Have they declared war on the middle class?

[gizmo1979]

It sure seems to me that they are out to exterminate us.They are systematically making it harder for us to get by to the benefit of the very few.How is this even a democracy?In 4 more years we will have nothing left.what are we going to do to save life as we know it.I'm losing faith in Democrats what can be done?

[whistle]

1. They being the neo-conservative/fundementalist fascists.....

...they have declared war on all that is not of their ilk!

[havocmom]

2. Declared war? No they are just about to wrap that war up

and the middle class lost, BIG TIME.

[LSparkle]

4. Yeah, I'm afraid I've just about fallen out of the middle class

Time to go underground big time.

[Trajan]

3. Newt Gingrich ... in 1994, after the GOP won the House of Representatives

"We seek to overturn 70 years of New Deal, Great Society government" ... (Paraphrased) ....

Newtie said that on the steps of the US Capital the day after the election .....

It has been their goal for decades .... hell, nearly a century now ...

And now they can do it ....

Say hello to the 1920's and increasing poverty ....

<edit: does ANYONE have the exact quote from Newtie that day ? .... perhaps on Nexus/Lexus (Nexis/Lexis ?) ? ...>

[stevebreeze]

5. Happened in 1980 with the first Reagan tax cut

The working people in this country have been a a very slow downhill slide since. This is already the longest period of stagnant US wages in a century. Or hell you could actually think back to the first big assault, when the GOP congress passed Taft Hartley act over Truman's veto. It started the long slide of unionism in the US.

[housewolf]

6. You've finally noticed!!

This has been going on for years, they've just become emboldened by Bush's re-election.

You know how we all pooh-poohed the "culture wars" when the right would talk about it? Well, they weren't kidding, only now its culture-and-class wars.

[GetTheRightVote]

8. This is a class war, I only wish more Americans would realize it

before we are killed off like the dinosaurs before us.

:kick:

[DELUSIONAL]

7. The middle class is the golden goose

The middle class are the major tax payers -- and they are major consumers. By squeezing the middle class -- tax income shrinks and the economy tanks because no one can buy what is produced by the working class/middle class. And the big corporations can sell what they make because they are busy stealing from their workers (looting pension funds and cutting overtime pay).

If a country/civilization has a large middle class -- who can pay taxes on wages and buy what is produced by other workers -- then the economy can grow. More of the poor can work themselves into the middle class -- pay more taxes on wages and buy more.

But it seems that the GOP wants to head us back to the dark ages -- and the two class system -- very wealthy and very poor -- and a very tiny middle class (merchants, etc.).

[meow2u3]

12. That's why the Repunks want an oppressive consumption tax

Because they know exactly what they're doing: shrinking the middle class, thus shrinking the tax base. They want to expand the tax base by taxing the poor and impoverished into utter oblivion because they maintain the delusion that the superrich should be privileged from taxation.

[Enquiringkitty]

22. Yes we are...and if they can keep us working harder for less money,

just to survive, being afraid of what tomorrow will bring, clinging to corporate America for our very existence, it's like being in a concentration camp....prisoners, forced to work and give our money to Wall Street and live on slave wages and being grateful for the small things they have left to us out of the goodness of their little hearts, then they can have their ideal country where they have all of the power just like when this country was first formed. Only land owners were allowed to vote....the wealthy, everyone else worked for them under their rules......History is trying to repeat itself.

[Chairman Mao]

9. Why so glum?

Well.... how is the middle class under attack? The unemployment rate is low, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up to nearly 11,000 and inflation is at near historic lows. True, there is unemployment, but even in the best of economic times there is unemployment. Europe and Canada are averaging 8-11 percent unemployment, we are at 5.2 percent. Taxes in this country (although too high in my opinion) are still lower than many other countries. We live in very good times, there are lots of opportunities, technical, medical advances are creating new jobs.

You ask how is this a democracy? Well, actually we live in a constitutional republic, but that's just a technical point. First, you still have the right to vote "the man" out of office, second, you can run for office yourself (if you're a citizen and not a felon), you can still get news that is both pro and anti Bush, you can worship (or not worship) as you please, the police can't search your house or belongings without a warrant, the writ of habeas corpus is still in effect (at least it was at dinner time!), you have the right to own property,..... shall I go on?

If the government was out to exterminate us, believe me, they wouldn't be pussyfooting around. First, they'd ditch the Bill of Rights, second, they'd confiscate your property and throw anyone and everyone who voted Democrat in jail (for life). I don't see that happening......

