Republicans love to control the narrative. They'll use well tested talking points, distortion, distraction, even outright lies (I'm talking about you, Death Panels) and whatever it takes to control the discussion in favor of their political ideology.
They were all over the place in 2008 to take the hopeful "Yes, We Can" message of change from Barack Obama and manipulate it into a demonization of change, community involvement, and liberalism with a side order of Islamophobia and good old fashioned racism to sweeten their ugly pot. And then they brought in Sarah Palin to take their narrative to heights (or, perhaps, depths is a better word) that they have never seen. Then they flew the flag even higher and involved Jesus to make their ideology look patriotic and righteous at the same time.
Then came the economic collapse, they pulled out all the stops and used their entire bag of trickery over the past 2 years to make us forget.....
that it was not regular people that caused it.
Listen to the narrative they're selling and the people they're blaming:
--People who lived beyond their means
--People bought homes they couldn't afford
--Public employees with their millionaire benefits and Cadillac benefits
They want to set Americans against each other to make us forget who really caused the financial circumstances we are living in: Big Banks, Wall Street, and job outsourcing.
Job outsourcing has been a problem for decades. It started in the 50s and 60s with factories moving to states with depressed wages. The threat of moving somewhere else was always a factor in the contract negotiations of industrial unions. But the move south to take advantage of lower priced labor wasn't enough for corporations.
As trade agreements were made by the federal government, sold to us as methods to expand the world market to US goods, tariffs fell and the US market was wide open for cheap imports from foreign countries. US corporations saw this as a golden opportunity for themselves. Without tariffs, corporations had an incentive to move to third world nations and pay near slave wages to make their products for importation back to US markets. Manufacturing on the cheap and importation at the same price as before let them pocket the difference.
Good jobs disappeared and people began to accept lower paying jobs with few, if any benefits. The middle class started slipping into poverty.
On to the financial villains.
Wall Street and Banksters, after every nickel they can scrape up, gambled away not only investors money and the pensions and IRAs of millions of Americans, they gambled away money they didn't have or couldn't access. Ever. It was like overdrawing on our checking accounts while controlling the auditing at our banks to hide the overdrafts. But one day, the bills come due and you can't hide it anymore.
The bundled, no-good, ready-to-fail mortgages that were deliberately solicited from bamboozled borrowers were packaged and sold as triple A rated investments with an insurance policy so the sellers would get paid no matter what happened. When they went bust and the money wasn't there to make good on the insurance, the dominoes started to fall. They fell on us. We had to bail them out, so we were told.
Too bad about our investments and pensions. We'd have to eat those losses, too. In fact, Americans have essentially been charged double for Bank and Wall Street greed.
And now they're up to the same old shenanigans again. Worse. And why wouldn't they? Not a single one of them has gone to jail or been held accountable. In fact, they're taking home bigger salaries and bonuses than ever. Yes, a few of them have paid fines, but the fines have come at the expense of their customers, not out of their profits. They have repaid none of the losses they caused.
Banks are not lending and to the extent that they are, they're using zero interest Federal Reserve money and lending it at high interest. Nice profits in that. For them.
Business is also hanging onto its cash, not expanding and not hiring because they can't get loans. Small business, lowest on the lending tree, is in the most trouble so they're going bust and the jobs lost there are adding to already elevated levels of unemployment.
It's a vicious circle. Jobs going to foreign countries plus jobs lost at home lead to high unemployment. Business laying off or going belly up increases unemployment. People who were expecting to retire are still working since their pensions are gone in the crash so those jobs aren't open either.
High unemployment leads to people working at lower paying jobs with less benefits. The tax base erodes as people aren't making the income they once did, and governments struggle to pay unemployment benefits and health costs for newly qualified former middle class citizens along with their normal obligations. Keep this process going and you'll see why federal, state, and local budgets are in deficit.
Keep going with tax breaks for the rich and corporations, tax loopholes that allow a majority of our Fortune 500 Companies to pay zero taxes, add in corporate tax subsidies, and you'll soon see why we are in a financial stranglehold.
Republicans, at the behest of their corporate sponsors, don't want you to know these things. They feed the ongoing narrative that it's you, the regular schmo, with your excessive spending and high debt who is responsible. Or they want you to blame your neighbors. Or those guys over there. Hey, here's another shiney object for you to look at so you don't look at the real bad guys.
They are currently blaming public employees as a cause, trying to decimate the few jobs left in this country that can't be sent to China, Viet Nam, India, or some other labor at 25 cents an hour country. They also don't like these people because they are the work force in this country that is the most unionized. And those unions don't endorse or support Republican ideology.
They're using our current financial crisis accomplish something they've wanted to do for decades: destroy public employee unions. On top of that, they're using it to further manipulate public opinion on the causes of deficits to and divide the middle class for their political benefit. Their ongoing mantra seems to be: Make Every Job Crappy!
Look at the real causes of our financial deficits and crisis and you'll see who is really to blame hiding in a dark corner. Educate your neighbors about the Shell Game of Blame that they are selling so it can't be used to destroy public employment the same way that they have virtually destroyed every good middle-class job in this country.
We need to have accountability and responsibility apply to everyone. The Banksters and Wall Street Thieves need to be held just as accountable as bank robbers and burglers are. Taxes are for everyone, not just the "little people". Tarrifs need to be reimposed to level the playing field and benefit US manufacturing and US jobs. Job creation here must be rewarded and outsourcing experience consequences to insure a growing and vibrant middle class.
Failure to act will result in our country becoming a Third World nation.
Don't let them make you forget. Support the peaceful protests in Madison and elsewhere. Updated by Puddytat at Tue Mar 1, 2011, 12:44:56 PM
OMG. I wrote this yesterday early afternoon and it sat virtually unnoticed until some kind Rescue Ranger (a hard working group of dedicated volunteers) threw it a life preserver. When I finally went to bed at nearly 5 AM there were 8 total comments. What a surprise to get up and find this with additional commentary, but on the Rec List as well. I will be reading all of the comments and replying to most as is my normal diary "routine". Thanks for your attention and thanks in advance for reminding everyone you know of what really caused our current economic conditions and state deficits. Don't let anyone fall for the lies.