Joshua Micah Marshall’s intepretation of the Wehner memo
6 01 2005Is right here: Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: January 02, 2005 – January 08, 2005 Archives and he makes a great point. Who does not like Social Security? Oh, a bunch of rich whites who will not rely upon it for their retirement. Why do they dislike it so much?
I believe these conservatives dislike it so much because it provides a means for the continued existence of people they’d rather do without. Those lower and middle class bastards who are clogging up the expressways in Florida and are generally in the way. Rich people don’t like those people, except when they’re installing the cable or doing the dry cleaning. This is not a class warfare screed, it’s a fact of life.
If you’re rich and all your needs are provided for, you dislike change in society, since it may render you poor either by taking away your cash or making it less valuable because others suddenly have cash, too. So, the agenda from the conservative side of American politics is clear: cut taxes on the rich, cut benefits such as Social Security for those who are not (aiding our friends in the investment community at the same time), and enforce our moral viewpoint upon them whose monetary power we’ve effectively crippled. It’s a fine 1-2 punch.
Now, most Americans do not know we are an empire, or, if they know it, they choose to ignore it. I do not. Nor do I, like most liberals, think that is necessarily a bad thing. If you take your foot off the gas, someone else will take power and set things about to their liking. My issues with American empire revolve around what is done with the spoils of it. Instead of leading an imperial agenda to aid oil companies overseas and piss off the world so we can cut taxes while waging war (or host a $40 million inauguration gala while cutting solider’s pay—pick your example), why not do that to provide health insurance, education, and retirement benefits to all your citizens?
And the answer, again, is because floating your boat and mine means the rich man’s boat floats that much lower in the water. Though I’m roaming far afield from the original post topic, one more note: That’s not a Democrat vs. Republican issue, but it’s a class issue. When both candidates in the last election were both Yale Skull’n’Bones fraternity members who came from multimillionaire families, what else could it be?
Good thing we have poor folks like Susan Sarandon and George Soros to fight those rich bastards. I mean it really takes folks who pulled themselves up by their boostraps like the Kennedys and the Roosevelts to make sure those mean old rich people don’t oppress us.
Could it be that some folks don’t like Social Security because it has become the third rail in political life. Something we all know won’t be able to sustain itself but something we all can’t touch because old people want to live longer, pay less and get more even though some kids might not get school lunch because of it? Screw social security, privatize the whole damn and make the companies like Merryl Lynch (where you keep your retirement savings by the way) pay out the wah for the windfall they are gonna get in commissions. Then take that wah-full of cash and give every kid Head Start and health insurance.
So we all don’t get to live to have erections in to our 90s. Too bad, who wants to screw a 90-year-old anyway.
P.S. We should repeal those stoopid tax cuts especially if it means fighting religious funadmentalism (whereever it may be and especially here) and saving people who don’t actually live on top of oil fields from getting slaughtered.