Letters from an American - Heather Cox Richardson

[Joinfortmill]

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-14-2022?s=r

This is what stood out to me in this morning's newsletter:

Democracies are at risk from authoritarianism today in large part because centralizing power in a few wealthy people permits those people to continue to pocket disproportionate shares of the national wealth..

According to Forbes, the wealth of the richest 25 Americans rose more than $400 billion from 2014 to 2018, giving them a combined wealth of $1.1 trillion.. It would take the wealth of 14.3 million ordinary American wage earners to get to that number. During those years, those 25 richest Americans paid $13.6 billion in taxes, a true tax rate of 3.4%....It is also behind the outcry today over the proposal of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, allegedly the richest man in the world, to buy Twitter for a cash offer of $43 billion in a hostile takeover of the popular platform. (According to ProPublica, Musk paid no income tax in 2018.)"

[LittleGirl]

1. She is a national treasure.

Writing while she’s vacationing in PNW even. I get her emails so I can forward them to hubby who doesn’t use Facebook. Her steady letters keep me from giving up hope for Democracy.

[Farmer-Rick]

2. She seems to know what she's talking about

It's the concentration of our national wealth in the hands of a few rather ignorant, greedy people that is causing the deterioration of our democracy.

But isn't Shorty Putin the richest man in the world? You know the man murdering innocent people in Ukraine. That is what capitalism produces.... People like Putin.

But that is what capitalism always does. If you don't want a handful of greedy, insensitive, hateful, stupid people running the world, you are going to have to get rid of capitalism. It is the next best economic system, since feudalism. And like feudalism, it is all about a handful of hateful people ruling over all of us.

[Wounded Bear]

6. Yes, unbridled capitalism leads to fascism because it concentrates wealth...

We don't need to "get rid" of capitalism, but we do need to more strongly regulate it.

[Farmer-Rick]

9. But FDR did just that

He regulated and initiated federally some much needed social programs. He placed strict controls on the accumulation of wealth. The filthy rich got a 90% income tax, and they were relieved it wasn't 99%.

It worked for a few glorious years. We had a great American middle class....then came "free" market cons. Lies, propaganda and manipulation were used to roll back 1940s regulations.

How do you regulate preventing the filthy rich, that you have allowed to accumulate most all the nation's wealth, from going back and deregulating everything again? They have the wealth for a full scale Putin like propaganda attack. How do you keep them from using this wealth, or capital, that all those born into rich family get, against those not born into wealth?

It's as if we are all born into a war. The rich are born into full armories of tanks and missiles but the middle class are born into armories stocked with knives and the poor have only their fists. In capitalism, you can't regulate what any of them do with those weapons. But you can keep the filthy rich from stocking their armories with tanks and missiles if you had socialism or something more equitable than capitalism.

[keep_left]

14. That's the problem. The system is always working against you. The best solution right now...

...would probably be to repeal Taft-Hartley, but good luck doing that. It would probably take a revolution. We've had more than 30 years of vicious deregulation, de-industrialization, and union-busting in this country with very little pushback. It's hard to imagine how things get better in any way without stopping those trends.

[The Jungle 1]

3. We are over the edge of authoritarianism all through our government.

Just look locally.
Your police do not interact with you they demand you do what you are told. There are way to many videos of police misconduct.
Now consider your zoning laws. The zoning in my community dictates architecture for not only commercial and industrial buildings but in some cases private homes. You cannot park a camper in front of your home even if it is in your driveway. You must get a permit (ask permission) to cut your trees. You must get a permit (ask permission) to do anything on what is now community property. There is no private property when the government controls everything on private property. Put a roof on then ask permission. Replace your heater then ask permission. I live in a republican dominated community.
Repukes are burning books! They are dictating what teachers can teach. Teachers are quitting in droves. In some cases when they quit the state is vindictive and takes their teaching license.

[Magoo48]

4. I believe the biggest threat to our democracy here in the USA

is our unwillingness as individuals and organizations to suffer any inconvenience or make anything but the smallest sacrifices to fight for the democracy we have left right now.

Our unwillingness to go out on a limb, to halt things which need to be halted, and to boycott and reject all threats, however small, is how our freedoms trickled away.

[Joinfortmill]

8. 👍

[Patton French]

5. It's a constant struggle.

Can never let our guard down.

[Snackshack]

7. No one person.

Especially Musk should be able to have that much power because of their wealth.


We are doomed to fail if we do not get private $ out of politics. The 2nd worst decision SCOTUS ever made was Citizens United.

[Farmer-Rick]

10. I'm guessing you think the Dred Scott decision was the worst?

But I think the fugitive slave laws were actually the 2nd worse. They remind me of the Indiana and Texas abortion laws that the Supremes have upheld, that seek to capture women and prevent them from going to other states for abortions with tattletale laws and weaponized civil court lawsuits.


Ok, so now it's the 4th worst? Then there is Bush v Gore.....so many bad laws supported by so many awful people on the Supreme Court.

[Snackshack]

12. Yes.

You are correct Dred Scott qualifies as #1 IMO. Taney was all alone as worst CJ until Roberts came along. Roberts depiction of a wallflower at the one impeachment he found time to attend and his blatant acceptance of the GOPs politicization of the court plus several horribly decided cases have elevated Roberts status.

#4- There are several cases that could take 4th place but again IMO Plessy v. Ferguson inches ahead of them. The long term impact of that case is devastating.

[Farmer-Rick]

13. Oh yeah Plessy v. Ferguson, I forgot about that stinker.

Yeah, Roberts will go down in history as one of the worst.

[smirkymonkey]

11. +1000