This weekend in Wisconsin, some 200,000 citizens rallied to protest the governor's assault on working families. The crowd included farmers and firefighters, teachers and students, parents and children. In Wisconsin -- and across the Midwest -- they are connecting the dots.
They realize that the assault on the right of public workers to organize isn't about the budget crisis. Gov. Scott Walker and the right across the country are pushing to weaken the ability of working families to counter what is a brutal assault on the middle class in America.
The reality of Wisconsin and other states is clear. Wall Street's excesses blew up the economy, causing a global recession that savaged public budgets at the local, state and national levels. Housing prices fell, unemployment rose and tax receipts plummeted while costs increased. Public pensions -- and, for that matter, private pension plans -- took a huge hit from the implosion.
Now conservative politicians act as if teachers, cops and nurses caused the budget crisis, not Wall Street. They represent the few against the many. Only over the last 30 years, the broad middle class has declined. The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans now capture nearly one-fourth of all income, and control more wealth than 90 percent of Americans. The question now is whether we can rebuild a strong middle class, or whether the crisis will be used to reduce it further.
This is central to a concerted offensive that has two major parts. First, conservatives are intent on rolling back core protections for working families, and virtually every step of progress America has made over the last century. Second, well aware that they are pushing a very unpopular agenda, they are targeting unions and other institutions that can counter the force of money in politics.
On the first part, look at the combined agenda of the House Republicans and right-wing governors like Walker in Wisconsin. House Republicans fought to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and then targeted basic supports for working families. They made deep cuts in education from Head Start to elementary education to college affordability, zeroed out job programs, and slashed budgets for every consumer or worker protection agency.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are next on the chopping block.
In Wisconsin, mirrored in other states, Gov. Walker combined tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations with deep cuts for teachers, police and firefighters. Education and health care were hit the most.
On the second part, organized people are the most effective counter to organized money in politics. So conservatives are pushing to permanently break labor unions, the most powerful counterweight to the flood of corporate money in politics. But unions aren't the only target. ACORN, the most effective organization helping to register poor and minorities to vote, was targeted with a dishonest sting operation. Planned Parenthood is under attack because it informs women of their rights in chapters across 50 states. Efforts are under way to strip students of their right to vote where they go to school. Voter ID measures are cooked up to intimidate Latinos and discriminate against the poor and seniors. This is bareknuckled rollback of democratic rights to protect an unpopular agenda.
But in Wisconsin, the workers stood up; students and citizens rallied to their side. The Wisconsin uprising touched citizens across the state and activists across the country. They are starting to connect the dots.
Dr. King once said, "There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution." Now, in this defining struggle about America's future, people are beginning to wake up. Will we build a new economy that provides opportunity for all out of the ashes of the old? Or will we roll back the progress we have made, and watch as the American Dream becomes a fantasy out of reach of our children?
The choice will be ours.
Follow Rev. Jesse Jackson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/revjjackson
I'm sure you do. So do teachers (for example). some say they don't work a full year and work "short days". Not so. Count in-service training and continuing education to keep up with advances in subject-matter...extra hours tutoring or counseling, lesson plans/other classroom prep, buying materials out-of-pocket...plus reading/grading papers. How many private schools are there compared with public schools, i.e., how many choices for a gifted teacher?
Also@Rory: "If I don't like what I do, I look for something else." So what DO you do with such transferability/flexibility--marketing, computer tech...? I know/have known hundreds of teachers. They do not have extravagant pay or lifestyles.The vast majority ARE DEDICATED to their professions. And I haven't seen public sector unions take unreasonable advantage.
One thing u forget is that teachers, police, firefighters/other emergency responders and public works personnel--hold lives or safety or water supplies in their hands. School boards and politicians can make unreasonable rules--like women teachers should not get pregnant, or Intelligent Design must be taught as real science. Unions help those situations.
BTW, unions do not necessarily override merit evaluation. Something has turned you against unions. Pretty narrow, IMHO.
Maybe you should actually try some of those jobs.
And I'm middle-class, also. Non-union, but not by choice.
You, an upper middle class, educated professional, do not need a union.
The migrant farm workers (and other working poor) need a union
so they can have decent housing, wages and medical care.
Somebody's got to pick your lettuce, and if everybody had a college degree, it wouldn't get picked.
And surely an enlightened guy like you -- who has it made, living on easy street,
is willing to pay 10-cents more for a head of lettuce (courtesy of union collective bargaining)
so that the migrant farm workers (with less education than you) can have the above.
Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.
Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html
Add to that List the 'Financial Engineers' of Wall Street.
and control more wealth than 90 percent of Americans."
Unbelieveable. How could the Founding Fathers vision for America get so screwed up?
Why do non-wealthy Americans go off to fight & die to preserve this patently corrupt
perversion of what the Mayflower Pilgrims intended America to be?
America has become an even more economically degenerate society than the Europe
which the early American settlers were trying to escape.
Who is responsible for this gross injustice?
"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome."
-- MLK Jr., Illinois AFL-CIO Convention, 1965.
Right the republicans are counting on us forgetting! We can't. We can win this people.
The top 1% cannot possibly justify their de-regulation enabled uber profits coupled with taking jobs overseas; they know that if the bottom 99% starts to focus upon this, they are scr ewed. So they cleverly shift the focus away from themselves i.e. the REAL issue, and create forced/invalid divisions between groups in the bottom 99%. As long as the middle class keeps fighting itself, it will never be able to fight the top 1% and the immoral level of wealth they have amassed on a bought-and-paid-for unlevel playing field. Additionally, since they own the media, they can easily and effectively get this false message out ad nauseam, all the while deflecting attention from themselves and their limitless greed, essentailly preserving their priviledged class status forever.
One of the things the radical right in this country still does not either understand or care about is if you keep pushing people down where they have nothing to lose, don't be surprised when they strike back.
One final thought. If you have a million dollars or a billion dollars, does two million or two billion make you twice as happy when so many have so little?
They will never stop. Never. Even when they have the last dollar, they will take the last piece of bread. It's in their DNA.
It was our responsibility to teach people about their type. So, the conservatives bought the media, to counter our message, and turn it on its head. It worked, and now people vote for those who would destroy them. Sad, but true.
We can only beat them in the streets, now. Whether we will do that depends on if we have leaders to show us the way. Jesse, any answers???
You can disagree with me, I can disagree with you. Trolls will be ignored.. intelligent debate is welcome though :b
Mind my spelling. I'm tired.
Alexander Hamilton said, "Those who stand for nothing fall for anything." Well, we stand with the public employees of Wisconsin in support of their labor rights. We stand for safe classrooms with good learning environments for our children rather than overcrowding. We stand together and we stand strong for Wisconsin.
It is up to the people now, from the Midwest to the Middle East.
Kudos to WI. That is holy ground. Can't afford to lose in WI!
Don't tax your brain too much. The amount of bonuses given out at the bailed out Wall Street banks over the past two years is enough to cover the deficits of every single state; and while we're at it, let's end the Bush tax cuts for all the baggers who are writing meaningless screed on this thread.
You are partially correct. We need single-payer (basic) health care; clamp down on Wall Street greed; and end the global-empire budget.
The top marginal rate during the Eisenhower administration was 91% on income over $400 thou a year. They had enough money to build a little infrastructure project...called the Interstate Highway System.
Think about it.
The wealthy need to pay their fair share. They always have....up until Voodoo Economics came into vogue.
Taking away an unjust portion from the rich solves nothing, but the upper class needs to stop crying over the possible loss of tax cuts. The key term is tax CUTS. As in its not actually 100% of what they are supposed to be paying. Honestly, everyone needs to buck up and pay their taxes, rich and poor alike as they can afford it.
The problem lies in that everyone wants theirs. A lot of people who have tread on the backs of the have-nots. Not all, Bill Gates is a very generous man. I care not how much money you make, so much as you act as a responsible person with that money. Treat your workers as humans. Treat those without as you would treat those with more than you. Help your fellow man as much as you can. I don't make much money. I don't have much to give. But I give what I can when I can.
With regard to taxes, the labor of the poor should not be taxed at all, except it could be collected for public programs like health care, SS, etc., through trust funds. Which is what it was supposed to be, except the money has already been spent.
It was well-understood during the early 1900's, when the income tax was instituted that the extremely rich got that way by exploiting public resources and property. Bill Gates, for example, didn't have to pay for the gov't research which produced the Computer and the Internet. He deserves perhaps 10% of his wealth - about half a billion sounds right - a 90% tax on incomes made this way is fully justified. So, you don't have to make any apologies for taxes (royalties) on the super-rich.
Be careful though, the Ron Paul types think that the rich should be left alone to fund endowments, etc. But, why should the rich be allowed to set the agenda? Does anyone take the word "freedom" seriously anymore?
F&F, BTW.
If you want to know how this works out, take a look at France in the 1790s...