Right now the Republicans are laying the groundwork for the next budget
fight. That fight might come if the
propositions fail on May 19, or it might come next year. Whenever it is, they are working now to get
the public to support their side when
it comes.
For example, the extremist right is having “tea party” rallies, claiming “taxes are theft” and any government spending is too much. Their radio stations are saying California is the state with the highest taxes (false). Etc., etc.
Now, most people really don’t pay much in taxes, but have
been led to believe they do. And most
people don’t understand that government spending is spent on them. This is especially true among those who listen to extremist-right radio or read their op-eds.
All of this amounts to getting ahead of things now, before any next battle even begins. They are making it that much harder to get a needed tax increase passed, or to spend enough on our schools to properly educate kids so they can drive the economy of the next generation, or to invest in the transportation, energy, water conservation, and other technologies that will help us grow the economy in the future. No, they want to “save” that money and pass it along to the wealthy today.
But people should learn from history. The real tea party was not a public uprising against taxes at all. It was an action against
corporate cronyism and taxes set without democratic processes. The roots of our country come from another time when favoritism and cronyism and special breaks for the rich ran rampant. The public figured it out then, and a revolution resulted. Our democracy was the result, and our democracy will recover and reinvigorate itself once again.
Of course, it would help if the public didn’t have to figure these things out entirely for themselves. The Republicans are out there reaching the public-at-large, making their case. We should be, too.
There were apologists for slavery back in the antebellum days such as E.W. Clay who wrote very much like you do excusing the confiscation of one’s labor with the syrupy lie that “we” get it all back anyway. See There is Nothing Wrong with Black Slavery
Dave, I have never read anything you ever wrote until now, after reading your editorials, I never want to read anything else you write again, such a chaotic thought process you have, I believe what you write is the product of capitolism, some one pays you to write what they tell you to write, so our way must not be all that bad, We’ll see what THE PEAPLE say in 2010.