There's battle lines being drawn

A couple of thoughts have come to me over the past few days, mostly as I ponder what the good union people of Wisconsin are doing for us, and I think both of them say a lot about what is wrong with republicans, what is wrong with the tea party, and what America needs most: an all-out, no holds barred, class war.


The first is the sheer audacity of conservatives when it comes to how much money people make for the work they do. It amazes me how they will scream public sector workers are overpaid at $40-50,000 a year (if that much) for giving our children an education, keeping us safe, plowing our snow covered roads, and putting out our fires, but when it comes to ending tax cuts for the wealthy, well, you know, $250,000 a year just isn't that much money (aside: what the motherfucking fuck?). How long before the MSM points out (a good guess would be never) the obvious: republicans think it's good for people to not have jobs and to be paid as little as possible. If you are not among the wealthy elite, they do not care if you live or die. Period.


The second has been over who is helped by raising the retirement age--because it's certainly not those of us who are ready to retire fucking yesterday. Frankly, it's dawned on me that what raising the retirement age actually should be called is the Wal-Mart Greeter Movement. Because that is the only constituency that is going to be helped by raising the retirement age--very few people in their late sixties are going to be working construction jobs, picking up trash, or laying asphalt. Very few industries are going to continue to pay the kind of salaries that forty years of experience would require. Ergo, the only jobs that will be around for people in their late sixties and early seventies will be door greeters and cashiers. Excitement city--but don't forget the minimum wage pay rate (federal--$7.25)! Woo-fucking-hoo.

The assault on the middle class (and even more, the poor) has become a tidal wave (and teaches us all too well the importance of thinking through the ramifications of your vote before you vote--exactly what were the republicans plans for creating jobs...oops, there weren't any!):

1) Campaigns for right to work laws (a misnomer if ever there was one) have increased despite the fact that a) median weekly wages have fallen for high school and college graduates, when adjusted for inflation from 2000 to 2009, and b) of the top ten states for average wages one is a right to work state, and of the bottom ten, seven are. Right to work laws help us how?
2) This is how far off the deep end the republican party is: they want to roll back Child Labor Laws. Seriously--the abuse of children by corporations is one of the most egregious stains on American history, and these idiots want to fucking return to it. One can only guess that rolling back the laws ending slavery is next on the republican agenda.
3) American businesses no longer need nor care about American workers--shipping jobs overseas means corporations can force American workers to work for less. The powers that be are increasingly forcing on us a service economy, and as anyone who has ever worked in the service industries can tell you, the pay is shit. How long before we have had enough and realize that just having a job isn't enough and that we want to get ahead, too? My guess is not long.
4) The weakening of our democracy. Paul Krugman channels Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine to explain Scott Walker's actions in Wisconsin: "Right wing ideologues exploit crises to push through an agenda that has nothing to do with these crises and everything to do with imposing their vision of a harsher, more unequal, less democratic society." Bob Herbert laments a system where our government representatives are more responsive to corporations and the wealthy elite than to its average citizens and how this is corrupting our democracy. It can seem a bit frightening...

...but being a good Liberal, and the antithesis of conservatives and republicans everywhere, I will not live in fear. Wisconsin--and I have no idea if we will win or not, though I'm guessing not--shows that we're ready to fight back and that there are plenty of people who are seeing unions in a new light. Mark Sumner, in a spirited defense of unions, wrote this: "Union is not just a means to oppose tyranny, it is the only means." Dean Baker wrote a nice piece about how Liberals need to start reframing the economic debate--and a good beginning would be to constantly refute the republican argument of government vs. the free market; republicans use the government just as much as Democrats to get what they want--mostly to distribute more and more income to those who already have the most. And as we're seeing in Wisconsin, Republicans are overreaching--it amazes me on a daily basis how horrifically tone deaf republicans are about their victories this past November. People wanted jobs, not bullshit. Bodes well for 2012....

But the most hope of all comes from us--what we're seeing in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and sure to spread is people power speaking truth to power. In the Bob Herbert column I noted earlier, Herbert recalled words Howard Zinn spoke to him shortly before Zinn's death: "If there's going to be change, real change, it will have to come from the bottom up, from the people themselves."

Get the troops ready.

Peace,
emaycee