You likely think that all of those tax cuts weighted for the one percent was just to increase their bragging rights about the size of their yacht and/or their bank account. Au contraire, monsieur. Sure, they paid high prices to purchase all of those politicians and wanted a return on their investments. But, their wet dreams included much more than piles of geld.
Of course the Democrats’ hands are not quite clean. They haven’t attained the standard required of Caesar’s wife. However, the Republicans have a long history of attacking from the gutters. Lee Atwater was neither the first nor the last of a long line of sewage dealers.
We could go back a long way, even before the infamous Senator “Tail-gunner” Joe McCarthy. There was Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society. There was Bill Buckley, who thought his large vocabulary hid his despicable agenda.
Bill once declared that if there were a race war, he would “fight it on the beaches, in the hills, in the mountains . . .” That was a considerable commitment from one who exercised his privileged position to fight the entirety of WWII on Long Island, New York.
But none, before or since has displayed the strategic creativity of Atwater. For those too young to have known about him or those too old to remember, Lee was Saint Ronnie’s strategist, Chairman of the Republican National Committee and George H.W. Bush’s campaign manager. He died of a brain tumor at the age of 40. His illness caused him to convert to Roman Catholicism and apologize to all of those he had wronged. That may have made him feel that he had a better chance with St Peter but it failed to affect any of his mentees or clients. They just keep on perverting the system to their benefit and our disadvantage.
Gary Hart was the prohibitive leading candidate in the Democratic race in 1988. Polls showed him beating Daddy Bush quite handily, until Lee set up Hart in a picture with a female that was not his wife. Is it ironic that Lee had a special relationship with one young lady and some not so special ones with several others? He was also responsible for destroying Michael Dukakis with the racist Willie Horton ad. There were many other apologies to candidates for both federal and state elections. He had a lot of apologizing to do.
But, the insults and dirty tricks against politicians was far from the worse. As I began, you likely thought those tax cuts were about enriching the already rich. They have done that. I think I mentioned in a recent post that the billionaires alone could give every man, woman and child $3,000 and still be wealthier than at the beginning of the pandemic. That doesn’t even factor in the last major tax cut that was ballyhooed as the largest in history. They actually have no need for tax cuts, as the Congress and presidents have been very creative in funneling your tax dollars to their owners.
As you will see in the videos, Atwater’s aim was to further impoverish the minorities while avoiding charges of racism, though that is what it was and is. They also aimed at destroying the Democratic Party by denying campaign funding by its major source. They have been successful in reducing the unions from 30 percent of the workforce to 6 percent. The plutocrats are just not satisfied with wealth that would cause all of the kings and emperors to blush. They don’t wish to share any of the goodies with the hoi polloi. Their financial distance from the rest of us is insufficient. They want to be surrounded by obedient, docile peasants. They want no middle class, no petit bourgeoisie.
Being in the moment, we are prone to think of Trump as the worst president ever. Historians have been almost unanimous in giving that honor to James Buchanan. I have put Woodrow Wilson high on my list. That choice is confirmed by the fact that Richard Nixon’s Oval Office had but one picture of a predecessor on the wall — that of Wilson.
My longtime favorite as the worst has been Reagan. There are many reasons: union busting, Iran-Contra, tripling the debt (and without a war of any note), tinkle-down economics, et al, ad nauseum. He also set the tone for such paragons as Atwater, Newt, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Moscow Mitch and a host of others.
In the photo below, the two on the left recently received pardons. The one on the right passed away in 1991. He was their mentor.
Do you see the thread that ties these miscreants together?
The following video is instructive.
My parents paid for my first year of college. After that it was on me. So, I went to a private university. College was affordable back in the Fifties. One full semester at that private school set me back exactly $235. I was able to handle that working part-time at a grocery store. I made 62 and a half cents and hour. One Summer we visited a couple of my parents friends in Los Angeles. They had a son my age. He worked at a grocery store but he made $1.25 an hour — exactly twice what I made. Why? The grocery stores in California were unionized.
That was my wakeup call. Later, I moved to Los Angeles while attending UCLA and USC. The army had opened my eyes further and the satellite version of the Free Speech Movement down at UCLA furthered that aspect of my education.
The reason for all of this is that we do not have a democracy. How many times have the Republicans received the majority vote in the past eight elections? Most would say once; George W’s 2nd term. However, a later analysis of the results in Ohio put that into question. The Grand Old Party appears to have lost 8 elections in a row but taking the Oval Office 3 of those 8 terms.
Still not convinced that this is not a democracy? The Electoral College gives undue weight to small rural states. Each voter in Wyoming has 3.6 times as much value as anyone living in California. While the population of California is more than 68 times that of Wyoming, they have an equal number of senators. The Democratic minority in the Senate represents 41 million more people than the Republican majority. One senator can stop all action in that house of Congress. Gerrymandering is another tool the minority employs to deny the majority.
Tax breaks give your tax dollars to the wealthy and corporations, increasing the disparity in the distribution of national wealth, busting the unions to eliminate the middle class and reducing and eliminating assistance and opportunities for everyone else, but especially racial minorities. Tax cuts are the most potent weapon of the plutocrats.
The wealthy do not create jobs. The Fortune 500 does not create jobs. Small business dies not create jobs. The government does create a relatively few jobs. Then who are the job creators, the ones deserving of those tax cuts?
You and me. This is a consumer-driven economy. If you and I don’t wish to purchase any product or service, or don’t have the wherewithal to do so, then no wealthy person, or corporation or small business is going to build warehouses or manufacturing facilities or buy raw materials or hire people. If we do have money to spend and want to spend it, there will be more jobs.
When the plutocrats tinkle down, we just get pissed on. It’s in our interest get pissed off and eliminate the GOP at the polls.
If you found this educational, edifying, interesting or otherwise worth your time, this geezer would appreciate a little supplement to those Social Security checks, They forgot to factor in the cost of publishing a blog.
Many thanks,
