*To: MSNBC Democrats & FOX NEWS Republicans
*Subject: You’re both wrong.

90% of America’s media outlets are owned by 6 corporations. Whose interests do you think their programming promotes?

🔴 FOX NEWS REPUBLICANS: While you waste time and energy flying your flags upside down, claiming to defend the little guy, and saying stupid racist stuff, the leaders you are voting for are cramming wedge issues down the throats of voters in order to convince people with not much money to vote to cut taxes and create loopholes for corporations and the 1%. Corporations and the 1% have filled the campaign coffers of members of Congress, so those political leaders tell you things to make you hate other people to distract you from the fact that they’re cutting taxes for and representing the interests of corporations and the 1%. You’re mad at immigrants and people of color when you should be mad at corporate leaders and the fact that they’ve bought and paid for the political leaders that are supposed to be representing your interests. You’re mad at the wrong people. They’ve appropriated your rage. And you fell for it.

🔵 MSNBC DEMOCRATS: You waste so much time and energy breathlessly saying how “stupid” blue collar Republican voters are (many of whom were once part of our blue collar Democratic base before we stupidly called them “deplorable”). Meanwhile, our Democratic leaders (who have been bought and paid for by corporations and the 1%) have been joining with Republicans to cut taxes for corporations and the 1% and enact other policies that have hurt blue collar workers and helped hollow out the middle class.

We Democrats mostly just pay lip service to our blue collar brethren and then turn around and support policies that actually reduce the standard of living of blue collar families and go against the public good. We Democrats talk a good game about supporting workers, supporting worker safety, supporting unions, supporting people of color, fighting for the environment, etc., but our leaders are unfortunately mostly bought and paid for by corporations and the wealthy so, in practice, they actually mostly represent the interests of corporations and the wealthy. (Campaign finance reform and legislation effectively overturning the devastating Citizens United Supreme Court decision would go a long way to fix that corruption on both sides of the aisle by the way).

The result is that our Democratic leaders vote AGAINST lowering prescription drug prices for seniors, vote against Medicare for all, etc. Our Democratic leaders are also mostly war mongers so they keep sending blue collar mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters overseas to fight, in some cases, for the interests of big business. (Check their voting records. Much more accurate way to assess their real performance than their speeches).

Blue collar workers have been getting the shaft for decades (see millions of jobs shipped overseas under NAFTA etc.) as a result of democratic and republican leaders both prioritizing the needs of corporations and the wealthy.

It’s called “neoliberalism” folks and it involves disingenuously pretending to be for issues that voters value while quietly shaping policy to fit the wishes of a tiny minority of our nation (huge corporations and the wealthiest 1% of the population).

Read all about neoliberalism (practiced by Democratic AND Republican political leaders) here in the Los Angeles Times article: “How did America get addicted to a policy that fails everyone but the rich?” https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-10-04/uc-j-bradford-delong-economist-reaganomics-neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is . . . MSNBC Democrats and FOX NEWS Republicans high fiving people of color while failing to enact policies that would actually improve the lives of people of color.

🚩a) And yes, mass incarceration of people of color was ramped up under Bill Clinton’s devastating “get tough on crime” centrist push.

🚩b) And yes, our nation’s vital safety net was gutted in a major way under Bill Clinton’s so-called “welfare reform”. As Gandhi once put it, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.

🚩c) And yes, Bill Clinton’s administration got rid of the Glass Steagall act, a move that many leading economists say helped cause the 2008 financial crisis (which devastated so many Americans, especially blue collar workers and their families).

“a, b & c” above are just 3 of many things that drove our blue collar base away from the Democratic Party. . . Making them feel desperate, making them vulnerable to falling for easy answers, wedge issues and anything that would blow up this corrupt corporate duopoly.

Yes, we Democrats chased our blue collar base away right into the arms of Trump. Steve Bannon and Roger Stone took full advantage of the Democratic Party’s abandonment of their blue collar base. They helped appropriate legitimate blue collar rage at both parties and disingenuously channeled it into tricking blue collar workers into voting for candidates who would cut taxes on the wealthiest 1% and large corporations.

Steve Bannon and Roger Stone also got blue collar workers to support gutting very necessary regulations (guardrails) on big business – environmental regulations, labor regulations, etc.

Neoliberalism is MSNBC Democrats and FOX NEWS Republicans and their political leaders (who are bought and paid for by corporations and the wealthy) supported sending countless thousands of blue collar workers to fight and die for corporate oil interests in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Neoliberalism is Democratic and Republican leaders talking a good game throwing red meat to their bases while actually joining together to support privatization of public entities (our water systems, sewer systems, education systems). And yes, we should watch Josh Shapiro like a hawk on charter schools.

