We are a corporatist nation now, he who has the most money wins
http://www.laconiadailysun.com/index.php/opinion/letters/58340-james-veverka-5-8
To the editor,
Steve Earle needs another dictionary lessen. Heavy-handed conservative governments become fascist. Heavy-handed socialist governments become communist. ALL heavy-handed governments have strong central authority, whether they be left or right.
Steve says the Republican Party stands for small government. Sure they do, Steve. Huge welfare systems for industrial giants is small government? Low fines for environmental damage that kills people? Tax-free existences and special loopholes for the monopolies is not capitalism. Subsidies for oil and corn are "small" government? Promotion of laws that intrude into people's bedrooms and doctor's offices are not small and unintrusive government behavior. They are tyrannies. Today's GOP is a iron-fisted coalition of religious conservatives who want to run the country like the Old Testament and right wing corporatists who hate true capitalism. Neither appreciates your constitutional right to privacy nor do they care much about you. If they were true capitalists they wouldn't be so busy buying legislators to create laws that favor the redistribution of wealth to them. That is immoral crony capitalistic bribery. Capitalism is not corporatism. Since 1980, wages for average workers have barely risen with the times while the people at the top have had increases in the hundreds of percent. That is not because they worked harder; it is because America has a disease called corporatism where the the most powerful corporations make the laws through their bought politicians and then they corner liquidity. Republican "lawmakers" sign pledges to corporatists and religious fanatics and then proceed to attack "fair" trade and your personal liberties. Imagine! Religious nuts and the money changers all on the same team, attacking your personal choices and keeping your paycheck close to what it was 30 years ago. Only today's GOP could combine a self-righteous Taliban mentality with the money changer's greed and keep a straight face while reading the Sermon on the Mount. What a joke. The right has poisoned capitalism and religion for its ends.
Capitalism is bottom-up while corporatism is top-down serfdom. Corporatism is an economic monarchy. Small businesses and corporations still retain their human side while politician-buying conglomeratesa have no soul. When our highest court said corporations were people, it signaled the true death of capitalism and "by the people" in America. We are a corporatist nation now. He who has the most money wins. This is where Republican lawmaking and court cases have brought us. Our democracy is sick because Republicans have empowered corporations like the Koch Bros to influence elections with huge amounts of cash. No longer is this a democracy; it is a corporatocracy where the redistribution of wealth is guided to the rich by their bought and paid for (and pledge signing) lackeys in Congress.
Sinclair Lewis was so right when he wrote in "From It Can't Happen Here": "But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst fascists were they who disowned the word 'fascism' and preached enslavement to capitalism under the style of constitutional and traditional Native American liberty."
Vice President Henry Wallace also said some very truthful things about fascism. In a 1944 New York Times article, he wrote: "If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful"
"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
Sound familiar? He is talking about YOU, righty! There you are, wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible; an enemy of freedom. Right wingers think they are capitalists but in truth they are supporters of corporate fascism if they support the present GOP's religious and fiscal extremism. Capitalism doesn't mean special treatment for the most powerful.
James Veverka
Tilton
Steve Earle needs another dictionary lessen. Heavy-handed conservative governments become fascist. Heavy-handed socialist governments become communist. ALL heavy-handed governments have strong central authority, whether they be left or right.
Steve says the Republican Party stands for small government. Sure they do, Steve. Huge welfare systems for industrial giants is small government? Low fines for environmental damage that kills people? Tax-free existences and special loopholes for the monopolies is not capitalism. Subsidies for oil and corn are "small" government? Promotion of laws that intrude into people's bedrooms and doctor's offices are not small and unintrusive government behavior. They are tyrannies. Today's GOP is a iron-fisted coalition of religious conservatives who want to run the country like the Old Testament and right wing corporatists who hate true capitalism. Neither appreciates your constitutional right to privacy nor do they care much about you. If they were true capitalists they wouldn't be so busy buying legislators to create laws that favor the redistribution of wealth to them. That is immoral crony capitalistic bribery. Capitalism is not corporatism. Since 1980, wages for average workers have barely risen with the times while the people at the top have had increases in the hundreds of percent. That is not because they worked harder; it is because America has a disease called corporatism where the the most powerful corporations make the laws through their bought politicians and then they corner liquidity. Republican "lawmakers" sign pledges to corporatists and religious fanatics and then proceed to attack "fair" trade and your personal liberties. Imagine! Religious nuts and the money changers all on the same team, attacking your personal choices and keeping your paycheck close to what it was 30 years ago. Only today's GOP could combine a self-righteous Taliban mentality with the money changer's greed and keep a straight face while reading the Sermon on the Mount. What a joke. The right has poisoned capitalism and religion for its ends.
Capitalism is bottom-up while corporatism is top-down serfdom. Corporatism is an economic monarchy. Small businesses and corporations still retain their human side while politician-buying conglomeratesa have no soul. When our highest court said corporations were people, it signaled the true death of capitalism and "by the people" in America. We are a corporatist nation now. He who has the most money wins. This is where Republican lawmaking and court cases have brought us. Our democracy is sick because Republicans have empowered corporations like the Koch Bros to influence elections with huge amounts of cash. No longer is this a democracy; it is a corporatocracy where the redistribution of wealth is guided to the rich by their bought and paid for (and pledge signing) lackeys in Congress.
Sinclair Lewis was so right when he wrote in "From It Can't Happen Here": "But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst fascists were they who disowned the word 'fascism' and preached enslavement to capitalism under the style of constitutional and traditional Native American liberty."
Vice President Henry Wallace also said some very truthful things about fascism. In a 1944 New York Times article, he wrote: "If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful"
"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
Sound familiar? He is talking about YOU, righty! There you are, wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible; an enemy of freedom. Right wingers think they are capitalists but in truth they are supporters of corporate fascism if they support the present GOP's religious and fiscal extremism. Capitalism doesn't mean special treatment for the most powerful.
James Veverka
Tilton
