Middle Class Marching Toward Indentured Servitude Unless They Understand Who Is The Real Enemy

[WillyT]

Middle Class Marching Toward Indentured Servitude Unless They Understand Who Is The Real Enemy
by ProgressiveLiberal - DailyKos
SAT APR 02, 2011 AT 12:45 AM EDT

<snip>

...

The Right Wing echo chamber has been effective however. It continues to deflect the genesis of the American conundrum, the wealth disparity effected by corrupt politicians passing policies instigated by bribes from the wealthy class. Instead of middle class anger being directed at the wealthy and politicians who codified the pilfering, middle class anger is directed at the lower classes and union workers.

The middle class must realize that whatever government help the lower classes receive is a pittance relative to the giveaways to corporations (including the military industrial complex). As well, the middle class should fight for the same wages and benefit afforded union workers instead of working towards the further lowering of American labor standards by supporting the demise of the union. The middle class should fight for benefits and wages at least as good as unions not fight for the unions to lose theirs.

The middle class must realize that corporations and the wealthy have always had unions. Their union is the Chamber of Commerce and the myriad of trade organizations that they use to lobby and bribe our politicians. Most importantly the middle class must educate themselves and do so quickly. After-all, the owners of our mainstream media as well as the Right Wing echo chamber are all wealthy corporations. GE owns our most “Liberal” station MSNBC. As such one cannot expect complete unbiased information. It is for this reason that the middle class more now than ever must be willing to find unbiased sources and raw data so they can interpret whatever information they are forced fed.

The country is at a turning point. It is not cliché that the transfer of wealth in effect now will make the middle class nothing more than indentured servants. Many in the middle class already are.

<snip>

Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/02/962587/-Middle-Class-Marching-Toward-Indentured-Servitude-Unless-They-Understand-Who-Is-The-Real-Enemy

:kick:

[bobbolink]

1. Oh, well.............

[Cal33]

14. Nearly half of the middle-class don't realize what is going on.

They've been brain-washed by more than a century of Republican-owned
newsmedia. It takes incidents like what Gov. Walker is trying to do in
Wisconsin, and hopefully the success of the Single Party Payer Health
Reform in Vermont to help them wake up -- for a change.

[bobbolink]

15. So, what's the excuse for the "progressive" middleclass?

Selfishness? What?

[Cal33]

18. I think it's a good idea not to make important decisions when

a person is angry. These are the decisions one tends to regret later on,
when one's anger has blown over. Learn to cool down first, and then make
a decision. That could be one of the excuses for anyone -- including
progressives.

[bobbolink]

19. Really? So the anger of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, etc., was WRONG?

Jesus getting angry and raging in the temple was WRONG?

Who knew?

People are DYING because of this shit, and if that doesn't make people ANGRY, then something is very WRONG.

[Cal33]

22. With Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Jesus in the temple,

they were dealing with events that had been going on for a long, long time.
They've had a good deal of time to mull things over. It was a well-thought
over and well-considered type of action on their part. Not that they
weren't angry at the moment they had done what they did. And what they
had done was not out of spite, or to get even. I don't think.

"People are dying because of this shit." I've also written something
in another post on 50,000 Americans dying needlessly per year, simply
because they couldn't afford to see a doctor, but the health insurance
companies are for continuing their present health delivery system, because
they make more profits from it. We are dealing with sheer evil.

[dkf]

2. The problem is that the middle class probably feels like they are the ones paying for the poor and

the government unions.

They may support raising taxes on the rich to pay for all spending but don't think it will be done. Therefore the only option is to spend less on the poor/government or pay more taxes.

[OHdem10]

6. Someone better clue them in how they are really giving welfare

to the rich.

[Newest Reality]

7. I think you are correct

The way the scenario is framed, it creates a jackpot for the upper-echelons.

