What is happening in Madison, Wisconsin, and is starting in Columbus, Ohio and other locales, is but the first act in the American middle class taking back this nation from the oligarchs and their corporations who have reduced many of us to penury and want. It is time for the top one percent of this nation in terms of income and wealth to once again pay their fair share of our nation's taxes--Federal, state, and local. They may pay fifty percent of the individual Federal Income Tax, but it should be obvious from our burgeoning National Debt that they are not paying their fair share. It is time that the wealthiest Americans were forced, through taxation, to pay for the repair of our nation's crumbling infrastructure, both physical and societal, as well as the rebuilding of our nation's manufacturing base, as well as reducing our National Debt.
Capitalism and freedom are not equivalent things: the rise of the Chinese economic dragon demonstrates that fact beyond any doubt. Yet we have been indoctrinated with that particular myth for more than a century, by those who have exploited that myth and the American people to their advantage.
As I stated in my article "The Ghost of Ancient Hellas" (OpEdNews, February 15, 2011), "The expansion of [the middle class] to include the largest percentage of our nation's population possible is one of my ultimate political goals." It is within a strong and vibrant middle class that the best defense for our Constitutional freedoms against the depredations of the oligarchs maybe found.
The middle class in America requires both strong union membership, and a solid core of small retail and manufacturing concerns to be healthy. The giant conglomerate--whether for manufacturing or retail sales--must be carefully regulated by the government (usually the Federal government, as such concerns nearly always cross state lines) to prevent unfair business practices by the conglomerates.
The unions and small businesses are a threat to the maximization of the conglomerates' profits, just as the middle class is an impediment to the political ambitions' of the oligarchs. The interests of the conglomerates and small businesses are in fact usually diametrically opposed.
The one party, oligarchic "communism" of which President Cleveland warned us twelve decades ago, stands poised like a rabid wolf to destroy our republic and its Constitution. The oligarchs behind this usurpation represent the most dangerous threat to our nation since the Civil War. Part of this is our own fault: a two party system has the inherent problem of one or both parties being too easily subverted by special interests, without any checks to the special interests' influence. Diversity as well as multiplicity of political parties would make it more difficult to subvert the government run by those parties. And it is always much easier to make a two party state into a one party state, than it is to make a true multi-party state into a single party state.
It is time for us to cage that rabid wolf, and make an exhibit of it in the public square, with guards, fences, and large signs that say "DANGER! Do Not Approach!" to remind us of how close we came to losing our country.
And maybe this time, when we bury that wolf at a crossroads with a silver bullet in its black heart, it will not rise to plague our nation again.
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