During the Cold War, Progressives around the world were so named because they championed the rights of the individual over that of the State. Interesting? Of course this was a differentiation that balanced totalitarianism on the other end of the see-saw. Today I believe Progressives continue to step up to the rights of the individual but here in America and in many other countries around the world, it isn’t to protect the individual from the State but rather to protect the individual from the plutocrats and the corporations which are rapidly enslaving the country.
It’s no secret that America has become a Fascist country based on and dedicated to Greed, with Corruption and Mendacity for all.
But there are some signs that the plutocrats have gone too far, so the question is whether America will continue to decline and become a fiefdom of the super rich or whether the general population will revolt against the masters and erect a new guillotine at the foot of the Lincoln Monument?
One sad tactic that the revanchist conservatives are using to hold off this possible economic cleansing is to distract the wage-slaves with arguments and propaganda suggesting that all the problems in America are the result of immigrants and other people that don’t look like Americans should (or sing America the Beautiful like Americans should). It’s the old cutpurse move on a grand scale: make you look at the brown skinned person on your right while the Plutocrat on your left lifts your wallet and removes your retirement benefits.
As I look back over the years it becomes obvious that the real America is a puffed-up bag of lies and deceit hanging from the money belts of the super rich. Things that are good are good for the richest Americans and if something comes about that might improve the lives of every-day Americans, the plutocrats will do everything they can to destroy it (even voting forty some-odd times to repeal it); and if something is bad, it is bad for the richest people: no other analysis is allowed. Look at Socialism: Bad, right? We wouldn’t want the very rich to be hamstrung by the needs of the poor, would we? A truly socialist society would not stand for greed and deceit. No wonder we have been fed anti-socialist propaganda all our lives: it’s bad for the richest Americans.
The Revanchists cry out that they want to take back America. The Republican Party, other than an almost laughable token nod to minorities, is soaking in a bath of ethnic cleansing, waiting for a chance to declare this to be a country of old white men again. But they may have missed the bus and might be better off saving their campaign donations to buy a small island off Argentina and create their own paradise of greed. In a few years Argentina can reclaim the island and sweep up the dry bones.
A Celebration of Reading 