With a scheme that provides for ultra-low, or no taxes for the deadbeat rich and their corporate veils, all you have to do is deflect popular opinion by careful, deliberate, repetitive methods that manufacture consent.

When the factual impact of corporate, financier welfare, huge subsidies, military spending, etc., is downplayed or ignored, they you just tell those who ARE paying taxes that they are being wasted on supporting the poor, disabled, senior citizens, etc., who are cast as deadbeats and Kings and Queens that scam social services. The unions are being played in a similar fashion.

It is a scam. The whole thing is actually a Ponzi scheme. It is not hard to see when you are not listening to the filtered, biased views of corporate talking heads.

This crap has got to stop.

[SOS]

33. If the middle class thinks they are paying for the poor

then they are grossly misinformed.

Total federal TANF spending for 2010 was $17B.
That's equivalent to the cost of eight weeks in Iraq.

If the federal government eliminated the entire TANF program it would save 0.004% of the total budget.

I just did my taxes and owe $2,250.

By completely eliminating TANF my taxes would be lowered by 75 cents a month.

[postulater]

3. That's it. nt

[zazen]

4. K&R-I am so enraged about this that I'm not constructive

Time to find a more overtly pro-labor group around the Triangle with whom to organize, because the local NC Dems aren't cutting it. I've had the "privilege" of being a guest (the poor country cousin, so to speak) at several swanky state and national Dem functions and they make me want to throw up, because I know they know better. They have NO clue what's going on to people in the middle classes, eg, me and people like me.

In fact, I think people who have their jobs these days are sort of like women who subtly blame other women for being raped. It's better than looking at the situation and acknowledging that it could be you, anywhere, anytime. I see it in the university and state govt all the time among folks who really don't get that others of us caught in this are losing everything and may be living out of vans (or dead from lack of health insurance.)

Thanks for posting.

I'm going to forget this for the rest of the day or else I won't get anything else done.

Grrrrrr

[bobbolink]

8. And that started with the middleclass Dems not caring when the party tossed poor people overboard.

Now they are tossing you overboard.

Karma?

[zazen]

11. I'm not affiliated with middleclass dems tossing poor people overboard

Not sure where you got that idea.

I've been arguing with the privileged folks about these matters for years, before it was in my interest.

[bobbolink]

12. It has been going on for years uncontested. Now it goes to the next level.

"First they came for the poor, but I wasn't poor so I didn't speak up."

[RKP5637]

16. IMO it really started full speed with Reagan and it's never let up. It's been voodoo

trickle down economics since then and IMO it's all the same now. Americans seem to love it, they keep voting these same type of people in - just looking at the governors now in many states. They vote these people in and then bitch. Everyday is a constant WTF for me.

[bobbolink]

17. I think most of us know all of that. The point is, middleclass Dems have been quite happy to go

along with the dismissal of the poverty base of the party, and now participating in the vilification of us.

THEN they get angry when they lose the votes.

How's that for crazy?????

What will it take for the middleclass Dems to include us... to reach out to us.... to include us in their rallies, rather than just expecting that they can say "We are one", and we'll rush right up and support them??????

[freshwest]

28. They forgot 'an injustice to one is an injustice to all' while listening to PTL.

[RKP5637]

5. The middle class needs to get it through their heads that they and the lowest class of

this place are pretty much merging and they had best be working for everyone to succeed. To me, much of the middle class is now merging with the lowest class, they just haven't gotten it through their thick heads and egos!

There is a battle underway with the left, right, middle and lower class pitted against a political money machine that owns the government, and unless you have millions and millions, these people that bought the government aren't interested in you.

Just how much proof do Americans need.

[Quantess]

9. Not much-- most.

Most of the middle class has already fallen. We're the working poor now.

[bobbolink]

13. Yet, if that is the reality, it certainly isn't acknowledged.

There doesn't seem to be much willingness to reach out at all... it is all middleclass, middleclass, middleclass.

Cutting off nose, etc.

