Like most of us here a DKos, I’ve been consumed with disgust at the GOP’s relentless attack on Democracy for many years, and God knows it’s reached an all time high (low). While these cowardly politicians are certainly worthy of loathing for their role in the ongoing destruction of our country, it’s really quite obvious that they are the puppets who are being driven by the real people in power — the corrupt billionaires who don’t give a rat’s ass about anyone but themselves and their greedy obsession with making damn sure they pile as much money into their coffers as possible by avoiding the burden of taxes that the rest of us have to shoulder. It’s beyond appalling that they have more money than they and their heirs could possibly spend in a lifetime and yet are still driven by this sick greed.
It turns out, to my somewhat surprise, that not all billionaires are created equal so to speak. There was a very interesting story recently about a message put forward by more than 250 billionaires and millionaires at Davos last week. Basically, they are asking world leaders to tax them so they pay their fair share, and help solve what is en ever-worsening divide that threatens the continuation of normal society, in all parts of the world. Supposedly, a new poll of the super-rich shows that 74% support higher taxes on wealth to help address the cost of living crisis and improve public services. So, it’s not every rich person that deserves to be condemned for their relentless greed, just a relatively few like the asshole pictured above (Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, who is lobbying for Trump right now for obvious reasons). They’re using our country like an old jalopy being run into the ground that can be discarded when it’s no longer of use to them.
This idea put forth at Davos gave me a thought that is probably naive, as I’m no expert on what is or is not politically possible to make happen. (Maybe folks on this site who are more educated in this realm can tell me how idiotic it is.) There are those within the Democratic Party who claim to want this inequality to be fixed (one of whom is Biden), but there are obvious forces in play that won’t let that happen. So my question is this — why can’t a proposal be put forward to ask the question of voters in a national forum (i.e. vote); “Should the richest people in society be forced to pay their fair share in taxes?”. Just a Yes or No, an official logging of our national will on this single point. It’s pretty obvious how the majority of us working class donkeys burdened with funding a system that lets the wealthiest skip out feel about this. I mean, I could be wrong, but I think even a lot of MAGA types would be hard pressed to answer No.
Even if such a referendum would not be feasible at the national level, maybe some grass roots effort at the state level could be started. Instead of being couched in the vague promises of what any given politician promises to work toward, it would be a simple statement of what the vast majority in our country want. Seems like it would be a difficult opinion to simply dismiss out of hand. But again, maybe this is naive. At least some of the richest people in the world were brave enough to ask for it. Why can’t we?