Social Darwinism

The Republican Condemnation Of The Poor: Adding Insult To Injury!

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The Republican Party has become more venal, more disgraceful, than ever in their 157 year history, with their new tactic of condemning the poor, bringing back reminders of the nineteenth century Gilded Age and the philosophy of Social Darwinism.

Not only are poor people already subjugated by poverty with inadequate or no housing, poor food supply, lack of decent living conditions, and little hope and optimism about the future, with two thirds of the poor being children unfortunate enough to be born into the “wrong” families, but now they are being condemned with the old conservative belief that they are lazy, shiftless “losers” who don’t wish to work for a living, and instead wish to be supported by taxpayers with “luxurious” welfare packages, including Medicaid and Food Stamps, and support for each child born to them.

The fact that Medicaid provides inadequate medical care; that Food Stamps do not provide the means for a nutritional diet; that the amount given for each child’s support is miniscule, and that living in slums, often rat infested and crime ridden, has a psychological effect on children is not considered.

Also, the fact that three out of four adults in poverty actually work, but cannot make enough to get out of poverty and give their children hope for the future, is not pointed out by the critics.

To be poor is a terrible thing, but to be condemned and denounced by people who claim often to be “religious” is enough to make one wish to vomit at the disgrace of many people’s false beliefs and terrible attitudes toward those less fortunate. To kick one symbolically when they are down is reprehensible beyond belief! And it brings up the old saying: “There but for the grace of God go I!”

Here We Go Again: Republicans Want Tax Increase For Middle Class And Don’t Care About Unemployed Millions!

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The Republican Party, which wants constant tax cuts for the top two percent and for corporations, is making clear its unwillingness to support a continuation of the payroll tax cut of 2 percent on Social Security to help middle class families, by continuing an average $1000 tax cut over the payroll year, which will expire at the end of the year.

At the same time, the fact that we have more long term unemployed than we have ever had since the 1930s does not phase the party, which is against an extension of unemployment compensation for those who have been out of work for more than 99 weeks, feeling that the lack of jobs is not the issue, but the “lazy” attitude of workers who would rather collect a check than go to work!

What an outrage to call for tax increases at a difficult time, and to have no concern if the unemployed are homeless, starving, and have no medical care!

We are seeing the Republican Party going back to the concept of the 19th century Social Darwinists–basically having no concern for the unfortunate, including millions of children, about 25 percent of all children, taking the view that poverty and deprivation is a character flaw in those people, and basically, let them starve, as that would help, somehow, to produce a better society!

Shame on the GOP, and the voters in 2012 will richly reward them for such hardhearted attitudes by throwing them out of office!

The “Social” Issues In The Presidential Campaign Of 2012: Are They Really Gay Marriage, Abortion, Affirmative Action, Gun Rights, School Prayer, And Immigration?

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If you listen to Republican Presidential candidates and “social” conservatives, many of whom claim to be “good Christians”, one would conclude that the social issues for the nation in 2012 are:

1. Gay Marriage
2. Abortion
3. Affirmative Action
4. Gun Rights
5. School Prayer
6. Immigration

All of these issues are extremely controversial, but what are the REAL social issues in America?

1. Homelessness of so many Americans, including those once middle class citizens.
2. Hunger, where many Americans, millions of them children, have inadequate nutrition, which will affect them long term.
3. Unemployment long term of millions, many of them over 40 and through the 50s and early 60s in age, who will never be able to gain employment at all at any time, or at the most, never make anywhere near the same income they had been earning in good times.
4. The destruction of the retirement funds and plans of millions of senior citizens, who now have to work many more years than planned just to survive.
5. The lack of health insurance and coverage of many millions of people who cannot afford to go to a doctor or hospital, or afford extremely expensive medication that would prolong life.
6. The lack of educational opportunity for those who are in poverty stricken neighborhoods, and receive an inferior education due to local property taxes being the main source of educational funding.
7. The discrimination against the children of undocumented immigrants, who discover when becoming adults, that they cannot attend college or join the military, and are threatened with deportation, along with discrimination visited against them and their parents and family members in states, such as Alabama and Arizona, because of illegal immigration laws which are being challenged in the federal courts.
8. The continuing challenge for disabled Americans, whether from birth or as a result of accidents or health problems, who, despite the Americans With Disabilities Act passed under President George H. W. Bush in 1990, still face barriers to equality of treatment.

These eight problems listed above are the REAL social challenges, but the Republican Party and so called “religious” people totally ignore these issues, instead promoting a new version of the old Social Darwinism and Laizzez Faire Economics prevalent in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century!

In other words, they want to go back to the 19th century, wipe out the 20th century, and promote good old “Christian” and “Unbridled Capitalism” values, which made America a nation ripe for reform and change, including the Progressive Era, The New Deal, and The Great Society!

This attempt to return to the old conservatism is a great evil which must be defeated by all good, really “religious” people of all faiths, who believe in equality of opportunity and fairness and consideration of others less fortunate than those of us who are lucky and successful, and do not experience the hardships of others!

The past is the past, and we need to look to the future, and realize if one American is homeless, hungry, denied health care and education, or discriminated against, then we are all worse off because of those realities!

This must be a country of WE, rather than simply ME!

Nostalgia For The 19th Century: The “Good Old Days” Of The Gilded Age?

Ronald 2 Comments

Here we are in the second decade of the 21st century, and yet the Tea Party Movement and the Republican Party contains within itself a great nostalgia for the past–the 19th century Gilded Age!

Why is the Gilded Age seen in such a positive light by the Right Wing of the Republican Party? Let us count the ways in no special order!

1. Labor unions were struggling to survive, and workers were working long hours under horrible work conditions with no protection and no basic rights for the working men, women and children. Yes, children as young as 6 were working for menial pay, as well as women being paid less than men.

2. Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and Asia were being discriminated against, and paid less than “native born” workers, and living in slums in the big cities.

3. Women had no rights legally and were not allowed to vote or control their work conditions.

4. No one had any health care, pension, minimum wage protection or sick leave or vacation leave, and could be fired on a whim of the employer.

5. African Americans mostly lived in the South and faced segregation, lynchings, and sharecropper poverty, and civil rights of any kind did not exist.

6. Corporations ruled in America, major monopolies which corrupted the political system on all levels–national, state and local.

7. State and local governments controlled just about every aspect of their population’s lives in a very inadequate manner, and the federal government was extremely minimal in its impact upon the people.

8. There was no social safety net of any kind, other than churches and other organizations which were unable to do much for those less fortunate, in poverty, or having serious medical ills.

9. Racial supremacy was a widely held belief, along with Laissez Faire Economics and Social Darwinism.

10. Education was minimal for the vast majority of the population, and therefore allowed little social mobility for the average American.

11. If natural disasters occurred, little assistance or aid was available, except to pray to God for divine guidance.

This nostalgia today is VERY SIMILAR to the above reality of the Gilded Age, but we have had a century of reform, including the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Great Society and other reforms on specific issues at other times!

We have had reform oriented Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Barack Obama promote major changes that have made America a better nation!

Now the proposal of the Right Wing in the GOP is to reverse the reforms and changes that have made America an improved nation over the past century. The desire is to negate, to veto, to wipe out the social safety net, labor reforms, and so many other hard earned reforms. This is being offered as the GOP answer to the economic crisis we are in, as if making things worse and protecting the corporations and the extremely wealthy is the answer to our difficulties!

Returning to the Gilded Age is precisely the wrong thing to do! We cannot allow such a disaster to occur in 2011, or EVER!

Should We Be Upset That 45 Percent Of American Households Pay No Federal Income Taxes? NO!

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As American finish tax forms due by tonight, the controversy over who pays federal income taxes arises yet again.

Conservatives and Republicans have no problem condemning the fact that 45 percent of American households pay no federal income tax. The fact that 68 percent of American households under $50,000 income pay no taxes vexes them.

But can a family of four, in reality, be expected to pay federal income taxes when they have a problem in almost any part of the country paying rent, food, and other basic needs that every family with children has?

Realize all taxpayers everywhere pay state sales taxes, and property taxes if they own their home, and state and local income taxes in all but seven states, as well as Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes!

