Tax the Top or Close-up Shop - Class Warfare in the U.S.

You know how every time some liberal starts talking about income equity or progressive taxation rich right-wingers go off about them fomenting "class warfare"? Class warfare?? As in medieval working conditions? As in unsafe coal mines? As in wage theft? Do you mean class warfare as in the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? As in unfair taxation of the middle and lower class? The REAL class warfare has been waged by the very wealthy against the rest of the population here in the U.S. since forever. Surely you've heard of the Robber Barons? However, right now the Robber Barons of today have launched a new offensive and we all are in their cross hairs.

Of course, warfare, whether engaged in by the state or a class of people, must have its foot soldiers, its commanders, and its propagandists. The War Against the Lower Classes in the U.S. has all of that. Witness the web being spun by the likes of Faux News. Joseph Goebbels would be envious. The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda could only dream of such a platform for spreading outright lies and disinformation. We have our present day Goebbels as well: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck* and a cadre of lesser voices from the far-right. They are the ones necessary to inspire the foot soldiers of lesser means into fighting against their own interests; to fight for the wealthy and the corporations. It's instructive that so-called Tea Party activists who fancy themselves as libertarians or populists seldom have anything critical to say about the ruling elite. This is the false consciousness of the teabaggers. With a few notable exceptions, these activists have allowed themselves to be used by people who would not give them the time of day if they happened upon them in the street. Such encounters aren't likely however, since the commanders of the real class war in the U.S. travel only by limo or private aircraft surrounded by bodyguards. Such heavy security reminds us, and most likely the super-rich themselves, just how hated and reviled they are. And it's for good reason: the sociopaths in the ruling elite truly believe they are the chosen ones; that the lower classes are less than human, stupid and powerless. They expect to be hated for their perceived superiority.

The commanders in this war, many of whom are only known from the pages of Fortune Magazine, often have a low profile. But some, like the Koch brothers, have earned recent notoriety. Others, like Dick Cheney and those from Big Oil, in George W. Bush's words: "the haves and the have mores", can be found listed in the Forbes 400. They have names, but few addresses. But they may have YOUR address! Since you are their enemy they need to know how to get to you institutionally or otherwise. Think about it.

This class war being waged from the top upon middle and lower income groups here in the States has been pretty much one-sided for the past thirty years or so. The ruling elite and their enablers have opened up new fronts during that time; they have decimated the Labor movement; they have taken over the media; they have gutted public education. Soon they will relaunch an assault upon Social Security after they extend tax breaks to people who have more money than God. My question to you is: when will the vast majority of the people in the U.S. go on the defensive as they did in the 1930s? When will the denial and escapism give way to the realization that we are returning to a feudal state; returning to the age of the Robber Barons? When will the pathetic retreat end? When will we take a stand? How about right now. How about absolutely no extended tax breaks to the top 1 percent? How about Tax the Top or Close-up Shop? Perhaps a General Strike is possible in the U.S.? Certainly some degree of rebellion is possible. What are your other choices?


- Don Ogden



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* Jon Stewart may want you to take it down a bit, but Glenn Beck would probably rather take you out.