We hear it all the time. We hear the calls for a level playing field, or an equal application of our laws. Generally, it's liberals and progressives calling for those things, usually in response to aggressive moves made by right-wingers, the banks, corporations, the courts, etc.
Glenn Greenwald and Elizabeth Warren are two recent examples. Greenwald recently suggested that the OWS movement is all about that. Our desire that the rules be applied equally to everyone. In Elizabeth Warren's recent response to Rove's attack ad, she calls for a level paying field as well.
What they and all too many liberals and progressives seem to be missing is that a level playing field or an equal application of the rules still guarantees an accelerating gap between the haves and the have nots. It still guarantees that the rich and powerful grow richer and more powerful at our expense.
And those rules and laws? They were written by the haves, not the have nots. How does it help us if those rigged laws and rules are applied "evenly"? The laws and rules themselves are illegitimate and counter to the needs of the vast many.
We have record inequality in this nation and its getting worse by the day. If we suddenly could magically "level the playing field" and "apply laws and rules" perfectly evenly across the board, that inequality would still grow. Math, physics and common sense tells us this is true.
Take just one part of the inequality pie -- a huge part, obviously:
If a CEO makes 10 million a year, and her rank and file averages 50K a year, and you alter your system of raises to be perfectly even . . . the CEO will still increase the gap between himself and that rank and file. If you lock down her raise to 10%, and match that percentage for the rank and file, that CEO will still gain ground on everyone else, year after year after year.
An "even playing field" is not enough. It actually must be drastically tilted in favor of the poor, the working class and the middle class, in that order. The playing field must be tilted in such a way that we proactively reduce inequality. Leave it flat, and the gap increases.
The above reminds us of "strategy" issues as well. Basically, "the left" has been in full retreat mode for forty years, while the right has increased its aggressiveness with each victory, with each "compromise" coming from the other side of the aisle. It (the right) has been on a long, steadily accelerating march into enemy territory for forty years, rarely with a pause for its own form of compromise. It always "demands more." So what does "the left" do in response? It talks about "level playing fields" and "applying the rule of law" evenly long after the damage has been done. It rejoices in temporary holding actions like the recent victory in Ohio, instead of actually, aggressively, demanding far greater workers' rights. It thinks that a temporary halt to its decades-long retreat is cause for celebration.
"We evened the playing field!", meaning, they slowed down the onslaught of corporations and the right for a moment. No reversal of the damage. No push for an extension of workers rights, after decades of destruction. They just temporarily created a pause in that onslaught.
You can't fight an onslaught with calls for "fairness" and "equal treatment." It's much too late for that. It's time for much stronger medicine. No more holding actions. No more retreating. It's time to go into battle and take it to the enemy on their home turf for once. No justice, no peace. Demand more!!