Sen. John Edwards stump speech rang true for me. That's the one where he says, "(There's) one America that does the work, another America that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks."
Exactly. I know the Republicans like to call it class warfare. Whatever. It is clearly politics of the rich vs politics of the middle-class. With Republicans in power, the middle-class is losing.
Democrats all over should be screaming loud and clear about this message. The reality is that Republicans leaders all make decisions with money in mind. Money for the rich. Period.
Democrats need to carry on the message of two Americas into the 2006 and 2008 elections. It is a crucial point that will resonate with people if we can get people to understand it.
"[T]he voices of American citizens are raised and heard unequally," declares a task force of the American Political Science Association. "The privileged participate more than others and are increasingly well organized to press their demands on government. Public officials, in turn, are much more responsive to the privileged than to average citizens and the least affluent."
http://www.inequality.org/unrepresentative.html
Who gets heard? The people with money. The people with lots of money can pay for the $10,000 or $20,00 a plate fundraising dinners. The people with lots of money are often head of companies so they use their companies to lobby Comgress to increase the revenue of their company.
The rich are being heard because money speaks volumes. While the rest of us in middle class America are struggling to provide for our families and have a little extra to take a vacation now and then, the rich are keeping the money trough full for the Republicans. Is it any wonder why the Republicans are in power? Money buys power. Pure and simple.
This horrible cycle of large amounts of money getting Republicans elected and then the Republicans paying back the debt to these people with legislation to help them must be stopped. We need leaders who represent ALL the people. We need leaders who hear us all.
We are barely holding on to the Democracy we have. We must use our grassroots efforts to elect people that cannot be bought. We need to elect people who have the best interest of the people in mind not just the few with money.