The GOP is going to hate this
When anyone mentions taxing the rich, some ask: “Why do you hate rich people so much?” We don’t hate them; we just want them to pay their fair share, like they used to do. Before Ronald Reagan, the rich paid their share. Reagan reduced their tax rate from 74% to 27%, and Trump has taken it even lower. Reagan also created loopholes for corporations, gutted regulatory agencies, tried to kill the EPA, and declared warfare on unions. And we wonder why we find ourselves where we are today.
What today’s Republican party is doing is not new; it is 45+ years in the making. Somewhere along the way, we stopped paying attention, and Republicans pulled off the killing of the middle class. Thom Hartman wrote in Alternet about “modernization theory,” which strove to create a more equal society. The problem with that for Republicans is that equal societies lean liberal. The best way for Republicans to achieve their goals is to cripple the middle class, which class has historically been more vocal about demanding our rights, thereby preserving our place in society.
When Reagan took office, the middle class was at a 74% top personal income tax bracket. Today, only 45% of Americans are even in the middle class, and instead of the high-paying union jobs that used to exist, we are having to work two jobs to earn the income that union workers used to make. Why do you think Republicans want to destroy unions? Hartman wrote: “ … since Regan took office fully $50 trillion has been transferred from homes, savings, and retirement accounts of working-class people into the money bins of the top 1 percent.” And they’re still doing it.
According to RawStory, conservative leaders were warned about the “danger” of an “over-large and over-prosperous middle class,” and they have taken it to heart. Anything that they can do to erode our power; to silence our voices, they will do it. As RawStory said: “A middle class … can be a powerful and fearsome thing. …” The middle class evolved because of economic security, which led to believing that we can always find the things we need, but we need a government to make sure that happened, not the government we now have that wants to take and take until there is no more. Today, people in unions and other middle-class jobs have lost sight of their power. They are destroying their own power by voting Republican. Republicans know that.
Republicans have been working against the middle class for over 40 years. They have no interest in changing things. It is up to us to change things. We must retake our power, and it starts at the ballot box. We must recognize what we are up against and stop being complacent. Stop throwing up your hands and saying, “what can we do?” You can do a lot. The “no kings” protests was merely the beginning of the show of our power. Let’s continue to show that by any means necessary, and we can start with the midterm elections.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years