Why vote conservative?
April 20th 2008 16:07
Every election cycle in America some people go to the polls and vote for their lives and the lives of their families to be adversely affected. Especially since the Reagan presidency, this group has been voting in a way that has seen their real earning power drop by more than 20 percent while health care costs have skyrocketed. And a good deal of the blame for what has happened goes straight to the voters who have been duped into supporting candidates that helped to make this happen. Compared to the myriad failures of the American conservative movement there is a resounding success in the continuing effort to concentrate wealth in the hands of their constituent aristocracy.
Some numbers....
1.In 2001 the top one percent of Americans held one third (33.4%) of wealth in America, while the bottom 80 percent held around 15 percent.
2. When you look at financial wealth (money holdings) the disparity is even greater, 40 percent vs. less than 9 percent.
3.Since 2001 estimates are that the disparity has grown to the point where the top one percent now holds around half of the wealth of America.
What this means is that the top one percent holds half of what runs America, financial wealth. And the top 10 percent have almost all of it. This is the money that has so corrupted Washington that no one but the top select few are having their interests addressed in any meaningful way. That's why there is little concern coming from the powers that be concerning rising food and fuel prices. Did you know food and fuel aren't even used as components in computing the inflation rate? Why do you suppose that is?
And while wealth is more concentrated, costs are more spread. For example, food. Because you are rich doesn't mean you have to spend more to eat. Of course you will, but that's personal choice. A rich kid and a poor kid still need the same good diet to grow properly. Another example, gas. A working man might be spending 50 dollars a week just getting back and forth to work. Paris Hilton might spend 50 dollars in gas bar hopping in LA on one night and not miss it. Meanwhile, the guy trying to support his family still needs to get to work every day. The top few don't care if a visit to an emergency room costs 10 bucks or 10 thousand, if they need to go. What about the family of that working guy whose company dropped health care?
But what has enabled the very top to leach the wealth out of every other segment of American society? The idiotic policies of "trickle down" economics and the disaster that conservative fiscal policy has been ever since Reagan is the biggest culprit. Supply-side economics has never worked for anyone by the the privileged few, and never will. Rampant deficit spending coupled with tax cuts to the rich has been the formula that has transferred massive amounts of wealth to those who need it least. That this was accomplished is a testament to the power of propaganda and fear-mongering.
The leaders of the American conservative movement were able to convince huge numbers of people that it was a good idea to vote for them based on economic policy that hurt them and their families. How? Trumpeting the "free market" as a solution to everything, although unregulated capitalism is not free, but devolves into oligarchies and aristocracy.
But the biggest successes of the conservative movement has come on so-called "values" issues. From homosexual equality to birth control to abortion to where the Ten Commandments can be placed, conservative leaders have pandered to voters to enable the power grab. Essentially, the foxes were given keys to the hen houses. What these lightning rods have served to do is rally the support of voters while also blinding them to their own interests on other, more important issues. Have you noticed that these "problems" always come up, but are rarely "solved" by the right wing politicians? That's not an accident. Without these issues, they don't have enough base support to win elections.
The next big factor is fear mongering. Be it from the over-hyped and mostly imagined threats from Iraq used to justify an ill-advised (and illegal) invasion or the more recent anti-immigrant rants, fear motivates many voters. Fear of the entire Islamic world. Fear that the Mexican crossing the border is the reason the economy is crashing. Fear of those wide-eyed crazy liberals. If the "values" can get 'em to the booth, fear can seal the deal.
My hope is that enough people wake up that this election can be a watershed event and start to bring about real change. My "fear" is that it won't, and enough voters will be duped by the outright lies of the right that America plunges headlong into a future that will not be good for anyone, save a precious few. Time will tell, indeed.
Some numbers....
1.In 2001 the top one percent of Americans held one third (33.4%) of wealth in America, while the bottom 80 percent held around 15 percent.
2. When you look at financial wealth (money holdings) the disparity is even greater, 40 percent vs. less than 9 percent.
3.Since 2001 estimates are that the disparity has grown to the point where the top one percent now holds around half of the wealth of America.