Neoliberalism is Democratic and Republican political leaders selling Netanyahu’s brutal repression of Palestinians (and selling Netanyahu regime’s killing of over 30,000 Palestinians —- 2/3 of them women and children) in order line the pockets of defense contractors that donate to the campaigns of Democratic and Republican political leaders. The UN and nations around the world have condemned the Netanyahu regime and yet American politicians on BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE (going against the overwhelming majority of most U.S. citizens) still support Netanyahu’s brutal regime and are sending them weapons. This policy by the Biden administration is alienating most young Democratic voters and that could cause Biden to lose the election. Talk about stupid.

Neoliberalism is Democratic and Republican political leaders being bought and paid for by corporations and then loosening environmental regulations and continuing to vote for tax breaks for big oil. Our Democratic political leaders claim to be for the environment, but check their voting record on natural gas production (gas wells are causing major environmental damage, poisoning drinking water and are serious contributor to climate change) and other key environmental issues. Democratic political leaders talk a good game for the MSNBC crowd, but it’s really mostly lip service. They’re slaves to their corporate donors and are selling out citizens when it comes to the environment.

🟠🟠🟠 FOX NEWS REPUBLICANS: You are damaging our republic more than you can possibly imagine by falling for Steve Bannon’s and Roger Stone’s tricks to appropriate your rage. You’re getting played man. And that’s leading you to support all kinds of insane policies that are simply designed to destract you. We do need to take back America. . . from corporations and the 1%.

90% of the world’s media is owned by 7 corporations. Whose interests do you think their programming promotes?

Those secret school board meetings, book bans, anti-LGBTQ+ policies etc. aren’t really about education. When you get right down to it, this (just like the anti-immigrant sentiment) is just about using wedge issues to help big business and the 1% continue to get working class people to vote for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy even though it is not at all in the best interests of working class people to do so.

As you know, corporations and the wealthy started their walk down this path with the so-called “Tea Party” which was designed to look grass roots but was really started by corporate leader Dick Armey. Grover Norquist’s efforts helped. It was a way to convince blue collar people to be on the side of the rich and corporate folks when it came to tax policy.

Over the years it got harder and harder to scare and divide working class people in order to get them to vote for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. So then the corporate folks and the rich had to scare them even more with the scorched earth tactics utilized by Steve Bannon and his ilk (implemented by Bannon in the form of Trump / Jan 6th etc).

In my view (and I know I’m not at all alone in thinking this), this has all been one big scam disguised as abortion controversy, book banning controversy, immigrant controversy, gay pride controversy, furries controversy etc.

I remember when the younger George Bush was running for office and he was embracing immigrants and was explaining, saying the quiet part out loud, that the Republican party was too old and white and needed to embrace other cultures if they were going to continue to win in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations. Obviously the Republican party decided it was no longer worth catering to immigrants to win their vote, and decided it was better to use dark skinned immigrants to scare white blue-collar workers into voting for tax break for the rich and powerful corporations.

All of this started with the Powell memo many decades ago when big business decided to come in and take over Washington in order to reshape policy to suit their needs. Big business titans (and the politicians they have purchased) have been playing us ever since. They’ve worked hard to use abortion, gay marriage, book bans, immigrant issues, etc. to keep us angry and divided and to keep us voting for tax policies that will benefit the wealthy and large corporations. I think in someways it is actually just that simple. We have totally been played.

Look at the inheritance tax. A few thousand of the wealthiest families in America (who wanted to minimize taxes and not pay their fair share — wanted to maintain an aristocracy in America which is totally against what we stand for) paid an advertising firm to “rebrand” the inheritance tax as the “death tax”. They lied and claimed that the inheritance tax affected blue collar workers, farmers etc. When in fact it only affected the wealthy.

Remember, the interstate highway system, the moon landing and huge federal projects were done when the wealthy were taxed at 70% – 90%. And the wealthy were just fine. (And remember, the wealthy needed goods and services sold by their companies to be transported on that highway system).

*** Once we realize that we have more in common than we have separating us, we can begin to make DECISIONS from a position of unified strength rather than making DEMANDS from a position of divided weakness.

Together, we are so much greater than the sum of our parts. We are the 99%. And we have 99% of the vote if we unify. That gives us all the power.

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SOURCE INFO

90% of America’s media outlets are owned by 6 corporations. Details here: https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6?amp

TAXES LOWERED

“Below is a history of the top marginal tax rates on the wealthiest Americans:
For 50 years, corporate backed politicians in Congress have slashed taxes to line the pockets of their wealthy donors.” – Robert Reich
@rbreich

1940: 81%
1950: 84%
1960: 91%
1970: 72%
1980: 70%
1990: 28%
2000: 40%
2010: 35%