that destroying their government was beneficial. If the public awakens and realizes the extent to which they have been betrayed, the political process will have failed, and active revolt can be timed from that moment.
There has not been a clear separation of viewpoint among the various political influences for some time. Indeed "Conservative Democrats," the "New Democrats" and the "Blue Dog Democrats," are a lukewarm mixture somewhere between neo-conservatism, and right leaning democrats. Lobbyists have replaced politicians to an extent that politicians are only elected and suffered as smokescreens to the real powers, and to satisfy the citizenry's idea of government. Politics, as an influence upon the nation's state of being, has been irrevocably compromised and studied opinion is dismissive of all political effort to bring positive change to the interests of ordinary Americans. There are no original or fresh political solutions for the failed American experiment. Elected representatives are completely enamored and subservient to those who determine, by monied intervention, their re-election prospects. Government has been privatized.
The decline of a nation is directly and proportionately attributable to the disinterest - the degree with which the citizenry pay attention and act upon national events and issues that have direct relevance to their lives. Professional agitators such as Limbaugh and Fox News hasten the decline. As a collective, cohesive force, the populace is invested with far more power than government, and is thus responsible for the political, economic and sociological factors that effect the well being of their nation. That they are so easily duped into relinquishing control over their government, and by extension their lives, may be partly explained by their studied ignorance.
Far too many Americans failed to recognize the responsibility they had for their nation's well being. It was inevitable that a political force would step into the vacuum. Americans have supported the Republican Party in destroying the nation's tax base. Right Wing media has used a willing public's airwaves to spread the Right's lies, and to conceal the Conservative Right's guilt in destroying the tax base thereby turning the nation from the world's largest creditor to the world's largest debtor. Americans, especially those from the rural, red states, swallow these obvious lies enthusiastically and without question.
But it is the province of politicians to persuade the citizenry that without devoted public servants the citizenry must suffer. Right Wing media drums its constant message of unfair taxation, then the republicans step in to help the people understand the origins of their pain. Right Wing media points to the anecdotal as proof positive, and such cheap theatre as the Rush Limbaugh Show amplifies and legitimizes what is soon advertised as concrete fact. The result is a sharply divided American citizenry, and the manipulators have two parties to play against. Attention is successfully deflected away from those politicians whose socially and economically destructive agendas are inimical to the nation's interests.
The republican's constant tirade against tax and spend liberals paid dividends since the Gingrich Revolution. All neo-conservatives share the same agenda. Lower taxes, particularly for the wealthy and the corporate, until the Treasury is empty and the U.S. must borrow from foreign lenders to keep the nation running. Obviously, the nation's economy can not be sustained on borrowed money.
Today corporations contribute only 10% of all Federal Revenue raised by taxes. In 1950 their taxes made up 28% of all Federal Revenue. Conservative Republicans, always deceitful, accuse the democrats of running up the enormous deficit. They declare themselves fiscally conservative as they forgive taxes of the richest Americans while ignoring the nation's crumbling infrastructure. In 1950 a married couple earning $400,000 paid a tax rate of 91%. The same couple earning $4,000, paid a rate of 17.4%. Today that rate has dropped to 10%, and the couple earning $400,000 has enjoyed a cut of 56%.
Corporations complain bitterly of their tax burdens when, in truth, their taxes are much lower than in other developed nations. When arguing against prohibitive tax rates they always neglect to mention the exemptions, deductions, credits and other loopholes that may result in a given corporation actually receiving an income tax return. Add in the capital gains tax cuts that the Republican Congress and Bush made law, and American Corporations lag far behind their European counterparts in the amount of after profit taxes they pay.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
