Saturday, June 11, 2011

HIATUS WINDING DOWN



  • Long time, Searchers. I've been off for a while dealing with things I won't go into detail about here. Greetings to a Searcher, Jason of Illinois.

    Very quickly, as I'm taking care of other things at the moment, I wanted to touch base about two books I picked up from the Library the other day. One is by Deena Guzer, Divine Rebels American Christian Activists for Social Justice. The other is Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman. Both are phenomenal.

    In Krugman's book, granted I am only a few pages in, he writes about the similarities between what he calls The Long Gilded Age, the period between 1870 and the 1920's. There is a table he inserts that appears on page 16 of the book, I will attempt to recreate it here:






  • Table 1. Share of High-income Groups in Total Income, Excluding Capital Gains














  • Highest-income 10% Highest -income 1%














  • Average for 1920's 43.6% 17.3%














  • 2005 44.3% 17.4%





In the table and the writing explaining the table, he discusses the inequality of income and the resemblance between the Nation in the 1870's and today, albeit a few years ago. Since 2005, it has not gotten better, it has gotten worse. As a direct result of the abysmal economic policies of the Republican party, including Ronald Reagan, and his political offspring, George W. Bush.

The Republicans are tearing down our Nation, make no mistake. Another quote from his book that appears on page 11 of Conscience of a Liberal:



Ronald Reagan, more than anyone else, showed the way. His 1964 speech "A time for Choosing," which launched his political career, and the speeches he gave during his successful 1966 campaign for governor of California foreshadowed political strategies that would work for him and other movement conservatives for the next forty years. Latter-day hagiographers have portrayed Reagan as a paragon of high-minded conservative principles, but he was nothing of the sort. His early political successes were based on appeals to cultural and sexual anxieties playing on the fear of communism, and, above all, tacit exploitation of white backlash against the civil rights movement and its consequences. (Bold mine.)


One key message of this book, which many readers may find uncomfortable, is that race is at the heart of what has happened to the country I grew up in. The legacy of slavery, America's original sin, is the reason we're the only advanced economy that doesn't guarantee health care to our citizens. (bold mine) White backlash against the civil rights movement is the reason America is the only advanced country where a major political party (the Republicans, this is inserted by me) wants to roll back the welfare state. Ronald Reagan began his 1980 campaign with a states' rights speech outside Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where three civil rights workers were murdered; Newt Gingrich, (who by the way is running for President for the 2012 election, against President Obama, parenthetical commentary mine) was able to take over Congress entirely because of the great Southern flip, the switch of Southern whites from overwhelming support for Democrats to overwhelming support for Republicans.






Without a doubt, the Republican party is against American families, and against America herself.

Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan's dangerous plan to turn Medicare into a coupon or voucher program is but one of the many examples of the Republican nightmarish plans for our country. For those of you who don't know about his plan to destroy medicare, study up. Same for the plans by the now infamous Scott Walker, the current Governor of Wisconsin. He will be up for a recall vote one year after his term began. There are currently several Republican State Senators facing recall next month in Wisconsin.

The Republican party is not for America's families. They are attempting to haul us back to the time before the Great Depression, and they are trying to destroy the New Deal designed by FDR, as well as the middle class and the elderly, students, young families, American industry, the list goes on and on.

Listen, Searchers, get off your asses and get involved. It is time to take our country from the Right Wing of America that seeks to destroy it.

Peace-

By the way, I will write about a couple of comments I received a while back that come directly from the useless Flanagin rabble in the state of Arkansas. And, there is a circuit judge I will post about before long, also in Arkansas.


The table is kinda jacked up, I know, but figure it it. Better yet, go to your library or local bookstore and pick up a copy of Paul Krugman's book. I don't have the time to perfect the table right now, in the future I will work on it.

Till next time...
Where's my sitemeter?????? Must get that back on....



3 comments:

JSpeaks said...

Mike, its great to see that your back writing again. Your posts are very informative and your intuition is dead on concerning the motives of the right-wing cabal and their zombie dupe followers. History proves that all of the first world industrialized nations have been able to gain their advantages through 1. planned use of natural resources and energy 2. protection and promotion of the working class through social safety nets, unions and minimum health, safety, and pay standards 3. support for a civil servant class 4. faith of the populace in a constitutional secular democracy. 5. efficient and meaningful regulation of business and finance. The Republican party is 100% opposed to any common sense measure that would help the average American. They want more tax cuts and less accountability for the "job creator" billionaires and millionaires, while totally ignoring the needs of average workers, and main street mom and pop businesses and farms. The parasite financiers and speculators that rule the markets are without borders and their only allegiance is to their own profit...

JSpeaks said...

Hey Mike, did you notice the poll numbers so far for the Republican presidential wannabees? It is hilarious. The party minders are wailing and gnashing their teeth as Ron Paul has stolen the show again. He's the happy-go-lucky libertarian that has the most positive advice for the others. "Quit doing unto others..." That doesn't fit in too well, as towing the fascist Republican line is all about "We're only winning when someone else is losing..." Poor Mitt Romney. He would surely be crowned by now, and all of the hippocracy over Romney-care would be long forgotten if the righties could put away their bigotry and accept his Mormonism, a religion they consider a cult. That won't happen, because right-wingers are only libertarian concerning the deregulation of business and finance, and without the demonization of "others", and militarism and subjugation as ways to solve all of society's problems, they would have no platform at all...

Mike Searches said...

Thanks for the vote of confidence, J. I did notice the poll numbers for the Repubs. Ron Paul is something else, the first Repub debate had me cracking up on his stance about legalizing Heroin. I think he's dead on that issue, as well as corporate welfare. He is, however, way off base regarding individuals need for a hand up by our fellow Americans.
Regarding the right wingers, the things we hold dear as Americans, that is, Civil Rights equality, Voting Rights Act equal rights for women, etc., were championed by Liberals, not conservatives. It is very telling that they want to roll back time regarding these issues and a whole host more. What does it say about the soul of a political party that disregards society's most vulnerable? it says that particular party doesn't have one.
And poor Mitt Romney. He's a mess. He has no idea who he will be on any given day...