The evidence is growing that the class warfare claim that has been paraded around the media for months is becoming an increasingly important part of our political campaigns this year.
The class warfare that is dominating this election, however, is not being practiced by President Obama and the Democrats against the one percent but by those who cannot be satisfied as long as anyone is taking a tax dollar from their massive earnings to help someone who was not fortunate enough to be born into the lap of luxury or to have hit it rich in one fashion or another.
The video of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who already has shown time after time during this campaign that he has no connection with anyone who has never set foot in a country club, decrying the 47 percent of the people who he says has their hands out for any form of government assistance they can receive went viral Monday and I am sure there will be a backlash today on right wing radio about how Romney is being targeted by those people who don’t want to end the government gravy train.
A few moments ago, I posted a videoof Missouri’s U. S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, he of “legitimate rape” fame claiming that the rich are being taxed too much and the poor are being “paid too much.”
In other words, to Todd Akin and Mitt Romney’s way of thinking, it is the rich who are being legitimately raped by legions of poor people with their hands forever outstretched who want to take away their hard-earned hedge fund millions.
It is class warfare when people believe that those job creators, many of whom have been hoarding their money and not creating any jobs, have no responsibility to contribute to those who are doing their best to cope with today’s economic problems, but do not have a financial safety net locked away in an overseas account.
When one of our two leading political parties is fighting on a platform that includes increasingly lower taxes for those in the upper stratosphere and drastic cuts in Medicare and Social Security, we are involved in class warfare.
When we see a party pushing for educational vouchers (under the pseudonym tax credits) while demeaning public school teachers and trying to turn public schools into a breeding ground for service workers, we are involved in class warfare.
When we have people who are willing to spend millions of dollars to keep the minimum wage from increasing because it will supposedly destroy businesses (when all of the evidence is to the contrary), we are involved in class warfare.
The elections of 2012 are a referendum of whether this country believes that we have an obligation to help those who are unable to help themselves. Do we continue to build on the American dream of giving people a helping hand (Medicare, Social Security, G. I. Bill, college loans) so they can achieve their goals, or do we continue our march toward concentrating wealth in the hands of a few people who do not seem interested in sharing with anyone?
The class warfare has never been about those of us who have less money resenting the rich; it has always been about those who have the most money feeling entitled to keep every dime of it and not have to share with people who should stay in their place.
The only generosity they extend is when they invite us into their country clubs. After all, somebody has to serve the martinis.
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On a totally different note: Free downloadsof my novel about a nightmarish year in a public high school, No Child Left Alive, are available this week only as part of an Amazon Kindle Select promotion.