Or are you simply an aspiring oligarch?
That may explain why we have a Republican controlled Congress. Or why we have Republicans at all.
A quote by Ronald Wright from his work, A Short History of Progress, frequently misattributed to the late great author John Steinbeck; "Socialism never took root in America, because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
Why? Maybe because the vast majority of people in this country, rich or poor, don't even know what the words proletariat and socialism, actually mean. Yes, that is a knock on our educational system.
Let's start with proletariat, according to Websters Dictionary; it's a noun workers or working class people, regarded collectively (often used with reference to Marxism).
I see the problem now, we allowed an educational tool, the dictionary to become a propaganda tool.
Outside of ISIS, who as a people have we Americans been conditioned to revile since kindergarten?
Could it be communists? We all know that Marxism is communism.
Do you want to be labeled a commie? Probably not in America. You'll lose your job, friends (except those like minded), and possibly your family...
Socialism is a social and economic system characterized by social ownership and social control of the means of production as well as a political theory and movement that aims at the establishment of such a system.
Wanna be a socialist? Like that label any better? Again, probably not. In America, you're talking about synonymous terms. Commie=socialist=chaos=.....you name it, somebody's thought of it, because you're already afraid of it. Why? Because your government told you to be afraid. So you are, very afraid, very afraid to educate yourselves. Much easier to feed from a trough than to hunt down your own meal.
Much easier to have someone else do the heavy thinking, while you do the heavy drinking. Right?
Right. Right up until you realize, you're never going to be that oligarch you aspire to, that the game is rigged by families like the Bush Clan, the Koch's et al.
The reality is America, some of our greatest achievements occurred because we embraced socialism.
Our interstate highway system is one example, NASA, the Tennesse Valley Authority, the Works Progress Administration or W.P.A., farming co-ops that brought us SunMaid Raisins, Sunkist Oranges, "Cotton", this list goes on and on and on.
When we embraced unbridled capitalism...'er the Republicans... we got a Supreme Court that bestowed the rights of individuals on corporations. A middle class reduced by tens of millions. A working class ballooned by millions, a homeless population expanded by millions. Social Security retirementthat we all were forced to pay into in the form of a tax, suddenly became a wholly government funded "entitlement". An entitled oligarchy of 1% holding more wealth than the rest of the 99% combined. Two interminable wars, fought by the sons and daughters of the working class, so that the 1% could profit from their investments in our military industrial complex. Not to mention oil.
So why did so many poor people vote for a party bent on making us poorer?
Maybe because they're going to protect your Christian Rights, Stop Gay Marriage, and End Abortions!
They're going to sit around the proverbial kitchen table (in the Congressional dining hall over a tax payer funded meal) and go over the finaces like you do at home, while they balance the budget. Guess what? No Republican Congress or President for that matter, has ever presided over the implementation of any of these fantasies.
If you're a retiree living on Social Security, trying to figure out what meds you can afford, while feeding yourself pablum because Congress decided your cost of living has stayed steady... Just know they have your back when it comes to your right to go to the church nobody threatened to close. They'll do everything in their power to see to it that your daughters and granddaughters can't go to Planned Parenthood for an abortion if they've been raped. And by God they will protect you from receiving that unwanted marriage proposal from your same sex best friend at the senior center.
God Bless America!
