What needs to happen to heal DU's unnecessary "social issues vs. economic issues" divide?

[guillaumeb]

83. Who benefits by division? The 1%, of course.

The 1% can never win elections. They must rely on convincing others to vote with the 1%. They do this, quite obviously, by dividing people into as many subsets as they can, and appealing to each subset with language designed for that subset.

But the overarching theme for the 1% has historically been based on the myth that ANYONE in the US can become rich if only they work for it. Thus all of the non-rich have not worked sufficiently hard or they would be rich.

But many non-rich people do work hard, or feel that they work hard enough. Why then are they not rich? And this is where divide and conquer comes into play. Starting in the Reagan years, the class war against US workers heated up in earnest. The rich wanted even more money, and the easiest way to get it is to take it from the workers. A little from each worker adds up to a lot for the very few rich.

So they had to convince the workers that someone other than the 1% was to blame for the slowly declining standard of living. The answer was division and blaming the OTHER. Simply tell the older, unionized white male worker that he lost his job because a black man was hired. Or a white female. As union jobs disappeared, along with the factories that supported them, the 1% wanted to divert attention from the economic policies that enabled the disappearance. So they needed people to blame.

We have lived through 35 years of blame and 35 years of declining living standards. Like the rats in a cage, when the food supply declines the rats cease cooperating and start fighting.

The answer is education and communication. That is what unions do as part of their mission, educating and organizing people to a recognition of their shared interest. And THAT is why the 1% hate unions and are doing all in their power to destroy unions.

In my opinion.