Class War in America: the Book |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to download this material for personal, not-for-profit, use. If you duplicate it for others, attribute it to Charles M. Kelly, and with a link to this site. Print copies are still available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and used copies are widely available on the internet. 19. Workers
of America, Unite!
Because Conservatives Already Have,
and They Own
Congress and the Presidency In
his classic book, Whatever Became
of Sin?, Karl Menninger
equated mental health with moral health. After referring to Arnold
Toynbee’s observation that “all the great historic philosophies and
religions have been concerned, first and foremost, with the overcoming of
egocentricity,” he went on to conclude: Egocentricity
is one name for it. Selfishness, narcissism, pride, and other terms have
been used. But neither the clergy nor the behavioral scientists, including
psychiatrists, have made it an issue. The popular leaning is away from
notions of guilt and morality…. Disease and treatment have been the
watchwords of the day and little is said about selfishness or guilt or the
“morality gap.” And certainly no one talks about sin! 1 If
the clergy and behavioral scientists are leaning away from notions of
morality, what can one expect of those whose professions are primarily
concerned with personal power and wealth? Consider Dan Seligman’s previous
rationale for “deep-sixing” the word “greed” (see Part
3). Similar justifications for greed and materialism are spoken or
published almost daily in the mass media. The
rationale seems to be that “greed is what made our country successful,”
“greed is responsible for the greatest economy mankind has ever
developed,” and “greed is the essence of
capitalism.” None
of which is true. As Toynbee and the world’s mainstream religions have
concluded, in one form or another, greed is one of the seven deadly
sins—and for good reason. It eventually destroys human organizations and
societies. If unchecked, it will destroy our capitalistic
system. Apologists
for America’s wealthy and powerful deliberately confuse greed with a
normal, healthy, self-interest. Self-interest is the necessary motivation
that enables a person to provide for the welfare of himself and his
family—adequate housing, food, education, health care, a good sense of
values, and so on. But
self-interest becomes greed, as any dictionary defines the term, when it
becomes excessive: when it
leads to behaviors that are dishonest, fraudulent, devious, deceptive, or
manipulative. The people who made the United States the greatest and
strongest country in the world were not greedy. They were dedicated to
the ethical and moral standards of their professions or work. They
succeeded in spite of, not
because of, the greed of others. They overcame the negative and costly
effects of greed on society: §
They
went into the medical profession because healing the sick was their
calling, and patients’ care and welfare was their primary consideration.
§
They
became journalists because they wanted to report the truth as objectively
as possible, and—in the process of reporting what was actually happening
in the world—most became liberals. §
They
went into business in order to provide a quality product or service for
the public at the lowest possible price and with a decent return to
themselves. §
They
went into politics in order to make our society a better place for
everyone—which meant that they had to protect the free market from
unscrupulous predators, and to uphold the rights of investors, workers,
and the general public. §
They
worked as laborers in order to provide a decent living for themselves, and
to do a responsible job of raising their families. Since
the mid-1970s, wealthy conservatives have pursued policies that have
changed all that—at least for our most basic industries and businesses,
for some of our most important professions, and, especially, for our
political environment. Now, greed and materialism have replaced the
virtues of fairness and justice. Profit, the bottom line, and personal
wealth, in themselves, justify any
kind of behavior as being morally acceptable: §
Most
of our basic manufacturing industries have either left the country or they
have adopted employment and pay practices that place our country back in
the pre-1930 era. §
Big
business has taken over the medical profession. They promote and give
bonuses to the doctors and nurses who will give the stingiest care
possible at the highest price. Naturally, they ignore patients who can’t
pay. Medical professionals who uphold their traditional values may be
fired or blackballed. §
More
people become journalists because they want to advance the interests of
their conservative sponsors—the ones who financed their education, and can
give them promotions, salary increases, power and
prestige. §
More
people go into business only to make incredible amounts of money in the
shortest possible time, and nothing is unethical if it improves the bottom
line—or if a person can’t be convicted in a court of
law. §
More
people go into politics in order to advance the interests of those who
give them the most money, which automatically means that wealthy investors
gain control of the markets, keep workers’ incomes as low as possible, and
remove protections of the environment—and to hell with the rights of
consumers, communities and the general public. §
As
a result of the above, laborers have to work in two or more jobs in order
to provide a marginal living for their families. Too many of them have
precious little time to do a responsible job of raising families. The
transfer of wealth and power from those who work to those who manage
money, information, ideas, and people is just about complete. Investors,
corporate executives, accountants, consultants, investment bankers, and
related professionals now have the power to command almost unlimited
incomes for themselves. They
do it by inserting themselves between those who produce products and
services—workers, engineers, scientists, doctors, true “family farmers,”
nurses, truck drivers, and so on—and the consumers of those products and
services. At every step, from financing a new business venture to advising
corporations about how to prevent unions, they take huge amounts of money
for themselves and leave relatively little for those who are the true
producers of wealth in our country. It
took conservatives at least 20 years to create this kind of political and
economic system, although they’ve been working at it and making slow
progress for the entire century. It also will take at least 20 years to
reverse. It will be a long and difficult task, but it can be
done. First,
a Non-Option Those
who value the kind of democratic capitalism that America had from the
mid-1930s to the mid-’70s might be tempted to misplace their anger about
what Republicans and conservative Democrats have done to this country.
Joining
the right- or left-wing crazies who store weapons and plan to destroy the
U.S. government, any of its buildings or any of its officials just shifts
the problems from one bad form of government to an even worse form of
government. At least the bad government we now have is democratically and
peacefully elected. There
isn’t an identifiable militant fringe group in the country whose leaders
have benevolent intent. Even if one of the more popular fringe groups
ended up in power, most people wouldn’t want to live under its idea of
government. Instead,
those who don’t like what is happening in this country must work for
peaceful, political change.
