Money.
The old adage that money is the root of all evil is painfully obvious to those of us who care deeply about protecting our democracy and value what that democracy means to our children and our children's children. Unfortunately much of our government is corrupt and ruled by money and lobbyists and corporations, and they are all conspiring to take more and more of the wealth pie in our country. And it's really, really sad.
First of all, government spending has grown more slowly under President Obama than it has under any president since Eisenhower. Don't believe me? Check out this article from Think Progress. When Republicans talk about giving Obama a blank check or wanting to curb his "out of control spending" or the fact that he wants to grow government, it's actually the opposite that is the case. They just want to stifle the economy to make this president fail.
Then there is the "Fix the Debt" group led by billionaire Pete Peterson. Do you ever hear Republicans blather on about how we have spending/debt problem? Pretty much every day, right? Also, do you ever notice that Wall Street bank CEO's like Jamie Dimon or Lloyd Blankfein try to tell you that Social Security is broken and not sustainable on its present course and that it as well as Medicare and Medicaid are the main drivers of our debt and need to be cut? They do and it all stems from Peterson's Fix the Debt campaign. And here, check out PR Watch's Lisa Graves debating and cutting Fix the Debt's publicist at the knees with the one thing Republicans can't ever truly debate--facts.
Here is another great article courtesy of Think Progress that talks about how the debt everyone is freaking out about does not exist. It doesn't, and the deficit we have comes almost entirely from the two unfunded wars and the Bush tax cuts we've had in place for ten years.
And finally there is this. The wealth inequality in this country will blow your mind. We are NOT broke, it's just that we've allowed the 1% to hoard money like never before, and corporations have been able to hoard money and not pay workers a fair wage. They want to keep giving the rich tax breaks (I'm talking mostly about Republicans here), and to chop down entitlement programs that we all pay into so that they will ultimately let their rich friends privatize everything--Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid....the Post Office! That's for another story.
Another thing for another story--election rigging. It's all a grand plan for total Republican control, and I will continue to shout this from the rooftops--we cannot let them take away our democracy. We have to get money out of politics and elections and stop the rigging and lying. We have more people than they do, and ultimately we will win this fight. I really believe that.
