The Real Republican Domestic Agenda: War on Roosevelt

[donsu]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0917-03.htm

-snip-

But there is also a domestic agenda . It was expressed in one succinct sentence. George Bush said, “many of our most fundamental systems – the tax code, health coverage, pension plans, worker training, were created for a world of yesterday, not tomorrow. We will transform these systems.”

-snip-

Granted, it’s sort of in code. But the translation is easily available. The Rosetta Stone is the Texas Republican Party Platform. Think of the National Convention as the Playboy Magazine version and the Texas document as the Hustler on-line hardcore version of who wants to do what to whom.

The Texas Republican Party Platform calls for abolishing the income tax, abolishing the IRS, abolishing the 16th Amendment, abolishing the inheritance tax – which they are careful to call the death tax and abolishing corporate income taxes, payroll taxes and the capital gains tax.

These are to be replaced with a national sales tax.

Now just in case you think this is paranoid ranting, the bill has already been introduced in the House. It has 55 co-sponsors and it has the support of House Speaker Dennis Hastert and House Majority Leader Tom Delay.

-snip-

(if I could post more it would tell you that they will abolish social security. they have NO national health plan. none, nada. no more unemployment insurance, instead it will be a one shot chunk of money for job training for you to use or not.)

the article ends by saying:

"George Bush has made it perfectly clear his plan for the next four years is to tear down the New Deal. It’s not forward to the 21st Century It’s back to the 19th."



this is real folks

watching america crumble

[Vincardog]

1. This is real , they don't want to watch America crumble

They want to actively tear it down.

[skooooo]

2. what's the 16th ammendment??

[Kierkegaard]

3. 16th

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

[TheCentepedeShoes]

4. Amendment XVI (1913)

"That Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on income, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

[2Design]

5. exactly - he wants to destroy democracy and america

[camero]

6. We should call their agenda for what it is

The looting and fleecing of America Agenda.

[starroute]

7. It's not just greed -- it's a kind of elitism which borders on fascism

Starting about a hundred years ago, the privileged class got a lot less privileged -- the income tax, trust-busting, even the rise of vibrant new forms of popular culture (movies, radio, jazz, comic strips) all threatened their unquestioned economic and cultural supremacy.

Everything since then has been a war between the elite trying to take back what they formerly owned and the people trying to hold onto what was so hard won. This isn't just class warfare -- it's cultural warfare. On one side is a vision of a two-tier society of rulers and ruled, on the other is a vision of equality and popular empowerment.

Fascism in the 1930's was just one episode in this long struggle -- a particular tactic by the rich that quickly revealed itself as too brutal and too self-favoring to ever pass muster with the American people. At just the point in the late 30's where it became politically untenable to be an American fascist, the right changed its apparent message, selected Roosevelt as its chief enemy, and wrapped itself in the American flag.

Ever since then the main pitch has involved repealing the New Deal (and the progressive income tax) under the guise of personal freedom or economic growth. Those buzz-words go down better with a mass audience than calling directly for elite dominance. But the ultimate goal is no different.

What's frustrating is how completely most Americans have fallen for this line. Rugged individualism is fine if you're rich and have a lot of rich friends -- it doesn't work if you're poor or middle class. Being born to privilege is a form of social insurance in itself, and if you don't have that, you need the alternative forms of insurance that involve the community as a whole pooling its resources to support those who are in need. That means things like social security and unemployment, financed by those who can most afford to pay. And it also means things like unions, which can give the poor the collective bargaining power to take on wealthy corporations.

The primary agenda of the right is to undermine anything that empowers the masses. It isn't even ultimately about money -- it's about raw power -- and that is why we can't afford to let them have their way.

[MisterP]

8. that's an excellent analysis!

[lastliberalintexas]

9. Excellent post

But it doesn't just border on fascism- it IS fascism. Not in the Hitler/Nazi/SS sense that most people think of when they hear the word (at least not yet). But in the political theorist's definition that fascism is the melding of the corporatocracy and government.


And yes, the Texas repub party platform should be required reading for all Americans, esp. Dems. Does it still advocate a return to the gold standard? It did in the early 90s, if it doesn't anymore.