Another editorial I wrote
This has not been published..yet but I am posting it here..Hope everyone likes..
The problem with America can be stated very simply; for thirty years, we have been in the grip of a failed economic theory which has shifted most of the money to the richest few.
For some time, people have sensed something is wrong and the American dream is slipping away. Our economy is trouble. Jobs have disappeared. Families struggle to keep their homes. Decent schools and quality health-care are becoming a distant dream. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Everywhere, we see “Made in China.” All while the richest few are enjoying an unprecedented share of the wealth.
And with great wealth comes great power and so the wealthiest few have launched an unprecedented campaign to preserve and even expand their special situation.
To this end, they have ruthlessly stoked every imaginable fear, including fear of blacks, Hispanics, intellectuals, foreigners, gays, Progressives, socialists, environmentalists and more to sell the idea that our lives, our religion, and our very way of life are under attack by those that secretly hate America.
They have raised the specter of death panels in the health-care bill, and a Marxist-socialist economy run by an out-of-control black man, protected by the media, who promotes class warfare and doesn't understand or even like American values. They have suppressed opposition voters, gerrymandered districts to favor them, ended the concept of majority rule in the Senate and blocked every attempt at reform or recovery. They have openly compared the President to a “Chicago-style thug” for asking the richest few to pay a bit more and even the idea of working together as a nation is viciously ridiculed as they cheer for his failure.
They fiercely fight to end programs that benefit the middle class, and they oppose investments in our infrastructure telling us these are “unaffordable” and contribute to the deficit, all the while cutting taxes even more on the wealthiest few. They tell us only the richest of the business class are the real “job creators” not the average person with money to spend. They know best. Thinking anything else is “class warfare” and “socialism” and will “end America as we know it!”
The message, often warped in a flag and frequently carrying a cross, is promoted everywhere by billion dollar right-wing “think tanks,” shouted from every street corner and echoed in editorials, letters, TV messages, and by right-wing politicians, talk radio and even an entire TV network.
And there is a supply-side preacher of hate for every taste. Those who like a veneer of respectability have Bill O'Reilly; street fighters and bar room brawlers have a choice of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and hundreds just like them; and the truly delusional have Glenn Beck. They have created a far-right fantasy world where Ignorance is Strength, Truth is Optional and hateful, evil enemies are everywhere.
All this so they can continue sending our young people off to fight their senseless foreign wars, ship our jobs off to foreign countries, shred the middle class, block health care reform, destroy Social Security and Medicare, end minimum wage, as they help themselves to even more tax breaks, demand even more business deregulation, and turn our country and government over to the richest few.
It's all a classic example of what Roosevelt meant when he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The question for us is, “Will we follow our deepest fears as promoted by the far-right or our 'better angels' as advised by President Lincoln?”
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