I’ve read a lot of stories decrying the efforts of some progressive politicians who think we need a new jobs program. I’ve also listened to a lot of heated rhetoric from the right wing. This has inspired me to write. The problem is not on the left. There really isn’t much of a left anymore. This country was started by progressives. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Henry Et al weren’t Status Quo. They were revolutionaries. Revolutions are almost never started by conservatives. These radicals were tired of taxation without representation to support the British war machine. We on the left have been told for decades that we are the problem. We are not the problem. We are the co-equal owners of this country and we insist that our elected representatives represent us and not the corporations who try to buy influence. What a radical/liberal concept that once was the core of this republic. I have grown extremely tired of the mean spirited rhetoric on the right. We are not foreigners, we are not subversives, we are Americans who pay our taxes whether in progressive income tax or the increasingly popular regressive user taxes which target the less fortunate.
There is this continual mean spirited rhetoric which implies that government bears no responsibility to create jobs for it’s citizenry which is exactly how we got out of the great depression. We’re in another great depression now because the greed masters over stepped sensible business practices and brought the country to it’s knees. People on welfare are often the target of the right. They aren’t the problem, but it’s easy to pick on them because they have no voice.
In 1776 it was the Tory/conservatives who stood in the path for freedom. In 1861 it was those same conservative elements who sincerely believed that we needed to keep African-Americans in bondage to support the status quo. Conservatives have traditionally been agents of the status quo and they are now. We’ve listened to your faulty logic for over thirty years. Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations have produced no new jobs. What corporation has started an employment program in this country. I’m tired of corporate welfare and ready for a little Main Street welfare.