[Trajan]

10. While I generally agree with your more sober pronouncements ...

One can take issue with every one of them ...

1) The 'official' unemployment rate is 'low' ... yet so many have fallen off the back end they cannot be counted .... But you will know when they DONT contribute to the economy ...

2) Yes: we could 'vote' Bush out of office, if it werent for the FACT that extremist theogonists, who, in league with the Republican party, control the voting machines that are being installed into most polling places now ...

3) Given that education and energy costs are SKYROCKETING now .... one might think you take much glee in a very modest 'tax cut', while you dont seem to mind paying 4 times as much at the pump .... Yeah .... GOP fat cats on the other side of that pump handle ... magine that ? ...

I could go on and on .. but you're already gone ...

[Chairman Mao]

14. Can't say I agree with your conclusions, either

So, the people who fell off the back end, where are they? Are there millions and millions of people sleeping under bridges and in sewers that I'm not aware of? I live in Upstate New York, one of the most economically blighted areas in the country. There was no economic boom up here during the Clinton years, in fact the opposite. Yet, in spite of this, the unemployment rate is around 5.9 percent, which is still quite low. If there was any place that should prove your point, this is it. I don't see a lot of unemployed people in the area, everyone I know is working and complaining of having to work too much overtime.

Extremist theogonists in league with Republican Party control the voting machines? That's quite an accusation. So why do they bother to have elections at all? Perhaps the Democrats lost because they just happened to lose an election, maybe they'll win again in 2008.

Energy costs are sky rocketing....why? Isn't it OPEC that lowered production? Isn't it because China is using billions of more barrels of oil per year because of their economic expansion? Lower supply plus higher demand = higher prices. The current administration has nothing to do with that.

[Pathwalker]

11. Tell it to the 3,500 GM workers in Lansing, Michigan.

GM just shut down the oldest, largest plant here. Michigan's unemployment rate is higher than the phuzzy math offered by this administration, and people here are scared and angry.

[Jacobin]

13. I have a suggestion, with respect

Please read the "Patriot Act" and explain to me how the bill of rights is in tact, particularly the right to Habeas Corpus.

Please check back in when you have done your homework.

That is all

[Chairman Mao]

15. So do I....

I already explained how the Bill of Rights is intact in my previous post.

As for the writ of habeas corpus, you still have the right to a speedy trial and can't be imprisoned for more than 48 hours without a hearing. BTW the writ of habeas corpus only applies to citizens, not enemy combatants that our forces picked up in Khandahar.

FDR's administration had to deal with that question when they picked up Nazis that had tried to enter the country back during war with the intent of blowing up things and causing general mayhem.

[Lars39]

16. Some info for you:

Overview of Changes to Legal Rights
By The Associated Press

September 5, 2002

Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks:

* FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION:
Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.

* FREEDOM OF INFORMATION:
Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.

* FREEDOM OF SPEECH:
Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.

* RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION:
Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.

* FREEDOM FROM UNREASONABLE SEARCHES:
Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.

* RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL:
Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.

* RIGHT TO LIBERTY:
Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.

[Bouncy Ball]

18. ...

"...you still have the right to a speedy trial and can't be imprisoned for more than 48 hours without a hearing. BTW the writ of habeas corpus only applies to citizens, not enemy combatants that our forces picked up in Khandahar."

Go tell that to Jose Padilla, a US CITIZEN STILL being held in custody who has not even had charges brought against him.

Get in touch with a bit of reality, Mao. The day they can do that to any of us is the day they can do that....to ANY of us....GET IT???

Put down the Kool-Aid. It's already happened, bud.

[ellenfl]

19. tell that to jose padillo . . . among others.

As for the writ of habeas corpus, you still have the right to a speedy trial and can't be imprisoned for more than 48 hours without a hearing. BTW the writ of habeas corpus only applies to citizens, not enemy combatants that our forces picked up in Khandahar.

ellen fl

[gizmo1979]

25. There are plenty of americans

who are sitting in jail no charges have been filed against them.You are on some serious drugs if you think they are not.They havedeclared war on the middle class,class action lawsuits now have to be filed in federal court,the bankruptcy bill that just passed took away the last resort for many middle class americans who either through job loss or medical catastrophe are at the end of their ropes.I gurantee health insurance is the next big thing after SSI.The one thing all this has in common is it was done for the Rich at the expense of the poor,and that my friend is class war!To think otherwise is to have your head stuck so far up a repugs ass that you can't see the forest.