Realize that health care for millions is extremely expensive for a family of four, and that the cost of just taking care of children is sky high!

Earning $50,000 for a family of four was once considered middle class, but realistically is not enough in the economy of today,and with the taxes and fees that all Americans pay!

And realize that when one says under $50,000, that does not mean everyone is making close to that amount, as many families of four are living on only $30,000 or less for a family, and are wallowing in poverty and deprivation!

The federal government has offered tax breaks to help families pay for college, buy homes, have children, and given wage supplements to the extremely poor.

But for every tax break for lower income tax payers, the wealthy and upper middle class have been given much more lucrative tax advantages, and somehow, that is not a problem for Republican and conservatives!

In other words, if the government helps the rich, and many avoid taxes altogether or pay a very low rate of taxes, that is perfectly fine, a good example of capitalism!

But if the poor or struggling middle class has breaks, we should milk them for all they are worth, and look down on them as lazy, shiftless, lacking in ambition, and punish them for having children, after advocating no abortion rights!

Needless to say, this is the height of hypocrisy by the Republicans and conservatives, but they have no shame in condemning the poor, just as in the Gilded Age, the social philosophy known as Social Darwinism ruled, and has now been revived in modern times without any shame or embarrassment by the hard Right in this country!

Republican Party Doctrine: Life Begins At Conception, And Interest In Life Ends At Birth!

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The Republican Party is working full scale against a woman’s right to choose, attempting every strategy possible to prevent abortion, no matter what the situation, and badmouthing Planned Parenthood, an organization which only has abortion rights as a small part of its mission to promote family planning, so as to make better parenting of children, which is something very much lacking in America!

So when one analyzes the Republican stand that life begins at conception and every child must be born, no matter what, and then realize that the Republicans now are trying to eliminate ALL aid to poor women and children, due to the budget crisis, one has to wonder how they can look themselves in the mirror!

Leave it to the GOP to try to eliminate all health, education and housing aid for the poor, and basically blaming poor people for being poor, when a large percentage of the poor ARE children born to teenage or 20s women out of wedlock, with the majority of the women being WHITE! This is the 19th century Social Darwinism at its worst being brought back in the 21st century!

So the Republican Party believes life begins at conception, and their interest in life ends with the birth of the child! Now you are on your own, and we don’t want to support you or even care about you, unless of course you kill your child, but no assistance is offered if a poor woman or couple cannot afford the child that is being forced on them by the strange morality of the Republican Party!

The Collapse Of The American Dream: Back To The Gilded Age

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We are witnessing, in the present economic downturn, a reversal unmatched since the Great Depression.

And all of the cushions and safety net put into place since then, via the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, is rapidly being lost.

Even the labor reforms that showed up in Wisconsin under Robert LaFollette, Sr. in the Progressive Era are now facing extinction in, of all places, Wisconsin, and the movement against labor unions is spreading to Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Florida and elsewhere.

We are seeing the return of “slave labor” in the sense that wages are stagnant, and more than ever, part time workers without benefits are becoming the norm in many areas of the economy.

And if one is unfortunate enough to be unemployed, many corporations and businesses are refusing to hire them, as if they are damaged goods.

The attack has begun on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pension plans, health benefits, and other programs that made life better in America.

Powerful corporations, and wealthy people such as the Koch brothers, are managing to influence the Supreme Court, and are in league with the Republican Party, to set back a century of progress and reform.

This is a battle for survival for millions upon millions of middle class people who are rapidly falling into deprivation and poverty and despair.

The feeling is that there is no future, as life becomes more difficult for working families, but also for young people who have a gloomy view of the future, without an education, or even with a college education.

The Social Darwinist ethic of the late 19th century Gilded Age is returning, that of survival of the fittest, and it is creating an ugly atmosphere in America, as the middle class turns on itself and opposes what other middle class people have, and all this to the benefit of the wealthy and the corporations, who are sitting by and licking their chops as America turns on itself.

This is a very dangerous situation which could lead to a breakdown of law and order, a horrifying thought, as we face a daunting future where economic opportunity seems evasive and scattered.

The political divide in this country MUST be breached, or doom is ahead in more ways than one can imagine!