class warfare | Barry Kelly | Facts and Fictions

Tag Archives: class warfare

Aside

INSIGHTS FROM EIGHT DECADES #5

January is here and a new election experience faces all of us. What can we expect? All writers have biases. Mine is I used to be a Democrat and am now a Republican. The change is partly to age and changing values. The dramatically increasing influence of the Progressive Wing of the Democratic party also is a big factor in my bias. National Security issues are very important to me, having spent nearly all my working life playing a role in the Cold War. Two years as a Special Assistant to President Reagan made me more than a Reagan Democrat. So enough about my bias. First what can Republicans hope for: The Party will nominate the candidate that seems to be the most electable. Nothing is more important than the limiting of the incumbent to one term. Fiscal responsibility, a serious effort to decrease the national debt, a strong military, a smaller Federal Government that promotes an environment that stimulates growth and increases jobs, a simpler and fairer tax code, welfare and medical assistance delegated to the states,a President who respects the Constitutional bounds on his/her power, and a foreign policy that supports our friends and allies while earning respect for American power around the world. Those broad hopes seem to be appropriate to both parties and I think they are, but the rhetoric of the White House is beating a different drum.

The democratic drum of the Democratic Party leaders calls for a different kind of nation than I grew up in and served. I’m pretty good at understanding drum beats but I maybe a little off base here. For I hear a call to class warfare through the glorification of the middle class and the evil of the one percent. I also hear a cry for the systematic distribution of wealth in a quest for equality. The desire to increase the number of people on some sort of Federal assistance is prevalent. The shrinking of the military, both personnel and weapons budget, is a clear part of the message. The desire to protect citizens from all sorts of threats from our capitalist free market society is clear in past and pending regulations. Strongest of all is the belief that only government can solve today’s problems. What I distill from the total call of the drum is we must move to a European Socialist economy dependent on Keynesian monetary principles. Sorry, no thanks.

INSIGHTS FROM EIGHT DECADES #4

A do nothing Congress. A Grid lock approach to problem solving. An increasing use of class warfare slogans. Where is all this going? Surely this is not the American Promise. What happened to the ‘Land of Opportunity’, ‘The Melting Pot‘, ‘One Republic for All’, ‘The Great Democracy’, and many more hopeful descriptions of the United States of America? Are they being dissolved in the rhetoric of ‘Class Warfare’ and ideological purity? Reading the newspapers, listening to the political speeches from the left and right and the news coverage of the network and cable news TV you would think so. Even the President never fails to bring issues of class warfare to the front as he campaigns incessantly. Presidential candidates are examined under the microscope of political purity rather than the question can this person lead us out of our current doldrums of economic stagnation and political ineptness.

Divisions in our political parties have grown sharper. Movement of the Republicans to the right and of the Democrats to the left has dramatically decreased the possibility of the conflicting parties reaching compromise solutions on nearly all of our critical problems. The political center is under represented, in practical terms, maybe non-existent. Describing this situation as national suicide in the name of partisan purity is becoming more correct with each legislative impasse.

Since class warfare is the oldest and most prominent divisive force in terms of human civilization, with the possible exception of tribalism, which includes many of the same motives, let’s start our move toward an escape from political fratricide with a look at the motives of class warfare. The basic motive in class warfare is for one segment of the population that represent the ‘have nots’ to take away some the privileges and wealth of the other group representing the ‘haves’ until everyone has an equal share. This ideology has always worked from the premise that the amount of wealth in any society is fixed. To give the ‘have nots’ more, wealth must be taken from the ‘haves’. The followers of the class warfare theory have always rejected the opposing premise that wealth is expandable and a greater share for the ‘have nots’ can come from created wealth. This sharing of wealth premise depends on equal opportunity for each individual to have a chance of improving their relative position in their society. Leveling the playing field does not mean there will not be winners and losers. It means everyone has a chance for a bigger share of the community’s wealth. The level of success each individual achieves depends on ability, hard work, and a degree of luck.

To move away from the dangers of a national class warfare struggle, we must all help change the metrics of the debate. Reject the slogans and sound bites of one class against another, including the rantings that the ‘middle class’ must be the recipient of all things. Recognize that there is an inequality of performance in striving for material gain and that in the field of life, as in the field of sports there are winners and those who lose. Reassert that wealth and material holdings are only one measure of success among many. Search for areas of agreement in solving problems and settling disputes. Work on personal tolerance of other viewpoints. Constantly work for improving the field of equal opportunity, understanding there will always be different levels of success.