[Bouncy Ball]

17. Ah so you think they'd do it REALLY QUICKLY

so as to raise the alarm bells in everyone's head and make everyone freak out, right?

Oh, Chairman Mao (?!?!?!) what a silly concept. Completely not grounded in reality.

You want to take away rights, you do it s-l-o-w-l-y!

If there's one thing nowday's fascists learned from Hitler, it's that. Don't do it quickly, so it over the course of time. Be patient, grasshopper, and you can steal those rights away veeeewy slowly and right under the silly sheeps' noses!

Btw, your load of crap about the economy being so great is a load of crap.

[gizmo1979]

24. you're an idiot

[area51]

27. So obvious.

You come in here w/a name (Mao) that you "think" will fit in, b/c morons like you think we're all communists. Sucker. I found a picture of you.

[Sapphire Blue]

31. A blind man knows he cannot see,

and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide.

- Samuel Butler

[European Socialist]

20. WE have been thrown away...

like a middle aged housewife by a rich exec.-nothing personal-just found something better. Too bad we can't get a divorce settlement!

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jamison]

23. Actually it's war against the lower 97%

of the population. If you're not in the elite top 3% of the economic scale, then you're not safe.

[markus]

26. Welcome to the Class War

a "bloodless" civil war launched some would say in 1994 by Gingrich but which really dates back to Reagan and the movement to eliminate unions and federal regulations of business.

Until the Democratic Party wakes up and realizes that we are in a class and civil war, we will always be marginalized by our opponent, which knows exactly what it is about.

No War But The Class War.

[bvar22]

28. Bill Moyers says it best!!

What happened is the rich declared class war and spent what it took to win.

Not exactly a new story, of course, but the extraordinary new concentration of wealth and power created a juggernaut that makes it harder and harder for democracy to work for all.

The rich buy the laws and loopholes they want from Congress, and from the White House, they buy executive protection of their privileges.

So government winds up promoting the extremes instead of moderating them.

Look at the bill the House of Representatives recently passed to reform accounting and financial disclosure in the wake of Enron.

Despite everything we learned about the gang from Houston, the bill does not close the revolving door between accountants and their clients, nor will it prohibit accounting firms from making millions by selling consulting services to the same companies they audit.

Critics now call it the "Ken Lay Protection Act." And what happened the other day when the Senate voted on regulating energy derivatives, those mischievous devices Enron used to manipulate prices and gouge customers?

Why, Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, that old and faithful friend of Enron, managed to scuttle it.

Then there's the new farm bill that will give more than $50 billion in new subsidies to the richest and largest farms in America.

And the new energy bill that takes your tax dollars and transfers them to the richest energy companies in the country.

Remember our recent story about how Enron used stock options to avoid paying taxes in four out of the last five years?

Well, even as we talk, the White House and business lobbies, with Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman as their point man, are working to block reform of stock options.

Yes, the rich declared class war and won.

All that's left is for politics to divide up the spoils.

http://www.pbs.org/now/commentary/moyers7.html

[jbnow]

29. To be fair

It isn't just the middle class being hurt. That is leaving out the lower classes that are also under attack, though they have even less of a voice.
Some of these policies damage all living beings. Reversing or relaxing all environmental policies hurts us all, but corporations benefit. Making the world our enemy endangers us all and so on. It is true only the rich and corporations benefit from anything this administration does but we are all screwed.

There is so much being done to take from those who have the least, guess they figure the poor aren't a big voting block. It's just they are getting bolder about hurting the middle class too...the bankruptcy bill and all the rejected amendments that benefits the financial institutions only...and screws over not just spendthrifts, but those devastated by illness, job loss, identity theft, national guard deployment, loss of insurance and so on seems like a flashing neon sign showing what they do. Their policies and lack of protections are what throw people in the holes and then they smash them while they are down.

It has become so blatant it is shocking. You have to love comments about our strengthening economy, do they know the difference between corporate wealth and personal wealth? It's corporations doing well. Low unemployment ignores those off the rolls and not counted, ignores the lower quality jobs and decreased earnings and benefits. There is nothing good happening for anyone but the wealthiest...and they don't even really try to hide it.

[Sapphire Blue]

30. Hailing victory is more like it

"Sieg...Heil! Sieg...Heil! Sieg...Heil!"


The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness.

- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf


Wake Up and Smell the Fascism (14 characteristics common to fascist regimes)

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm