Got another one published

[Vietnameravet]

Just got this published..Let me know what you think and any suggestions you have will be welcome..and thanks for the complements with my introductory one on Iraq and Vietnam..

Problem with America

The problem with America can be stated very simply; for thirty years, we have been in the grip of a failed economic theory which has shifted most of the wealth to the richest few creating an inequality that has not been seen since the 1920s.

For some time, people have sensed something is wrong and the American dream is slipping away. Our economy is in trouble. Jobs have disappeared. Families struggle to keep their homes. Decent schools and quality health-care are becoming a distant dream. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Everywhere, we see “Made in China.” All while the richest few are enjoying an unprecedented share of the wealth. The wealthiest 400 individuals have more wealth than the bottom 150 million. The top one percent own 40 percent of all wealth; the bottom sixty percent less than 2; and the bottom 40 percent own just 0.3 percent of the nation's wealth.


Not surprisingly, when this lopsided situation was challenged, the wealthiest few responded with an unprecedented campaign to preserve and even expand their special situation.

They know they cannot defend this inequality on the facts, so instead they have ruthlessly stoked every imaginable fear, including fear of blacks, Hispanics, intellectuals, foreigners, gays, Progressives, socialists, environmentalists and more to sell the idea that our lives, our religion, and our very way of life are under attack by those that secretly hate America.

They have raised the specter of death panels in the health-care bill, and a Marxist-socialist economy run by an out-of-control black man, protected by the media, who promotes class warfare and doesn't understand or even like American values. They have suppressed opposition voters, gerrymandered districts to favor them, ended the concept of majority rule in the Senate and blocked every attempt at reform or recovery. Having no concerns about health care coverage for themselves, they have whipped up fears about the “terrible things this administration is doing to this country” in trying to make health care affordable to all in the same way Mitt Romney did in Massachusetts.

But it doesn't end there.

They have openly compared the President to a “Chicago-style thug” “Hitler” and “Stalin” and repeatedly questioned his patriotism and birthplace all for asking the richest few to pay a bit more.

Trying to work with other nations, trying to build bridges to them acknowledging our past mistakes in supporting dictatorships is “apologizing and being ashamed of America.” Even the idea of working together as a nation is viciously ridiculed as they cheer for Obama's failure.

They fiercely fight to end programs that benefit the middle class, and they oppose investments in our infrastructure telling us these are “unaffordable” and contribute to the deficit, all the while cutting taxes even more on the wealthiest few. They preach the Bible of supply-side economics and assure us only the richest of the business class are the real “job creators” not the average person with money to spend and products to buy.

In their world, the richest few know best and what they need is more money and what corporations need both more money and more power. Thinking anything else is “class warfare” and “socialism” and will “reward lazy people” and “end America as we know it!”

For them, nothing less than total surrender to supply-side economics will do.

Incredibly, at the same time, they tell us it is President Obama who they accuse of being the “great divider.”

And with great wealth comes great power. The message, often warped in a flag and frequently carrying a cross, is promoted everywhere by multi-million dollar right-wing “think-tanks,” shouted from every street corner and echoed in editorials, letters, TV messages, and by right-wing politicians, talk radio and even an entire TV network.

And there is a preacher for every taste. Those who like a veneer of respectability have Bill O'Reilly; street fighters and bar room brawlers have a choice of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and hundreds just like them; and the truly delusional have Glenn Beck. Together they have created a far-right fantasy world where Ignorance is Strength, Truth is Optional and hateful, evil enemies are everywhere.

All this so they can continue sending our young people off to fight their senseless foreign wars, ship our jobs off to foreign countries, shred the middle class, block health care reform, destroy Social Security and Medicare, end minimum wage, as they help themselves to even more tax breaks, demand even more business deregulation, and turn our country and government over to the richest few.

It's all a classic example of what Roosevelt meant when he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The question for us is, “Will we follow our deepest fears as promoted by the far-right or our 'better angels' as advised by President Lincoln?”