“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” -Warren Buffett to The New York Times, November 26, 2006
The Left constantly accuses the Right of favoring the economic elite at the expense of the rest of the country. It continually flummoxes those of us on the left why anyone who is not rich would support the Right’s attack on the middle and working classes. Yet they continue to do so in large enough numbers to keep the Greedy Ol’ Plutocrats (GOP) viable as a political force. It boggles the mind.
It’s not like the GOP makes a secret of its goals. When the “Masters of the Universe” otherwise known as the financial sector crashed the world economy the Right managed to convince their supporters that it was all the fault of minorities and the poor. While this analysis of the GOP report on the financial crisis doesn’t call out those evil black people in clear language it isn’t difficult to understand who they mean by “high-risk borrowers” who took out “weak mortgages.”
“While the housing bubble, the financial crisis, and the recession are surely interrelated events, we do not believe that the housing bubble was a sufficient condition for the financial crisis,” the document states. “The unprecedented number of subprime and other weak mortgages in this bubble set it and its effect apart from others in the past.” […]Citing several government agencies, the document argues that “the government subsidized and, in some cases, mandated the extension of credit to high-risk borrowers, propagating risks for financial firms, the mortgage market, taxpayers, and ultimately the financial system.”
Of course, this interpretation of events has been completely debunked, but that doesn’t keep the GOP from pushing the claim in an effort to derail reform efforts.
Pushing the blame on the poor or minorities has been a part of Republican strategy since Ronald Reagan was President. Reagan told the story of a “welfare queen” who had used 80 identities to bilk the government out of $150,000. In reality, the Chicago woman he referred to had used two names to fraudulently collect $8,000. Reagan continued to tell the story even after the truth was revealed. Reagan, in an effort to counter reports showing the effectiveness of the food stamp program, also told of standing in line at a grocery store in California and seeing a “strapping young buck” buying t-bones with food stamps.
Whenever someone speaks up for the poor or working class the defenders of the plutocrats accuse them of trying to start a class war. Yet the same people who defend the plutocrats are constantly trying to blame the poor and working class for the woes of the middle class. This is a deliberate tactic to keep the middle class from realizing who is really grinding them down.
Once again, the right has resorted to class warfare, except this time they may have overreached. Instead of blaming the poor or working class they have tried to demonize members of the middle class.
Rush Limbaugh had this to say on his radio show, “Have you seen what’s going on? I mean this is Greece! It’s Greece. All of these people who live off the largesse of taxpayers are just marching in the streets, calling in sick. ” Rush went on to say, “This is the breaking point. And just like in Greece, you tell the freeloaders the free ride is over and they just raise hell, they just can’t handle it. “What do you mean freeloaders and a free ride?” Look, when somebody else is paying for most of what you get in life, you’re a freeloader. There’s no other way to describe it.”
Of course, members of public sector unions can take heart from these words written by the inimitable Molly Ivins, “I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn’t actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle. ”
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY): “It’s not asking a lot. It’s still about half of what private sector pensions do and health care packages do, so he’s basically saying, “I want you public workers to pay half of what our private sector counterparts are,” and he’s getting riots. It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison these days.”
The fact that Rand Paul confuses peaceful political protests with riots should surprise no one. This is the same man that thinks we should do away with the EPA and the minimum wage and also thinks the Civil Rights Act is a bad idea.
Jonah Goldberg in his column titled Public Unions Must Go wrote, “The unions and the protesters in Wisconsin see Walker’s reforms as a potential death knell for government unions. My response? If only. ”
This opinion from Goldberg shouldn’t be a surprise. Goldberg believes the only purpose of the United States government is the defense of Israel.
Sarah Palin said, “These union bosses that are acting like thugs as they are leading some of their good union members down a road that will ultimately result in, unfortunately, somebody getting hurt, if you believe the death threats that are being received by those that just happen to support amending some collective bargaining privileges of state unions,” Palin told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “Well it is these union bosses responsibility to turn down the rhetoric and get truth out there so nobody gets hurt.”
Well, well, dear Sarah believes calling for peaceful protests will lead to violence. That’s quite a turnaround for Snowflake Snooki.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie explained that unions were responsible for layoffs, rising property taxes and the state’s underfunded pension system. “We’re not trying to break the unions,” he said. “The unions are trying to break the middle class in New Jersey.”
It’s all clear to me now. Continue reading to find out more about the freeloading, riotous thugs that are the enemies of the middle class. As Rush said, these are freeloaders that are getting a free ride. They are bloodsuckers draining the life from the middle class.
