The Choice is Stark and Clear

by Dee Newman

Right wing conservatives have been whining about taxes forever. They believe in a lower, flat or less progressive tax rate that does not increase in proportion to ones taxable income, a tax rate that does not recognize that progressive salaries demand progressive taxes, a tax rate that would only permit government to protect our lives, rights and property, a tax rate that would continue to allow the rich to get richer while the rest of us foot the bill.

Though their trickle-down economic policies, once again, nearly brought us to the brink of another Great Depression four years ago, they still want us to return to those thrilling days of Calvin Coolidge and his laissez-faire government with few regulations, enough only to protect their individual rights from theft and their corporate property rights from organized labor and collective bargaining. We all know (or should know) what that got us – the Crash of 1929 and ten years of mass unemployment and economic disparity.

I realize it is difficult to prove, but most economist (even conservative) believe that we would be experiencing yet another crisis of that proportion, if it were not for President Obama and his fiscal policies.

When the Banking Act of 1933 (the Glass-Steagall Act) that limited commercial bank securities activities and affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms was repealed through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, we should have known that it was only a matter of time (less than a decade) before the proverbial shit hit the fan.

I admit, it is beyond my understanding why so many working-class Americans, whose jobs and livelihood have been indisputably threatened by conservative monetary pursuits, would continue to support such repressive candidates and injurious economic policies, policies that have allowed the rich to get richer, while the rest of us are left to scrounge for the dregs and the crumbs.

But, here we are, once again, with a choice – a stark, clear choice – to return to the past of lower and lower taxes for the rich and unregulated corporate greed or forward to a future of progress for all. Yes a choice to vote for an oligarch or a man of the people.

We will only have ourselves to blame if we allow the top one-percent (the filthy rich and powerful) and their uncountable fortunes (enhanced by Bush’s tax breaks and deregulations) to manipulate stupidity and buy this election with their hundreds of millions of dollars of hidden donations.