This is my first diary so please forgive any unintended faux pas.
I normally lurk and am always impressed by the ideas and the writing that is here every day. I finally think I have something original to offer.
One of the recurring themes that I read here is how to frame the debate and establishing a narrative to support the debate. That is why I chose my title. Because everyone familiar with the fable of the ants and the grasshopper can see the parallel with our society's idle rich and the working class that supports them.
(full disclosure: having been raised with such role models as Gomez Addams and Thurston Howell the 3rd I have always been envious of the idle rich)
There is a mountain of evidence of the shift in wealth to the top 1%.
They have used all kinds of smoke screens and propaganda to justify this shift and we continue to fall for them.
By changing the frame we can push back and force them to play a little defense. By using the grasshopper and the ants frame we also ridicule and trivialize the idle rich, At the same time we can reconnect with the social conservatives that have been alienated from us by the propaganda that we don't respect them because they are just unsophisticated. By self identifying as the worker ants we can connect their work ethic with ours and we can start to show more respect for their position. We view this in terms of creating more equality and they seem to want to punish the behavior. We should be able to connect with them if we can get them to focus on the idle rich who should be punished for being so selfish that they have pushed us to the brink of disaster. One corporate bailout costs us more than 100's of welfare queens.
We have also seen what happens when the grasshoppers are in charge. They focus entirely on themselves even if it destroys our ability to survive. All of their policies are short sighted. Only the ants will focus on long term goals that benefit the entire group.
Again; the grasshoppers must go