With all its faults, democratic capitalism is the best system mankind has
come up with. Our country just has to regain the values and policies that
made it great. The
#1 Priority There
are all kinds of valid ways to improve a society. Some emphasize personal
action: organizing workers, teaching values to children, volunteer work,
conserving energy, donating to charity, writing letters to the editor and
so on. These are important, but they pale in comparison to getting the
right persons into political office, especially at the federal
level—because the federal level affects what happens at the state and
local levels. If
national labor laws are biased against unions, it’s almost impossible to
organize workers, as the “right-to-work” states have amply demonstrated.
When an individual buys and drives a compact car, he pollutes the air
less, but his impact is overwhelmed by the fleets of SUVs that our
national and state laws allow and even encourage. Private donations to
charity certainly help the poor and are necessary, but as the great
depression proved, in a real economic crunch private charity will last for
a few months at best. The
basis for meaningful change—the change that allows further positive
changes to occur—is an informed, politically active public that votes the
right people into office in the first place. So, 1. As
a general rule, and barring unusual circumstances, never, ever, vote for a Republican,
anywhere, for anything—even for the proverbial dog catcher. All the Republicans voted against
the 1993 Deficit Reduction legislation. Misguided voters who thought they
were voting for moderate Republicans in 1994 and ’96 actually, in effect,
gave more power to their anti-worker right-wing Congressional leaders.
Qualification: I know an exceptional Republican—who once was an
Illinois politician—who I would vote for every time. But, again, barring
similar unusual considerations, the general rule
applies. 2. Vote
for a conservative Democrat only
if there are no other realistic choices, and if a non-vote would
result in a win for a Republican. 3. In
the primaries, pick a traditional, liberal Roosevelt/Truman-style Democrat
who has a realistic chance of winning over a conservative Democrat.
4. Always
vote
for a progressive populist if one is available. A few Democrats fit the
bill, but not many. Maybe the next economic downturn and its accompanying
problems will encourage more Democrats to remember what their party used
to stand for, and why.
Progressive
Populists It’s
easy to identify the progressive populists who believe in the kind of
liberal Roosevelt/Truman-style democratic capitalism that we had from the
1930s to the ’80s. Progressive populists: §
Support
a progressive income tax (higher taxes for those who have benefited most
from the sacrifices forced upon working Americans)—versus those who want to reduce
inheritance, capital gains, and real estate taxes for the wealthy. §
Support
a reduction in regressive taxes, such as sales and social security
taxes—versus those who support
flat taxes and increases in sales taxes, which hit low- and middle-income
citizens the hardest. §
Support
laws that protect the rights of workers to collectively negotiate for
wages and humane working conditions through their organized unions—versus those who use their power
to destroy unions and decent working conditions. §
Believe
that world trade can be truly free only when it is managed. That is,
businesses with high moral standards—those who respect workers, the
environment and the public—must be protected from unprincipled
competitors, and be able to compete on a level playing field. §
Work
to improve relations between cultural subgroups—versus those who use code words
and divisive rhetoric to drive wedges between them. Progressive populists
are interested in justice and in improving conditions for all Americans.
This is what separates them from some of the so-called populists who want
to demagogue their way into political power. §
Work
to improve the environment—rather than corporate bottom-lines—so our
descendants will be able to survive beyond the next 20
years. §
Recognize
that it is always cheaper and more efficient to prevent our nation’s
problems from growing than to ignore them until it is too late to take
effective action. Progressive populists believe that proactive problem
solving is preferable, and ultimately more cost effective for the
taxpayer, than cutting taxes for the wealthy. In
other words, progressive populists actually believe in government. They
recognize that no private organization has as its charter the obligation
to solve social problems—only our democratically elected government
does.
Now
Is the Time The
revered guru of modern corporate philosophy, Milton Friedman, posed and
answered his famous question: “So the question is, do corporate
executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in
their business activities other than to make as much money for their
stockholders as possible? And my answer is, no they do not.” This is one
of the most frequently quoted justifications for greed that today’s
corporate executives cite. Face
it. Unless there is a profit in it, corporate executives not only feel no
responsibility for how their actions and decisions affect average
Americans or their local communities—they sanctimoniously claim a moral
superiority for holding such selfish values. An
effective government—with honest, not-paid-for politicians—is our only
defense against corporate executives who have no moral standards for the
treatment of workers or the general public. So,
prepare to participate in political discussions and to influence the ways
other people vote by reading the news pages of The Wall Street Journal, Forbes,
Fortune, Barron’s and Business
Week. Their news reports are fairly accurate and can’t help revealing
what corporate America and our right-wing politicians are doing to workers
at all levels. Read their editorial pages and opinion pieces for
entertainment only; they are so violently anti-worker, anti-government,
anti-tax-on-the-rich, and pro-corporation, it’s hard to see how anyone can
take them seriously. (Don’t support these conservative publications by
actually buying them; they’re in most libraries and the Journal can be found lying around
almost anywhere.) The
recommendations about voting may seem a bit dogmatic and extreme. Not at
all. Conservative politicians have made such inroads into the American
psyche that they’ve become outrageously overconfident. They don’t even try
to disguise their pro-business, anti-worker biases anymore.
As
the materials throughout this book demonstrate, their behaviors have
become blatant to the point of recklessness, and they’ve done almost
irreparable harm, not only to working-class Americans, but also to one of
the greatest economies ever developed in history. The
voting public needs to send a message. Now. Now go to:
|
—