This Isn't Class War... Not Even Close

Among the greatest moments of European history were the judicial executions of tyrants Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1649, of Louis XVI of France in 1793 and of Nicholas II of Russia in 1918. Now that was class warfare-- not a pitiful rise in marginal tax rates that a significant percentage of the ruling elite is happy to "impose" on itself. As William Rivers Pitt put it in TruthOut on Saturday, Class War My Ass! He points out that the term "class war" has "been a favorite broadside of the right-bent rich-people-first set going on forty years now, and in times past has always reaped them rich rhetorical benefits."

We're a classless society here in America, don'tcha know, so accusations of "class warfare" have all too often sent lily-livered liberal-leaning politicians scuttling for the exits, for the apology, for the eventual retreat. 

Oh no, it isn't class warfare, this is only fair... which earned, invariably, a reply of "CLASS WARFARE SOCIALISM WHAAARGARBLE"... which, in turn, earned another hasty retreat instead of a proper and just reply.

Which is, should have always been, and should now be: kiss my ass, you leech, you bloodsucker, you greedy whore, you war profiteering glutton, you disgrace, you betrayer of America.

Oh, I know the argument. I know it as well as the spit I leave on the sidewalk when there is a bad taste in my mouth. The rich are better than us, they are the ones making the jobs, they have earned their esteemed position through a Randian process of natural economic selection, etc...except for the sneaky fact that a large number of these "business titans" inherited their wealth, and today increase their wealth not through hard work, but through favorable interest rates and even more favorable tax rates on money that is already in the bank.

The top-earning businesses in America today, across the board, are wallowing in record profits, and yet somehow hiring is stagnated. Why is that?

Could it be that these titans are holding off on hiring in order to affect the number of jobless Americans, so as to influence public opinion as we head into an election season? God almighty, to have such astonishing reach... to be able to keep millions out of work in order to put one black guy out of a job... now that's real power.

Class warfare, indeed.

Poverty has increased locally and nationally across the board, joblessness is reaching Great Depression-era levels, and millions have lost houses to those whose own homes resemble castles, to those who are secure in both funding and foundation. Money does not disappear. It has to go somewhere; what is lost is always found. Most all of us have spent the last several years losing money hand over fist, while Forbes tells us that the richest among us have increased their wealth by vast amounts in one year.

Try to contain your shock.

There is work available for the doing, on infrastructure and new technology fields and any number of other areas, but the GOP majority in the House of Representatives won't have any of it, because their marching orders are to screw the American economy in as many orifices as are available to try and unseat the sitting president. Period, end of file, and if you still think that isn't their intention, I have a big red bridge over San Francisco Bay to sell you.

Class warfare? These cretins have the unmitigated gall to accuse other people of class warfare?

It is a wonder of American politics, this absolute and astonishing lack of shame on the part of the modern GOP. They have spent the last thirty years stifling a minimum-wage increase, they blocked legislation to help 9/11 responders pay for very present health concerns, and spent the latter part of this last week trying to screw disaster relief funding for people who lose homes to tornadoes, floods, wildfires and earthquakes. They hate Social Security and Medicare down to their gold-plated bones. Now they are deliberately and intentionally stifling the very economy they themselves tore up, for no other reason than to win the next election.

How are they doing it? Money and power, power and money, and be damned to those who suffer for their desires.

Psssst... it is class warfare: full-throated, no-bullshit class warfare, and the rich ones whining about it are the ones who are winning. Be on your own side for a change of pace.  They got the guns, as a man once said, but we got the numbers.

It is class warfare, and has been for a generation. We've been losing, badly.

For now.

New York based philosopher and poet Phil Rockstroh can usually be found at his very worthwhile blog Ebullient Skepticism but Friday he wrote the essay Running From Right-Wing Clowns for Consortium News. He began with a question: "Why is it that self-termed progressives are in full retreat (and have been for decades) from the witless army of angry clowns and hack illusionists of the U.S. right-wing?" His answer makes for some painful reading.

One contributing factor involves the sterile cultivation of the persona of the “reasonable liberal,” a type favored and rewarded by the status quo-protective power brokers of the Democratic Party and by corporate media organizations that find useful his trait of rendering himself feckless (e.g., the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) by the passion-annihilating (but self-serving) device of his preening amiability?

But in so doing, the self-gelded liberal has sacrificed libido and discarded sacred vehemence for careerist privilege. Worse, the rest of us are advised to follow suit... that, in order to gain credibility, one must slouch towards center-hugging irrelevance.

We are counseled that in order to navigate this age of corporate dominance that one’s irascible apprehensions and unruly aspirations must be suppressed, for such passions are deemed too radical for mainstream sensibilities, and are therefore regarded as impractical as they are untoward by the crackpot realists of the corporate bottom line whose dictates dominate the political discourse and economic arrangements of our time.

...[O]ne must not shy away from confrontation. During the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War era, before the Left was manipulated into fearing the libido borne of sacred vehemence, stupid opinions were not coddled; they were challenged.

Feelings were hurt. Egos were bruised. But an illegal war was shortened and a number of (long-overdue) rights were granted.

I hope you looked over the q&a session we had Saturday at Crooks and Liars with Blue America candidate, New Deal Democrat and proud Michigan working class fighter John Waltz. If you want a fighter in Congress, instead of a Republican fascist or a soggy Democratic noodle... you can find Waltz's contribution page here. Another one of the Blue America-endorsed candidates on that page, Chris Donovan (D-CT) sent votes in the 5th district an e-mail over the weekend reminding them that "They only call it 'class warfare' when we fight back." He's the Speaker of the Connecticut House and he always fights back-- and, more often than not, wins. "Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the three most successful programs in America, are under attack," he began. "Republicans have made it clear that they will end these programs as we know them if given the chance. Republicans in the House have already pleased their corporate special interests and passed a budget that would end Medicare and pass the burden of paying for health care on to our seniors.

We can't let the House Republicans put corporate profits ahead of the best interests of Connecticut's families. And the only way to stop them is to take back the House." 

We should be expanding these programs, not destroying them. When I go to Congress, I will fight every day to ensure that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are protected and fully funded. And I will fight to make sure that every family has the access to quality, affordable health care, and to retirement security, that they deserve.

He has a record that backs those words up. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd transcribe the last two pages of Rick Perlstein's brilliant and epic history of a disturbing chapter in our nation's history, Nixonland. Instead, here's the last 2 paragraphs:

Do Americans not hate each other enough to fantasize about killing one another, in cold blood, over political and cultural disagreements? It would be hard to argue they do not,

How did Nixonland end? It has not ended yet.