{"id":22857,"date":"2010-02-21T14:26:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T19:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=22857"},"modified":"2011-09-24T16:11:38","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T20:11:38","slug":"americas-oligarchy-wages-class-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/americas-oligarchy-wages-class-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden In Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note, this piece appeared late last week. I am reposting it because it’s just so excellent and I want more people to read it. — efc<\/em><\/p>\n

Judith Gayle<\/strong> | Political Waves<\/a><\/p>\n

The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on equally strenuous efforts on the part of an American public anxious to believe in egalitarian fictions and unwilling to see what is hidden in plain sight<\/em>. — Michael Lind, To Have and to Have Not<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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I know what drives the Teabagger movement. I get their anxiety and despair, their outrage and desire to turn back the clock to easier times.\u00a0Both of my\u00a0talented sons are unemployed — one with kids and an exhausted\u00a0wife hustling two little jobs; one out of work for over two years, picking up an occasional buck as a handyman.<\/p>\n

Here in the Patch, the leaks in the roof that escalated to full-blown waterfalls in\u00a0October took on dire overtones with the snow load. I now have a lodge pole in the living room, wedged to keep the roof in place — since I won’t be addressing that challenge anytime soon, I haven’t decided whether to hang things on it or carve it as a totem. It will be interesting to see what new decorating options the Spring rains bring.<\/p>\n

I know what drives the anger. Within the Bagger movement, many are old enough to have heard about the Great Depression and some even lived through it as kids, telling tales of meager meals and shabby clothes. The ripple effect drove the generation that produced the Boomers to strive for stability, security, and resulted in stuff. Remember “Two cars in every garage and a chicken in every pot?”<\/p>\n

The Boomers grew up thinking that’s what stability and security meant and when they got over their idealism, they got even more stuff. Now they’re afraid the hippy-dippy liberals want to do away with their freedom to get more stuff, and take away the guns\u00a0that they need to protect it. They’re full to bursting with tales of conspiracy\u00a0perpetrated by a president that isn’t even an American.<\/p>\n

I know what drives the fear. During the Bush years, there were a lot of conspiracy tales that kept us awake at night. We came within a hairs breadth of fascism under Dubby, the legacy of which is alive in a defiant Dick Cheney and the still-scheming NeoCon movement.\u00a0And those particular conspiracies were\u00a0actual\u00a0— we regularly get bits of pieces of their true horror floating to the top where we can examine them, but we don’t have time. We’ve moved on to other challenges, other conspiracies, especially under this socialist, communist, Muslim\u00a0president.<\/p>\n

Here’s the thing —\u00a0American fear and the anger is real enough, as is the conspiracy driving all our lives. Even as the baggers, the socialists and all those in between cry for jobs, jobs, jobs we are only slightly aware of how big that conspiracy is. Even as we vent our spleen against whomever we think is obstructing us, shouting “This is America, damn it!” and worrying about our stuff, we’re clueless to the extent of the manipulation.<\/p>\n

I’m with Bill Maher, who\u00a0thinks that this nation isn’t nearly angry enough. We’re all pissy about this and that circumstance, eager to place blame here or there, but many of us haven’t even identified the actual problem. Maybe if we got the full monty on what’s wrong, notice that our challenge isn’t with the political parties, per se<\/em>, but their corporate masters, we’d find\u00a0common cause\u00a0and stop being so politically lethargic.<\/p>\n

Oh, we’re aware that corporations are too big for their britches, as the polling numbers\u00a0against the recent Supreme Court decision reveal; we just don’t understand how much harm they have\u00a0planned. If we did, we’d be in the streets.\u00a0Anger is a catalyst — we can’t live there, but it certainly gets us to our feet quickly enough and puts a little needed stiffening in our spines.<\/p>\n

Arianna Huffington touched on the tip of this iceberg today, citing the 3% unemployment statistic for those making over $150,000 while the lower class\u00a0polls at a staggering\u00a031%:<\/p>\n

“Does anyone believe that the sense of urgency coming out of Washington wouldn’t be wildly different if it was the unemployment rate in the top ten percent that was 31 percent? If one-third of television news producers, pundits, bankers, and lobbyists were unemployed, would the measures being proposed by the White House and Congress still be this pathetic? Of course not — the sense of national emergency would be so great you’d practically be hearing air raid sirens howling.”<\/p>\n

In this amazing moment, when too many of us are trying to turn back time rather than cooperate with the turn of ages that has potential to\u00a0transform centuries of servitude, we need all the truth we can get. Today I’m offering a handful of links that make the conspiracy business easier to decode —\u00a0pony up\u00a0and read them. We dither our energy away until we get to the heart of this matter.<\/p>\n

The first is a revealing Garrison Keillor piece<\/a> that illuminates the Bagger mindset with precision and charm. The next two links, here<\/a> and here,<\/a> will take you to a breakdown of the real challenge to this nation, a full-blown class war that — should it succeed — will bring back the jobs we saw migrate overseas but\u00a0will not pay much more than they do in Third World countries. Then we’ll\u00a0ALL be working, grinding out the stuff we can no longer buy — something like the WalMart employees who can’t afford to shop there. And the only ones that will be happy are the top one percent that, as we speak,\u00a0owns over 70% of\u00a0this nations\u00a0financial assets, a shameful\u00a0all time record.<\/p>\n

The Gilded Age, like the Great Depression, isn’t just a story in a history book. It’s an enduring loop of old paradigm manipulation and greed that is hidden in plain sight. Up until now, we’ve had enough stuff to keep us calm and compliant. Those days are disappearing quickly.<\/p>\n

This is America, damn it! It was worth fighting for a few hundred years ago when we gained independence; worth the unspeakable cost of setting brother against brother in\u00a0a Civil War that eventually preserved the Republic.\u00a0What’s it worth now? Are we just too beat down and burnt out to make another stand for the Constitution that endows us and the nation that we love?<\/p>\n

We have some decisions to make, don’t we.<\/p>\n

Jude<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note, this piece appeared late last week. I am reposting it because it’s just so excellent and I want more people to read it. — efc Judith Gayle | Political Waves The American oligarchy spares no pains in promoting the belief that it does not exist, but the success of its disappearing act depends on …