The US has a ruling class - and Americans must stand up to it

[Donkees]

Bernie Sanders
Fri 2 Sep 2022 06.15 EDT

Excerpt:

Today, while the working class falls further behind, multibillionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are off taking joyrides on rocket ships to outer space, buying $500m super-yachts and living in mansions with 25 bathrooms.

Disgracefully, we now have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any developed nation on Earth and millions of kids, disproportionately Black and brown, face food insecurity. While psychologists tell us that the first four years are the most important for human development, our childcare system is largely dysfunctional – with an inadequate number of slots, outrageously high costs and pathetically low wages for staff. We remain the only major country without paid family and medical leave.

In terms of higher education, we should remember that 50 years ago tuition was free or virtually free in major public universities throughout the country. Today, higher education is unaffordable for millions of young people. There are now some 45 million Americans struggling with student debt.

Today over 70 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and millions more are finding it hard to pay for the rising cost of healthcare and prescription drugs, which are more expensive here than anywhere else in the world. The cost of housing is also soaring. Not only are some 600,000 Americans homeless, but nearly 18m households are spending 50% or more of their limited incomes on housing.

It’s not just income and wealth inequality that is plaguing our nation. It is the maldistribution of economic and political power.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/02/the-us-has-a-ruling-class-and-americans-must-stand-up-to-it

[Atticus]

1. I recall a sign carried at a Madison, Wisconsin protest years ago:

(paraphrase)--- "If they don't tax the rich we'll have to eat them!"

[Hortensis]

2. As Atticus indicates. There are over 330 million of us, and something

like 70 thousand of us are the so-called ruling class. They get away with nothing we don't allow.

Now and then something makes a chill run through some as they're forced to remember that their fortunes hang on the erratic, often discontented will of the electorate -- and their ability to suppress that will and turn discontent against the Democratic Party they always rightfully fear.

[Magoo48]

3. It's difficult to rise up because there are so many folks, friend and foe alike, pulling us

back down.

Our opponents scream we are wrong. Our allies often bemoan our methods. Stand up to them all and have your say to all their faces.

Many of the 70,000 are sociopaths which throws a huge wrinkle into the struggle and makes it challenging to maintain our ethics.

Stand up and have your say anyway.

[Marcuse]

4. If you want to live like a Republican, you must vote Democratic.

[orthoclad]

5. Fascism requires a ruling class

In the US, wealth is power, and the wealth is concentrated in very few hands.

ALL of our problems stem from this one fact.

[orthoclad]

6. The ruling class manipulates

Rage, and fear, and bigotry, in order to set the people against each other while they laugh to the bank.

Racism? Just set each color against the other and keep the "little people" busy.

Misogyny? Keep the rage and fear going, and press the emotional hot buttons about abortion, etc. Let the "alpha males" fight the "soy boys".

Climate? The wealth of the ruling class funds the disinformation machine.

"gods, guns and guts" culture wars.

The true power of these manipulations lies in the fact that racism and misogyny are real problems, real forces with lethal outcomes.

All of the Reich-wing talking points are designed to preserve the wealth and power of the ruling class. They have a corral of experts, whole think tanks, who know how to push the buttons and set us against each other.

Senator Sanders, I-VT, is correct to point this out.

[Donkees]

8. ''A new authoritarian axis demands an international progressive front''

**This article is more than 3 years old**

Demagogues who exploit people’s fears are rising around the world. For an effective opposition, we can’t rely on the status quo

Bernie Sanders
@SenSanders
Thu 13 Sep 2018 13.02 EDT

Excerpt:

At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when the world’s top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 99%, we are seeing the rise of a new authoritarian axis.

While these regimes may differ in some respects, they share key attributes: hostility toward democratic norms, antagonism toward a free press, intolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities, and a belief that government should benefit their own selfish financial interests. These leaders are also deeply connected to a network of multi-billionaire oligarchs who see the world as their economic plaything.

Those of us who believe in democracy, who believe that a government must be accountable to its people, must understand the scope of this challenge if we are to effectively confront it.

It should be clear by now that Donald Trump and the rightwing movement that supports him is not a phenomenon unique to the United States. All around the world, in Europe, in Russia, in the Middle East, in Asia and elsewhere we are seeing movements led by demagogues who exploit people’s fears, prejudices and grievances to achieve and hold on to power.

This trend certainly did not begin with Trump, but there’s no question that authoritarian leaders around the world have drawn inspiration from the fact that the leader of the world’s oldest and most powerful democracy seems to delight in shattering democratic norms.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2018/sep/13/bernie-sanders-international-progressive-front

[orthoclad]

9. Yes

Hungary, Poland, India, Brazil, Russia...

The US does not monopolize oligarchy. But Jimmy Carter says the US is a functional oligarchy.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Donkees.