Reliving the Hoover Presidency: Hey, Senator, can you spare a dime?
Guy T. Sturino
February 08, 2006
Like most Americans, I get a lot of requests for donations to political campaigns. Every day someone is telling me what’s wrong, and how they need my money to fix the problem. Each letter or email addresses one or two issues that happen to be in the limelight at the moment. Not one of them addresses the underlying problem. Today the buzz word is asbestos legislation or the Fair bill, which seems about as fair as the games at the local carnival.
I detest frivolous lawsuits, and the get-rich-quick litigants who expect far more than they deserve for compensation of sometimes nearly imperceptible harm. Even more, I detest the huge unwarranted and monopolistically imposed 30-40% attorneys’ fees. However, over the past several years, under the guise of correcting this problem, our government has been instrumental in moving money from the poor to the rich, and destroying the right of the people to petition for redress.
Today the Senate is discussing another bill, the third in a series of legislative initiatives, which accomplish this goal. First it was the arms manufacturers, then it was the pharmaceutical industry, and now it’s the asbestos industry. Systematically, the right of the individual to challenge corporations in court is being written out of our laws. But, these things only hint at the problem.
Couple these efforts with the effort of the President to amass power in the Administrative Branch, and his dismissal of the Bill of Rights, our democracy is being marginalized by the very people we expect to protect it.
It is absolutely mind boggling that so many of our Senators and Congresspersons are willing to support measures which dismiss the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. There can be only one reason for their actions. The United States is fully engaged in a civil war between the haves and the have-nots. Only one side knows the war is raging. It is painfully evident that very many of those we elected to fight for the people have become mercenaries of the have-mores.
Consider this:
Efforts to pass legislation to protect the electoral process from abuse can’t get to the floor of either house. The only possible reason for this is that such legislation would guarantee the proper function of the democratic process. Enough evidence exists to seriously question, if not prove outright, that major elections have been stolen in recent years.
Entitlement programs, which were initiated to ensure that even the poorest in our nation would share in the wealth derived from our tremendous resources, have been decimated. At the same time, the richest are given tax breaks they don’t need. Is it so that the rich can hoard money they can’t possibly live long enough to spend in even the most reckless fashion? No. The purpose can only be to bankrupt and minimize a government which gets in the way of corporate interests.
Further, secrecy has become the byword of the majority in congress. It appears evident that the only purpose can be to ensure that any information which might truly enlighten the people of the United States is kept from them.
The painful truth is that only a democracy of the people and by the people will ensure that our government is, and remains, for the people. A fully functioning democratic republic, with elected representative who truly worked for the people, would not stand for the kind of legislation passed in recent years.
There are a number of champions of the people in Congress. They work hard to support average Americans on each piece of legislation. However, not one of them has addressed the undeniable cumulative effect of the legislation in total. At least not in a public forum. The true danger to average Americans can be seen by anyone who will take the time to look carefully at Congress in action. Our representative government, and the right of all individuals to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is under siege from within. The war is fully engaged. Only one side is aware, even though casualties on the other side mount as health care becomes more expensive and less available.
We can all see by their voting records which side of the war each member of Congress is on. What we can’t see, is whether or not they are aware of the cumulative effect of their votes. Are they truly complicit in this civil war, or are they simply marching with their party, oblivious to what is happening?
To those members of Congress who regularly ask me for donations to their campaigns I ask, when are you going to begin to talk about the elephant in the room? It’s a class war. You have the evidence. You can display the casualties. You can describe the battles and the tactics. From time to time it gets mentioned almost in passing on the floor of the Senate. But, that’s not enough. It’s time to do what only members of Congress can – pull the pieces together and talk. Talk about issues in the context of the real, tangible, class war that is being waged against working class Americans by our own elected representatives.
By the way, President Bush just slipped a Social Security Privatization Plan into his new budget. In terms of the class war, would you call that a tactical assault, or a strategic maneuver?
I detest frivolous lawsuits, and the get-rich-quick litigants who expect far more than they deserve for compensation of sometimes nearly imperceptible harm. Even more, I detest the huge unwarranted and monopolistically imposed 30-40% attorneys’ fees. However, over the past several years, under the guise of correcting this problem, our government has been instrumental in moving money from the poor to the rich, and destroying the right of the people to petition for redress.
Today the Senate is discussing another bill, the third in a series of legislative initiatives, which accomplish this goal. First it was the arms manufacturers, then it was the pharmaceutical industry, and now it’s the asbestos industry. Systematically, the right of the individual to challenge corporations in court is being written out of our laws. But, these things only hint at the problem.
Couple these efforts with the effort of the President to amass power in the Administrative Branch, and his dismissal of the Bill of Rights, our democracy is being marginalized by the very people we expect to protect it.
It is absolutely mind boggling that so many of our Senators and Congresspersons are willing to support measures which dismiss the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. There can be only one reason for their actions. The United States is fully engaged in a civil war between the haves and the have-nots. Only one side knows the war is raging. It is painfully evident that very many of those we elected to fight for the people have become mercenaries of the have-mores.
Consider this:
Efforts to pass legislation to protect the electoral process from abuse can’t get to the floor of either house. The only possible reason for this is that such legislation would guarantee the proper function of the democratic process. Enough evidence exists to seriously question, if not prove outright, that major elections have been stolen in recent years.
Entitlement programs, which were initiated to ensure that even the poorest in our nation would share in the wealth derived from our tremendous resources, have been decimated. At the same time, the richest are given tax breaks they don’t need. Is it so that the rich can hoard money they can’t possibly live long enough to spend in even the most reckless fashion? No. The purpose can only be to bankrupt and minimize a government which gets in the way of corporate interests.
Further, secrecy has become the byword of the majority in congress. It appears evident that the only purpose can be to ensure that any information which might truly enlighten the people of the United States is kept from them.
The painful truth is that only a democracy of the people and by the people will ensure that our government is, and remains, for the people. A fully functioning democratic republic, with elected representative who truly worked for the people, would not stand for the kind of legislation passed in recent years.
There are a number of champions of the people in Congress. They work hard to support average Americans on each piece of legislation. However, not one of them has addressed the undeniable cumulative effect of the legislation in total. At least not in a public forum. The true danger to average Americans can be seen by anyone who will take the time to look carefully at Congress in action. Our representative government, and the right of all individuals to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is under siege from within. The war is fully engaged. Only one side is aware, even though casualties on the other side mount as health care becomes more expensive and less available.
We can all see by their voting records which side of the war each member of Congress is on. What we can’t see, is whether or not they are aware of the cumulative effect of their votes. Are they truly complicit in this civil war, or are they simply marching with their party, oblivious to what is happening?
To those members of Congress who regularly ask me for donations to their campaigns I ask, when are you going to begin to talk about the elephant in the room? It’s a class war. You have the evidence. You can display the casualties. You can describe the battles and the tactics. From time to time it gets mentioned almost in passing on the floor of the Senate. But, that’s not enough. It’s time to do what only members of Congress can – pull the pieces together and talk. Talk about issues in the context of the real, tangible, class war that is being waged against working class Americans by our own elected representatives.
By the way, President Bush just slipped a Social Security Privatization Plan into his new budget. In terms of the class war, would you call that a tactical assault, or a strategic maneuver?
Print
Email
