If Democrats got off their asses, here's what they'd be doing now - Robert Reich

[PatrickforB]

23. Many posts on this thread blame Reich for 'turning against' the Democratic Party or at the least not helping, but

here's the thing:

In 1980 when Ronald Reagan campaigned on 'trickle down' economics, which HW Bush called 'voodoo' economics, everybody KNEW that the idea that if we reduced corporate taxes so many new jobs would be created that the increase in payroll tax revenue would more than offset the loss in corporate tax revenue WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A LIE. But they did nothing.

When Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union, it started a massive corporate movement to kill unions which has worked nicely for Wall Street financiers and billionaires. Union participation went down over the years while at the same time wages stagnated. Where were the Democrats then, fighting tooth and nail for America's union workers?

In 1987, when Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine, it just quietly died, but in the face of deregulation of cable TV, it was a disaster because it allowed Fox to be born and become the right-wing propaganda organ, along with Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the AM hate-jocks. Where were the Democrats then, fighting for TRUTH in news?

And when Clinton and the rest of the Third Way institutionalists passed NAFTA we lost almost a million GOOD middle class jobs over the next decade. That didn't do anything for the middle class either, except it turned whole swaths of working class people dead-set against the Democratic party.

And where the hell were Dems when the Supreme Court stopped the vote counts in FL so W won in 2000 when it should have been Gore???

And how about Mitch McConnell, who froze hundreds of Obama's nominees and then packed the courts with hand-picked 'justices' who will vote with the Heritage Foundation, Cato, ALEC and the Federalist Society party line? Where were the Democrats then? They should have been hitting the streets and getting downright UGLY.

We can go down the line, year by year, but I won't belabor that. What I will say, speaking for myself, is this:

I donated hundreds of dollars to Harris and downticket Dems, and when Trump supposedly flipped ALL swing states, why were there no Democrats yelling 'CHEAT!!!' and demanding recounts???

So here's my situation:
- $10 K in HEALTHCARE DEBT.
- I've had a call into the Social Security Administration for FOUR MONTHS and no one has called me back.
- My Social Security Old Age Pension is in danger of being privatized.
- My Medicare is in danger too because of the 'big beautiful bill.'
- Prices are now increasing across the board, but my pay hasn't AND I'M STILL FUCKING WORKING AT AGE 66 AND 8 MONTHS.

LAST YEAR I PAID $10,122 IN FEDERAL INCOME TAX, $6,871 IN SOCIAL SECURITY PAYROLL TAX AND $1,607 IN MEDICARE TAX.

That is $18,600, folks!

I'm being taxed without representation, and I'm really, really, really pissed - not at Wall Street or the billionaire parasites, nor at ALEC, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute or all the rest of the right-wing so-called 'think-tanks'.

Nope. I'm mad at my Democratic Party which has let everything good that I held dear go down the fucking drain without a fight. We need to get rid of the institutionalists because they aren't doing me a darned bit of good at my kitchen table. I'm getting fucked every which way but loose and my government is now a government of, by and for Wall Street and billionaires.

Now we are starting to fight back. Newsom and the rest of the Dem governors, but Congress???

So feel free to alert on this post if you want, but my government is no longer responsive to me at all, and I am in fact being taxed without representation. The Dems let it get this way because of the Third Way institutionalists who have not done the middle class driddle squat in terms of economic good.