During the 1992 campaign for President, I became very interested in politics. In 1980, I cast my first vote for Ronald Reagan. Prior to the 1992 campaign I, like most Americans, had just a passing knowledge of the issues and voted based on that limited knowledge. By the 1992 campaign I had a much greater interest in knowing the complexities of the issues, and became a volunteer for the Clinton Campaign. Finally, I began to understand the intense complexities of the American political system.
Political discourse took a very negative turn during the Clinton Administration, as his enemies did everything in their power to bring down his Presidency -- and they almost succeeded. They allowed his personal mistakes to overshadow what was a very successful administration. I began to understand the unholy alliance between corporate interests and the so called “conservative right.” They began to divide us along the lines of left or right, liberal or conservative. Middle Class Americans were duped into believing that the conservative philosophy was moral and America’s best chance to remain the world’s greatest country. During this same time it was becoming harder and harder to maintain a middle class lifestyle. No longer was one income sufficient to have the same standard of living our parents enjoyed in the 1960s and 1970s. Gone were the days when one could work for a company for 20 years and expect a pension that would afford a decent lifestyle in the golden years.
It seemed to me that most people were basing their voting decisions on 30 second sound bytes. The candidate that spent the most money won nearly all the time. Politics became a game of raising money by any means necessary. With every large political contribution comes indebtedness to the donor. It was government for sale to the highest bidder. In many ways it is no different than the corruption that is rampant in many other world governments. It is government for the rich by the rich with the issues of middle and lower class Americans not on the agenda.
I decided to start this as a blog and hopefully grow it into a movement. The internet has the ability to mobilize people in a way not seen before. I hope to counter the right wing spin on issues and start to make people think, not in terms of right or left, but in terms of up and down. What do I mean by this? We need to start thinking in terms of our economic self interest. We need to vote based on where we are economically, not where we hope to be. One good example of this is the Estate Tax or Death Tax as it is called by those who want it repealed. This tax will affect less than 2% of all Americans according to theIRS Web Site, but its repeal would affect everyone. It would cut 1 trillion dollars from federal receipts at a time when our federal deficit is exploding. This would mean less money for schools, health care, and all other federal programs due to the loss of this revenue.
Most of us still consider ourselves middle class yet the United States savings rate is now negative which is the lowest rate since the great depression.
I plan to focus on these types of issues to highlight and expose reality from what we are being told. I hope by the election of 2008 I will have made a positive impact on your knowledge and that when you vote you will do so from a place of greater knowledge and understanding. All I ask is that you read this blog daily. I will highlight relevant stories that are not being reported by the so called mainstream media. I will call people to action to stop the spread of corporate influence in our politics. I welcome your comments and suggestions as I try to change the way people think of politics. Thanks for reading and again welcome to Save the Middle Class
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