Senator Webb says what needs to be said. Take that, Macaca Man.
Go, read the full piece.
OpinionJournal – Featured Article
American workers have a chance to be heard.
BY JIM WEBB
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST
The most important–and unfortunately the least debated–issue in politics today is our society’s steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America’s top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.
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2 Responses
Is that a great speech or what? It sent chills down my spine. This really needs to be said a lot more. Edwards tried it but it didn’t get much traction because it was a campaign speech, and nobody takes those very seriously. The problem Webb talks about is a fundamental problem and it has grown highly corrosive to our democracy. Not sure how we will agree to solve it. But we need to agree, and we need to solve it. And that starts with speeches like this. Again. thanks for the post.
It would be comforting to believe that Mr. Webb believed the words in his speech with an eye to trying to do something to correct the wrongs he (correctly, in my view) perceives. Just once I’d like to hear a newly-elected guy go ahead and say: “There will be no pork for my district. No stupid expenditures of money which, really, we don’t have. This is more important to me than the re-election campaign I’m running as my primary job in my role as Senator, starting the day after my election. The job I’m here to do is more important than my personal ambitions.”
By the way, I don’t think any politician ever believed that “trickle down” would work. It was a sop, a con. Some pet economist dreamt up a theory on demand (or worse, dreamed this stupidity up on their own hook), and, like, say, communism, it was a place for self-serving megalomaniacs to hang their hat.
So, Mr. Webb, let’s see what you do.