The vast majority of Americans whether they are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, or Greens are good people who care about their families, their communities, and their country. Moreover, Americans are generally trusting of institutions they have been a part of and have a vested interest in.
Democrats tend to give more credence to the Democratic Party and Democratic leaning institutions. Republicans tend to give more credence to the Republican Party and Republican leaning institutions. There is nothing inherently wrong with that if information being dispersed is fact based however it is spun.
Our two major parties have their own ideologies. Neither is inherently wrong. Americans decide as a society with their vote the tradeoffs they are willing to adapt given their ideological choice. That is real democracy in action. True democracy breaks down when citizens are no longer voting based on factual information.
Small government, pro-big business, limited government, low taxes, and little regulation encapsulate the Republican ideology. Robust government, taxes consummate to services citizens want of government, robust regulation, pro-union, and a strong safety net encapsulate the Democratic ideology. The adoption of either is fine if voters are making an informed choice and are willing to live with all that that choice entails.
The problem in America today is that we have been living an unsustainable hybrid ideology. We’ve had the low taxes and less regulation from the Republican ideology as well as a fairly strong safety net (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Unemployment Insurance). This was easy because neither Republicans nor Democrats wanted to infuriate their constituents. Politicians of both parties have created a fiscal mess of catastrophic proportions with the aid of an electorate misinformed by the corporate structure and the plutocrats.
Corporations and the plutocrats reaped the rewards of low taxes on their earnings. They decimated a large percentage of our middle class by unpatriotically weakening the country through the outsourcing of millions of well paying manufacturing jobs and the lowering of American wages. They indirectly reaped additional benefits from guaranteed income from the government bonds they bought to pay for our “low taxation caused deficit”. Every year the deficit grows not only from low taxation but from the cumulative interest that must be paid to the plutocrats that hold our ever increasing debt.
The claim that almost 50% of Americans pay no federal income tax while true misses the point. Most Americans pay a myriad of other local taxes and fees. Moreover it is their relative decline in income and standard of living that removed them from the income tax rolls. Address declining real wages and more Americans will pay federal income taxes as a result.
The current state of federal and state budgets and the draconian cuts proposed is forcing Americans to examine policies and ideologies on their own as opposed to being indoctrinated by our corporate based media. Wisconsin citizens populous support for unions, an election of a Liberal Democrat in an extremely conservative Republican district in New York, and real grassroots opposition to congress people that voted for Paul Ryan’s bill that effectively destroys Medicare as we know and want it is likely a prelude to Americans really taking the country back from corporations and plutocrats.
Wisconsin showed that they are well aware that just as corporations and the plutocracy has the Chamber of Commerce and trade unions to protect their interest, the middle class workers need unions to protect theirs. Democratic candidate Kathy Hochul’s defeat of Republican Jane Corwin in a special election in a very Republican district in New York that was fought specifically on Paul Ryan’s Medicare killing bill showed that Republicans will break the chains of their ideology to vote for pragmatism and in their own financial interest.
Politicians know that informed Americans ultimately vote in their own best interest. Could it be that this is one of the reasons why politicians in many areas cut education budgets without much hesitation? Over the next 15 months, Americans will be factually informed and will vote like informed citizens. The process has already begun.
My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
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