[freshwest]

29. They ignored the true state of affairs by accumulating debt. Still wage slaves.

[raouldukelives]

10. When you work for or own stock in one these corporations

You are part of the problem, not the cure. What we do impacts how others perceive them. Even if it seems a very small thing.

[jimlup]

20. I'm sorry to say that if folks have not figured it out yet given the events of 2008, they just are

not capable of making this deduction.

The "We have to give multi-million dollar bonuses to investment bankers in order to attract the brightest and best" should have been our period "Let them eat cake" statement but nobody noticed.

[progressoid]

21. Oooh, Dancing With The Stars is on!

[WillyT]

23. Kick !!!

:kick:

[FarLeftFist]

24. I laugh when I hear billionaires talk about "hard work"...

The hardest job in the world is being the working poor.

[Moostache]

25. Pardon the self-indulgence...just said something about this in different thread.

I just felt this comment was more relevant to this discussion...hopefully no one is legitimately offended...Hate to break so harshly with netiquette here but I quote myself from another thread:

"We are simply not effective at messaging because we do not spend enough time scaring the shit out of people. The right wing noise machine stays on a very simple message and rides that bitch into the ground every day - day in and day out without fail and without countenance of those who stray too far from orthodoxy. "Government IS the problem." THAT is their mantra and behind the Buddhist like devotion to the chant lies the secret of their success - its dog whistle control potential and ability to warp the perception of reality of their "flock". People who say things like "unskilled people should be lucky to have a job" never think beyond the infection of the mantra. They never consider what comes next - incarceration? work camps? "final solutions"? Its all well and good to say those things when under the spell, but the real issue is that its no solution at all. The problem is not the skill level of the people, its the distribution of opportunity (another thing we need to STOP saying is "distribution of 'wealth'" - it makes the pseudo-/faux-Robin Hood mentality of the right take root).

Our basic problem is the accumulation of money and purchased political power at the upper 0.01% of the nation limits the opportunity of everyone else. Wal-Mart uses their political clout and economic might to choke off ALL competition and then still calls itself "capitalist". That's simply not true and the people who NEED to know it never get the message because they are too busy waiting for the next "Breaking News ALERT!!!!"."

The real enemy is not the other side....it never was. The real enemy is our own inability to play hard ball with that other side. If two teams meet and only one side plays by self-limiting 'rules', then the other team wins, period. Until the left/Dems can get their head out of their DLC-led ass and start hitting back hard and consistently across ALL issues, well....you can already see the results right now...

[IDemo]

26. Stay tuned to this thread

for the usual self-anointed poli-sci PHD's to drop by and tell you that Indentured Servitude is not at all what you think, and that the working class is actually doing exceedingly well.

[CanonRay]

27. The first political leader who grabs on to this

get a "Go Straight to the Presidency" card.

[Jackpine Radical]

32. And as soon as he gets into office,

the men in dark blue suits take him into the basement of the White House and show him the missing parts of the Zapruder film.

The next day he appoints Bernanke and Immelt…

[Le Taz Hot]

30. Could the writer use a broader brush?

"Instead of middle class anger being directed at the wealthy and politicians who codified the pilfering, middle class anger is directed at the lower classes and union workers."

No, SOME middle class and SOME poor people are cuddling up to the Tea Party Values of blaming everyone but the wealthy but the author didn't qualify the term and instead disparages and falsely accuses them. Does he not understand that middle class people are also union members? That their parents and grandparents were very likely union members at one time or another? Who the hell does he think does most of the marching against corporate greed? Against draconian tax cuts and weakening the bargaining unit? The rich??? Those aren't only poor people on those picket lines.

He then writes an entire article based on a false premise. Sorry, I think the article is drivel.

[upi402]

31. Average folks hating unions, taxes, and entitlements

is pretty intense and amazingly widespread. It amazes me just how well we are fooled. I live in a liberal county in a blue state, and seems like most people are that way.