opednews: If you are familiar with Thom Hartmann's daily Air America radio program, the perspective and clarity of his latest book, Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class (and What We Can Do About It) won't take you by surprise. That's not to say that there's nothing new in it; Hartmann offers his perspectives here in a readable format using the same debating skill he demonstrates in his radio show when hosting conservative guests.
Hartmann doesn't use the book as a debate forum. He simply lays out cogent arguments that support his progressive view and refutes conservative premises in the process. Not that his views are extreme or radical, though they may seem that way in comparison to the Bush Republicans.
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Hartmann represents what the "progressive" label is supposed to convey these days, though there was a time when these views were considered rather moderate - even middle-of-the-road Democratic - which demonstrates how far we've been blown off course.
Hartmann frames his thesis with solid and reasoned discourse that dissembles voodoo economic concepts, exposing their false premises and empty promises. He deftly handles the economic and political-philosophical issues that underlie his premise, and his arguments are hard to refute not only because they are logical and fair-minded but also because they are supported by facts, which Hartmann provides.
As the title suggests, Hartmann's position is that the middle class has been screwed by the very government it trusted. To be sure, there have been abuses by politicos of all stripes and he doesn't spare those who have betrayed the middle class values that are the foundation of our democracy, regardless of party affiliation. But, Hartmann warns us, we are now at a dangerous crossroads: the US has entered a new gilded age, not entirely dissimilar to the age of the Carnegies and Rockefellers at the turn of the last century. It took several decades, a Depression, and a leader with the stature and respect of FDR to set us on the right path again. If we don't take back the democracy that is being lost in the 21st century gilded age, we stand to lose the solid middle class that is the glue for keeping democracy in tact and healthy.
Despite rhetoric about conservatives, the same con men selling us the story about our founding fathers, who fought courageously for the country, are selling the middle class down the river with myths about our own history. While many of the founding fathers did fight, what they fought for was to be free of the politics of England that enriched the king and the royals while the rest of the people lived in Dickensonian poverty. We are at that precipice and we need to retake the country from the hands of the rich and put it back into the hands of the decent Americans in the middle who struggle every day to make an honest living and are getting screwed.
So what does Hartmann propose that we the people do about this situation? He has several suggestions but all require that people get active. The Revolution was not won by passive agreement with its principles; watching it on TV won't do. Hartmann's prescription is to demand a return to the policies and programs that have been dismantled since Reagan plus the addition of a new one-a single-payer health care plan based on Medicare. As he notes, a single-payer health plan was proposed by Truman and defeated by the Republicans of his time. Read the whole review, it's interesting!
http://www.opednews.com/...
We know this is all true and we have been writing about it for years now. I seem to be highlighting lately the books that seem to be coming out frequently now and at a time for us to highlight the damage Bushco has cone to average Americans.we have written many times that during the revolution the enemy was from without but today the enemy is from within, our own Government! I frequently say we must take our America back if we are to have future as a viable society as we knew it. i often say that it will not change unless we get seriously involved because those benefiting from corruptive idea of a Government are not going to change it willingly.
Lou Dobbs take: Our country's middle class is not just collateral damage in what has become all-out class warfare. Political, business and academic elites are waging an outright war on working men and women and their families, and there is no chance the American middle class will survive this assault if the dominant forces unleashed over the past five years continue unchecked.
They've accomplished this through large campaign contributions, armies of lobbyists that have swamped Washington, and control of political and economic think tanks and media. Lobbyists, in fact, are the arms dealers in the war on the middle class, brokering money, influence and information between their clients our elected officials.
There's something all of us could do that would have an immediate impact and send a powerful message to both corporation-dominated political parties and to our elected officials in Washington. Our so-called representatives in both parties have been working against the interests of the middle class for so long that they take our votes for granted, or they take advantage of the fact that a sizable number of us don't vote at all.
So what if a majority of us decided once and for all to walk into our town and city halls all over the country and change our party affiliation from Republican or Democrat to independent? What if that sizable number of us who don't vote at all decided to register as independents? For the first time in decades, working middle-class Americans might just get the attention of our elected officials in Washington.
Our middle class has suffered in silence for far too long, and it cannot afford to suffer or be silent much longer. Hardworking Americans have not spoken out about their increasingly marginalized role in this society, and as a consequence they've all but lost their voice.
I sincerely hope that we will find the resolve to face these challenges to our way of life, and we do so soon. George Bernard Shaw said, "It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid." I'm stupid enough to be absolutely sincere in the hope that middle-class America will awake soon and take action. http://www.cnn.com/...
Again, this is all true as we all experience it daily. as you all know, this has been happening at high speed under Bush in an effort to fully implement his new societal order. http://www.anaveragepatriot.com/...
We have been trying for years to get someone to do something about it and maybe these two books will help us. We need all the help we can get! in the end we must get involved ourselves.
James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com
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