The Irony Of The Astroturfed Teabeaggers Being The Agents For The Ultimate Disembowelment Of The Constitution

The last thing in the world most of the Founding Fathers wanted-- and certainly most of the non-Southern Founders-- was the establishment on our shores of an hereditary aristocracy. But with our long-cherished meritocracy failing dismally-- you should treat yourself to Chris Hayes' book, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy-- the plutocrats see an opening for themselves, And they have a political party more than willing to carry their treacherous banner... or, more accurately, a party and a half.

Perhaps you heard one of the overfed slobs-- not sure if it was Christie, Ted Cruz, Huckabee or Ayn-- whining about the horrors of guaranteed income equality. Probably few of the overfed delegates in the convention hall ever saw the chart on the right or are even vaguely aware of it's facts... or implications. Of the 30 most advanced countries in the world, only one-- Mexico-- has greater social and economic inequality than the United States. I'm sure Romney and Ryan will get to work immediately beating Mexico out.

I'm on some progressive committees that include political operatives from national labor unions. They always tend to be the most conservative people in the room... and the least knowledgeable. Sad-- and eye-opening. But there has been one consistent exception. The Steelworkers Union are militantly progressive and the sharpest folks in any coalition. Unlike the other unions, who speak from positions of fear, disunity and astonishing ignorance, the Steelworkers are steeped in facts and analysis... and fearlessness. I love that union and I would fight any battles they were behind any time. Yesterday, their president, Leo Gerard, addressed the implications of engineered social and economic inequality for our country and our increasingly fragile democracy.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees separation of church and state. What this nation needs now is separation of wealth and state.

Without such a protection, Americans stand to lose their democracy. They'll be ruled instead by an aristocracy of 1 percenters.

That's the 1 percenters' plan. To them, it was no more than a perk when the U.S. Supreme Court enabled politicians to open their wallets for unlimited, anonymous campaign contributions. That's because way before the 2010 Citizens United ruling, 1 percenters were working on a takeover. If the 99 percent don't stop them soon, don't establish some sort of separation of wealth and state, then the nation will lose its founding precepts-- that all men are created equal and that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Aristocracies can ignore the governed.

Already the 1 percenters have been extraordinarily successful. The rich really do enjoy advantages. They've succeeded in stuffing Congress with their peers. In America, fewer than 1 percent of all people are millionaires. In Congress, 47 percent are. The median net worth of a U.S. senator in 2010 was $2.56 million.

Those guys haven't experienced what it's like to try to pay a mortgage, fix the car and keep food on the table for the average household with a median income of less than $52,000. They're completely out of touch with the 50 million Americans who don't have health insurance.

In addition, the 1 percenters implemented a system to influence even those lawmakers who are not millionaires. It's called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Corporations and the rich, like the billionaire Koch brothers, give ALEC money, which it uses to write "model" legislation, like voter suppression laws. ALEC's lawmaker members, mostly conservative Republicans, pay dues of $50 a year. ALEC entices them to attend swanky conferences with freebies, like ALEC-paid hotel rooms, ALEC-paid plane rides and God knows what else ALEC-paid. Of course, those aren't bribes. But the free vacations may incline lawmaker members to introduce ALEC-written legislation.

ALEC is sly. It doesn't come right out and say its "model" voter identification laws are intended to suppress balloting by Democrats. ALEC contends they're designed to prevent voter fraud. Within the past two years, 10 states passed these laws.

...A handful of one-tenth-of-one-percenters, including billionaires Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers, and hedge funders Kenneth Griffin, Cliff Asness and Paul Singer, will spend $500 million to install their chosen candidates in the White House. Adelson by himself is expected to give $100 million to elect Romney and Paul Ryan, one tenth of the billion the Republicans are expected to spend. That kind of money will buy Adelson a little more than a couple of overnights in the Lincoln Bedroom.

...They're willing to buy influence, but not pay taxes to support their country. The Ryan Roadmap budget would reduce millionaire Romney's tax rate from about 14 percent to less than 1 percent. And, for the 99 percent, Ryan would destroy Medicare as we know it.

In the early days of this republic, John Adams worried about the country creeping toward aristocracy. As he prepared to take the office of vice president, some leaders, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, argued that government officials should serve without pay. Here's what biographer David McCullough wrote about the incident in his biography of Adams:

"Were a law to be made 'that no man should hold an office who had not a private income sufficient for the subsistence and prospects of himself and family,' Adams had written earlier while in London, then the consequence would be that 'all offices would be monopolized by the rich; the poor and the middling ranks would be excluded and an aristocratic despotism would immediately follow.'"

Here's the difference between George Washington and John Adams. The general was a wealthy Virginia planter whose riches were made in part on the backs of slaves. Adams was a middle-class Massachusetts farmer who opposed slavery and never owned a human being.

Congress agreed with Adams. Aristocracy was forestalled. Today's middle-class farmers, mechanics and nurses now inherit that responsibility to separate wealth and state.