Let’s meet these bloodsuckers.
Health care workers (HCWs) suffer between 600,000 and one million injuries from conventional needles and sharps annually. These exposures can lead to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS.
At least 1,000 HCWs are estimated to contract serious infections annually from needlestick and sharps injuries.
Registered nurses working at the bedside sustain an overwhelming majority of these exposures.Needlestick injuries are preventable. Over 80% of needlestick injuries could be prevented with the use of safer needle devices.
Less than 15% of U.S. hospitals use safer needle devices and systems.
The shooting death of a Texas police officer late Tuesday adds to a grim toll: A law enforcement officer was killed every 53 hours in the United States this year, according to a new report.
Line-of-duty deaths jumped by 37% in 2010, according to the report by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
These incidents are part of an overall trend of increased violence against police officers and law enforcement professionals this year. According to preliminary data compiled by the memorial fund, a total of 160 federal, state and local law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past 12 months, an alarming increase that follows two years of declining deaths among the nation’s policing professionals.
. . .
Since the first known line-of-duty death in 1792, nearly 19,000 U.S. law enforcement officers have made the u
ltimate sacrifice.
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-1…
Each year in the United States and its protectorates, approximately 100 firefighters are killed while on duty and tens of thousands are injured. Although the number of firefighter fatalities has steadily decreased over the past 20 years, the incidence of firefighter fatalities per 100,000 incidents has actually risen. Despite a downward dip in the early 1990’s, the level of firefighter fatalities is back up to the same levels experienced in the 1980’s
http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/firese…
During the 1995 to 2002 period, 844 workers were killed while working at a road construction site. During this same period there were 9325 deaths in the construction industry. The 844 worker deaths in road construction represent 9% of all deaths in construction. More than half of these fatalities were attributable to a worker being struck by a vehicle or mobile equipment. Workplace fatalities that occur at a road construction site typically account for 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent of all workplace fatalities annually.
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topic…
So the people that are destroying our country are nurses, police officers, teachers, roadworkers, and anyone else who has the nerve to belong to a public-sector union. This must be a real eyeopener to many people, because these are some of the most respected people in our society. Who knew they were secretly working to undermine this great country.
Of course, the right doesn’t demonize everyone. The poor, working class, middle class, gays, immigrants, anyone that isn’t lily white (unless they are super rich, of course) and pretty much everyone may be a leech in the eyes of the supporters of the plutocracy. But these people they love. God forbid they might have to pay 3% more on their income tax or even pay as much as their secretaries do.
Chief executives at the nation’s largest corporations received $9.25 million in average total compensation in 2009, according to the AFL-CIO’s analysis of available pay data from 292 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Although average total compensation for these CEOs declined 9 percent from the previous year, executive retirement benefits increased 23 percent.Bank of America Corp.
Thomas Montag
2009 Total Compensation: $29,930,431Citigroup Inc.
John Havens
2009 Total Compensation: $11,276,454The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Lloyd Blankfein
2009 Total Compensation: $9,862,657JPMorgan Chase & Co.
James Dimon
2009 Total Compensation: $9,274,494Morgan Stanley
Walid Chammah
2009 Total Compensation: $10,021,969Wells Fargo
John Stumpf
2009 Total Compensation: $21,340,547
So there you have it. CEOs that layoff workers and send jobs to other countries – heroes in the eyes of the GOP. Police officers that lay their lives on the line every day for a pittance compared to the risk and misery of the job – “bloodsuckers.” Nurses that save lives and comfort us when we are dying – “greedy leeches.” Firefighters that never know whether they will face one of the most horrific deaths imaginable when they leave for work – “thugs” and enemies of the middle class. Teachers that nurture future generations are “freeloaders.”
These people will not stop with the public sector unions. Once those are neutralized they will go after the private sector unions. Once the unions are no more they will go after the minimum wage. They will not be satisfied until they have ground the American people down until they are willing to accept the same wages workers are paid in China. They do not care about America. They do not care about their fellow citizens. They are gluttons who are never satisfied. All they know is more, more, more. . .
Stephen Crane met them.
Stephen CraneIn the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter — bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
You know who else qualifies as a bunch of freeloading thugs according to the right – those brave nuclear power workers in Japan risking their lives and their health to protect their fellow citizens. That’s right, those workers are union members. Freeloading thugs in the eyes of the corporatocracy. It will be a cold day in hell before you see a CEO risking his life and health on the front lines.
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