E Pluribus Unum

A re-post of a comment to a NYT editorial:

“Those fronting the big money know exactly what they’re doing. Their goal is to milk the American economy and leave behind the husk. They could care less what this does to this nation or that this nation becomes hostile to them.

“Republicans are livid and consumed with outrage that a Democrat took control of the White House and is alleged to lead “them,” and let’s be honest, many of them are equally galled it’s a African-American.

“Republican officials are blinded by their desire to not let Democrats keep power even if it means, just as the businesses are doing, causing continued harm to this nation. Their single-minded goal is to regain the trappings of power, the illusion of power, (they know they aren’t the ones with the real power), and are willing to sell this nation to those who’ll pay them the money needed to buy the PR to help them satisfy their lust. Boehner and McConnell were both part of the leadership that put the legislation in place that led to our nation’s economic melt down.

“Boehner and McConnell are desperate for a second chance to re-use those same principles to prove they were correct. “Let us do this experiment with people’s lives again and we’ll prove we were correct.” Then they mislead the people about the realities of the experiment. The realities are it’s failed twice. Once starting in 1929 with the Great Depression and its follow-on events, including the 1937 unnecessary return to recession. The second time started in 2008, even though there were warnings in the Saving and Loan crisis, in the dot com bust and in the Enron scandals.

“As our economy inches toward recovery, hiring will begin to inch up, also. It has to increase some if corporations are to maintain their market share. Not every aspect of business can be out-sourced. The Republicans will try to take credit for the marginal improvement of jobs.

“In politics, the number one issue is always pocket book issues. Congressional unresponsiveness has blocked any significant steps toward job creation to prime the pump. Major corporations like it that way. People are then willing to work for lower wages. They’d like to get U.S. labor charges down to the point they don’t have to pay transport costs to ship everything from China or where-ever else. Bottom line, they fail to see economic strength in a middle class. What they want to see is peasants.

“The parallels between this movement and the Know-Nothings of the 1850s is striking. Ultimately, all the parallel issues fall away except one - unresponsiveness of Congress.

“You are correct. If Congress remains unresponsive, this anti-incumbent movement will surge. The wealthy elite and the deep pocket corporations want that. It’s divide and conquer. They want the people divided along ideological lines of elitists versus the anti-intellectuals so they don’t divide along economic lines. That way, there will be no calls to tax or regulate the wealthy.

“For of us who work for a living, the key to our future is stamped on our coins in our pockets and purses. E Pluribus Unum. We stand together for each other and in defense against those who would exploit us or we are divided, conquered and exploited. That phrase was originally intended to remind the states to act together. United We Stand, Divided We Fall is just as applicable to us as individual citizens. Nation’s dominated by greed, bigotry and hatred do not survive.”