What this means is that the top one percent holds half of what runs America, financial wealth. And the top 10 percent have almost all of it. This is the money that has so corrupted Washington that no one but the top select few are having their interests addressed in any meaningful way. That's why there is little concern coming from the powers that be concerning rising food and fuel prices. Did you know food and fuel aren't even used as components in computing the inflation rate? Why do you suppose that is?
And while wealth is more concentrated, costs are more spread. For example, food. Because you are rich doesn't mean you have to spend more to eat. Of course you will, but that's personal choice. A rich kid and a poor kid still need the same good diet to grow properly. Another example, gas. A working man might be spending 50 dollars a week just getting back and forth to work. Paris Hilton might spend 50 dollars in gas bar hopping in LA on one night and not miss it. Meanwhile, the guy trying to support his family still needs to get to work every day. The top few don't care if a visit to an emergency room costs 10 bucks or 10 thousand, if they need to go. What about the family of that working guy whose company dropped health care?
But what has enabled the very top to leach the wealth out of every other segment of American society? The idiotic policies of "trickle down" economics and the disaster that conservative fiscal policy has been ever since Reagan is the biggest culprit. Supply-side economics has never worked for anyone by the the privileged few, and never will. Rampant deficit spending coupled with tax cuts to the rich has been the formula that has transferred massive amounts of wealth to those who need it least. That this was accomplished is a testament to the power of propaganda and fear-mongering.
The leaders of the American conservative movement were able to convince huge numbers of people that it was a good idea to vote for them based on economic policy that hurt them and their families. How? Trumpeting the "free market" as a solution to everything, although unregulated capitalism is not free, but devolves into oligarchies and aristocracy.
But the biggest successes of the conservative movement has come on so-called "values" issues. From homosexual equality to birth control to abortion to where the Ten Commandments can be placed, conservative leaders have pandered to voters to enable the power grab. Essentially, the foxes were given keys to the hen houses. What these lightning rods have served to do is rally the support of voters while also blinding them to their own interests on other, more important issues. Have you noticed that these "problems" always come up, but are rarely "solved" by the right wing politicians? That's not an accident. Without these issues, they don't have enough base support to win elections.
The next big factor is fear mongering. Be it from the over-hyped and mostly imagined threats from Iraq used to justify an ill-advised (and illegal) invasion or the more recent anti-immigrant rants, fear motivates many voters. Fear of the entire Islamic world. Fear that the Mexican crossing the border is the reason the economy is crashing. Fear of those wide-eyed crazy liberals. If the "values" can get 'em to the booth, fear can seal the deal.
My hope is that enough people wake up that this election can be a watershed event and start to bring about real change. My "fear" is that it won't, and enough voters will be duped by the outright lies of the right that America plunges headlong into a future that will not be good for anyone, save a precious few. Time will tell, indeed.
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Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
I've been pondering this recently myself and came to the conclusion that deep down, Republicans have no intention of overturning Roe v Wade but just pretend to in order to get the moral vote. On the one hand it gives me comfort to know that women in America won't be denied control of their own bodies, on the other, it infuriates me at how easily people can be manipulated.
I have the same hopes and fears you do Jeff, at the moment the fear is outweighing the hope. But I really hope my fear is wrong.
Comment by Jeff Musall
Secular Humanity
Ruby, it is amazing that this race even has the possibilty of being close. After the abject failures of right wing poliices as demonstrated by Bush, it astounds me that so many still cling to bankrupt ideas.
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
i guess the poor end up relying on the charity of the rich and it becomes like an old-fashioned feudal system . . . its amazing how readily people give up their rights trusting the rich to inject their wealth into the community but in the end it always comes back to absolute power corrupting!
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
He should have been sent packing that year, instead the voters chose to ignore all his exposed lies- Iraq, Children Overboard, and focussed instead on his promise to keep the economy growing and interest rates low. So they vote him back in and he goes crazy with power.
But he took it one step too far with WorkChoices.
It's the promise of the free market- this idea people are sold that they too can make it, even though the reality is that unless you have a head start in life or are extremely lucky, the market will swallow you up and you are nothing but a pawn other people use to make their wealth.
WorkChoices was designed to help some people get ahead by exploiting those at the bottom of the ladder- less pay, more hours, no rights.
And he nearly got away with it.