In this coming general election, a vote for the Republicans or a failure to vote in all races is ceding victory to the oligarchs. As bad as some of the Democratic Senators and Congressmen are, all of the Republicans are much worse. The web site Politico.com announced on August 27th that the Republicans, if they gain control of either house, they will concentrate all of their time on investigations of wrongdoing involving the TARP funds and other "suspected" Obama administration malfeasance. This instead of taking the time to do something to help revive the American economy other than the discredited expedient of tax cuts for the rich.
The Bush tax cuts did little to reemploy those who lost their jobs in the recession at the end of the Clinton administration and the beginning of Dubya's. You saw an awful lot of people take part time jobs, try to live off the equity in their homes, go back to school, or start their own business, or some combination of them. This went straight to hell for too many of them when the bottom dropped out in 2007. My evidence for this is the decline in the nation's median income between 2000 and 2007, when adjusted for inflation.
We need a Brand New Deal, that rebuilds this nation's infrastructure and manufacturing base, funded by taxing those who have effectively doubled their share of this nation's wealth over the last thirty years, the richest one percent. I wish to make them pay for this American Renaissance because many of their members constitute the core of those who want to destroy our Republic and establish an oligarchy. We must, using our tax system, force the richest Americans to once again invest in their own country.
We need to renegotiate our trade agreements, and adopt a policy of "Fair Trade" not "Free Trade." Nations that permit their factories to pay their workers slave wages, maintain unsafe working conditions, or pollute in order to maintain a competitive edge over our competing domestic industries, should have a human rights tariff imposed upon them until they correct their violations. If other nations subsidize their industry, or use tariffs against American goods, they should be met with a response in kind. Not automatically: give other nations the opportunity to correct or negotiate their way out of a tariff, but it must be enforced. No nation gets "Most Favored Nation" status unless it agrees to a system of fair trade.
With this as a start, maybe I won't have to be a "Street Fighting Man."
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