Republicans declare that the Democrats, OWS and specifically President Obama have pushed class warfare against the wealthiest people in the country. I find it very disturbing that the Republicans and conservatives have no problem creating “in fighting” among one class, the working class, though.
Time and time again, Republicans have blamed unions for the downfall of America. Union members are thugs, union members are bankrupting our country and businesses. They are the reason corporations leave to China and America no long has a manufacturing base. Union members, for the most part are in the middle class, making somewhere between $50-$70K/year. It is a comfortable lifestyle, but it is still middle to upper middle class. They are sharing in the prosperity of an expanding economy.
The Republican party also likes to blame the poor. They most recently pointed to people that bought homes they could not afford. They didn’t point to the banks who originated the loan and offered them the loan in the first place. They just point to the person receiving the loan.
On top of the most recent attacks the GOP also likes to attack the people on food stamps, Medicaid, welfare and those in public housing. They are drain on our budgets, they say, even though they are not. The GOP tells the non-union middle class worker to tear down and fight against union workers and the poor. It’s a race to the bottom. If union wages go down as Republicans want to see happen, that means more profits for the owners and no saving for the consumer. Prices very rarely reflect the reduction in the price of labor. Wall Street will push for higher profits first.
When the middle class starts to fight for a bigger piece of the economic expansion, well, that is class warfare and is not the American way. You will be called a socialist!
What is wrong with grabbing a bigger piece of the economic pie? Aren’t the workers entitled to a bigger piece considering they earned it by working harder, longer and smarter or is it just the owners of the corporations who get to reap what others have sown? I understand that conservatives have tried to make “entitled” a dirty word, but when it comes to labor, they are entitled to everything they earned.
Republicans do not want the wealthy to let the riches rain down on the people. They want in fighting amongst the working class, they want unions to give up wages, rather than build the non union wages up! When 60% of all economic growth and profits from 1979-2007 have gone to the top 1%, it is time for workers to share in the prosperity of this country. Prosperity should be shared, not hoarded.
But as long as the Republicans continue to distract us by creating in fighting within one class, the wealthy will never have to let it rain. They can just keep it all for themselves.
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Reynardine
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Wondering if you’re familiar with the Ajay/ Citibank memo of 2006. What we’re seeing is neither greed nor pride of place. It’s first-degree stratcide, with premeditation and malice aforethought.
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froggyalley
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
…and yet people continue to vote against their own self-interests and will complain about the dirty rotten stinking liberal pink socialists and the Kenyan President. Amazing.
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Angel
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
The Silent Majority. Reagan Democrats. Wedge issues. For the better part of two generations now, Republicans have waged a nasty virulent campaign against the industrial middle class, pitting them against their natural allies; working-class whites, people of color, and other traditionally marginalized groups. Using bogeymen, fear, resentment, and sleaebags like Alex Castellanos, they have sown the seeds of mistrust, animus, and envy.
Recall the-candidate Barack Obama’s ‘Toward a More Perfect Union’ speech in Philadelphia, and he clearly pointed out the fissures that have riven the American electorate since Nixon. Such divisions have been skillfully played by the GOP and their mouthpieces in corporate media America, and in the halls of power. Affirmative action, “quotas”, standardized testing–all the now-familiar dog whistles of the Right have choked off real, honest discussions of social, economic and educational inequality in this country, with fearsome consequences for having the temerity to speak out against them.
It’s not my original thought, but it serves my purpose: It’s only class warfare when the 99 percent fight back.
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Ray Medeiros
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
I will quiet the conservatives here and nullify the argument regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Here is what American Enterprise Institute said in 2003.
AEI is a free market,conservative organization..FYI
http://www.aei.org/article/economics/fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac/
“Fannie and Freddie suggest that they provide special assistance to minority families hoping to become homeowners. And if they did this disproportionately–that is, helped minorities or low income borrowers more than they helped middle class borrowers–that would be a powerful argument for preserving their current status.”
“But they do not do this. Instead, according to a study by Jonathan Brown of Essential Information, a Nader-related group, Fannie and Freddie buy proportionately fewer conventional conforming loans that banks make in minority areas than they buy in middle class white areas.
Other studies have shown that the automated underwriting systems that Fannie and Freddie use to select the mortgages they will buy approve fewer minority homebuyers than similar automated underwriting systems used by mortgage insurers.”
The sad fact is that Fannie and Freddie–two government sponsored enterprises that have a government housing-related mission–do less for minority housing than ordinary commercial banks.
Studies have repeatedly shown that banks and other loan originators make more loans to minority borrowers than Fannie and Freddie will buy.
That in itself should be a scandal, together with the fact that both companies seek through their soft- focus advertising to create the impression that they are actually using their government benefits for the disadvantaged in our society.
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ingrid
Nov. 25th, 2011 at 7:34 pm
Rush Limbaugh is having a party…feel free to wear your SS Uniform
and boots
Rush Limbaugh
1495 N. Ocean Blvd
Palm Beach, Florida 33480
[home]
340 Royal Palm Way
West Palm Beach, Fl 33411
[office]
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Taxpayer
Nov. 26th, 2011 at 11:09 am
Democrats are JUST AS RESPONSIBLE for ruining this country as Republicans. Reagan signed the last great amnesty but Democrats pushed it through making it a bipartisan effort. Neither party implemented E-Verify and stopped illegal immigration. The future of America will be just another poor Latin American country as a result by the end of the century. Clinton ratified NAFTA breaking American trade and decimating the American labor market but Bush Sr and the Republicans designed it and pushed it through resulting in the massive offshoring and outsourcing of American jobs, capital investment, and innovation to foreign hosts and workers. It was a bipartisan effort. The country is reduced by both parties. Neither is good. Both are bad.
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Qtprof
Nov. 26th, 2011 at 11:19 pm
Antonio Gramschi called it hegemony. We call it America.
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McKMN
Nov. 26th, 2011 at 11:22 pm
Blaming union wages doesn’t fly. Here is why: Back when there was talk of raising taxes on incomes of $250k or more we heard “But you can’t do that, $250k is NOT rich!” Then in the next breath, “Union thugs are lazy and make too much money, they killed American manufacturing with their $50-$70k wages and their cadillac benefits.”
So if $250k is Not rich, how the hell is $60k too much money?
I make $60k in my union job and it used to be fine. I WAS a consumer-the TRUE job creator-but my buying power is diminished. And the ones with the money are not using it in our economy(a trade for goods and services), they are using it in the stock market(speculating the middle class out of the picture).
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