I didn't declare classwar, it was declared on me...

Now I usually don't think I ought to indulge in political vitriol, because I think there's too much of it...and there's too many people who take it literally. We need to stop treating each other like enemies and start remembering we're all Americans, and at the end of the day we all  share this country, even though we disagree.

But sometimes, when I'm feeling angry, it's nice to have someone do the ranting for me.

 Enter The Rude Pundit:   http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

But this little gem, quoted for wisdom, isn't rude at all-it's the Goddess' own truth:

.... the mania behind the budget slashing is propelled by the insidious opposite argument: that government itself is unpatriotic and that to fund its actions is akin to funding the enemy. It redefines patriotism as not being about country but about individual.

Yes. YES.  That's precisely what the bill of goods the conservative working-class has been sold, and it's patently ridiculous.  You're not building up the country if you're only out for yourself. In fact, that seems to be the problem-the power elite(and really, everybody else) have decided they want all the wealth and power themselves, rather than looking out for the greater welfare. 

This attitude and related behaviors are leading people to devour the health and wealth of our country from within like a batch of flesh-eating parasites, and we're letting it happen.

Because they have a critical mass of us hoodwinked.

And another bit, told in pure Rude Pundit style:

It buys into a conservative lie that if you cut taxes a little for businesses, it'll bring in some jobs. But if you cut taxes a lot? Well, fuck, that has to bring in a shitload of jobs. Yeah, ask Ohio how that worked out. It's like saying that if a little heroin gets you high, then a whole bunch of heroin will get you really, really fucked up. Your theory fails when you're dead in a pool of your own vomit

I just have to say the following:

Look, we've been cutting taxes and cutting taxes all my life.  I was 8 when Reagan was elected.   I have seen nothing but a long, slow slide downhill for most of the people I know.   Our wages stagnate while the cost of everything else goes up yearly.

Schools-suck.  Healthcare-sucks, not the care itself necessarily but getting access-I already know of one person lack of healthcare access killed-my Mom's friend of 15 years. Our infrastructure's on a downhill slide.  Those things that make us rich as a nation are being neglected.

And we are still being told: we must cut taxes.

When are y'all going to wake up and realize: tax cuts for the rich DON'T result in prosperity! They result in all the wealth and power concentrating at the very top!   If you aren't in the top 5%, why do you KEEP BELIEVING THIS CRAP!!!

Maybe the birthrate of suckers has gone up since PT Barnum's day.

I think an interrelated problem is national: the fallacious faith in free trade

I buy the argument-established dogma to economists-that trade protection equals a price hike...but only to a degree.  Because the main influence on pricing is what the market will bear.

 What I propose is that we stop being international patsies with this free trade=automatic wealth nonsense and start strategizing for our own interests, like every other country does.

http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/uncle-sam-global-trade-sucker

(And I think I shall order this guy's book, because he agrees with my position...and I want him to tell me why I'm right, so I can tell other people why I'm right without sounding like a moron.)

Basically, we need to start practicing protectionism like Japan and China.

BUT, and this is a big but, that free-trade lie, while making the rest of us worse off, has made a few people very, very well off indeed.  Those people have a staked interest in free trade not only staying, but spreading to more countries.

Never mind that our supposed "free trade" with a lot of countries seems to not be so free.  China consistently manipulates the yuan so as to make its' products artificially cheap on the world market.  Everyone knows this, but do you think any politician would suggest altering our agreement-by, say, imposing a tariff on finished products from China?

No.  And this is because the wealthy have accumulated the power along with the money-they can now pretty much control the government.  In effect, our entire government has become at least a partly captured agency catering to the wealthy.

We have our collective apathy, gullibility, and ignorance to thank for this, though. We are the Democrats, the Republicans, the people who either do or do not show up to vote.

 But I refuse to say we get the government we deserve, because I'm not nasty enough to think anyone deserves to have their democracy sold out from under them by deception.