..okay, it's been
longer than 30 years and most people are
unaware (
video) how
rigged the
system has become and how much wealth has been syphoned away, but this false narrative demonizing the New Deal, workers, and minorities while flipping the truth upside down to conceal the avarice of the 1%ers really took hold in the
Reagan era
The "conservative" movement has a glaring vulnerability. Their entire foundation rests upon a "supply side" theory they cling to despite its having been exhaustively debunked. One of the maneuvers that has made this swindle possible is the decades old fear-mongering "wealth redistribution" lie with all of its race baiting ugliness, being sold as taking from the rich and redistributing to the poor.
This is how ingrained this con has become: I don't know how the search algorithm works but with an infinite number of choices for the "example" both Bing and Google ended up with this when defining the word "redistribution":
distribute (something) differently or again, typically to achieve greater social equality
"their primary concern was to redistribute income from rich to poor"
..an "example" that we've heard from the likes of a
Pete Peterson and 1%er "conservatives" for decades to distort, distract and ultimately steer the focus away from the real problem and consequently the
real solutions we've known for years (FDR video @ link)
Both Bing & Google; identical example. This is how propaganda works. "their [Our] primary concern was..." is not redistribution, but a fair deal in the first place. A fair share of the gains made from our labor. A decent living wage, assholes. Not a tiny and shrinking fraction of the profits we produce
But it is a lie, a carefully crafted fabrication to cover what is actually happening and systematically reinforced. The regressive "conservative" policies this country has gradually enacted over time were and are engineered to end New Deal type advancements including the changes in the tax code. It is an agenda moving exactly opposite of what has been labeled as this so-called "wealth redistribution" accusation.
What is happening is pre - distribution in the opposite direction, a tax policy con peddled by the "conservative" movement. 'Skimming Scooping shoveling off the top' (Robert Reich video). The result of this is documented by many respected economists and topping many of today's headline news outfits.
The good news is, the trickle-down / supply side theory based on maximizing profits over all else that "conservatives" have managed to inflict over the years and has always been a failure, is beginning to implode. Even the GOP presidential hopefuls are now touting their "deep concern" (read: fear of electoral backlash) for the growing wealth gap while trying desperately to continue covering this failure with the same failed agenda and the same "wealth redistribution" accusation.
Now is the perfect time to expose that "wealth redistribution" deception for what it is. The notion that it is the middle and lower income persons, the "47%" (the so-called "takers") that are the drain on society when nothing is farther from the truth. It is the 1%ers and .01%ers, that are bringing this country down by systematically wringing more and more out of its people. The trillions in tax expenditures, loopholes and all out tax evasion schemes over the years mixed with the hoarding of $trillions in off shore accounts has brought about an unsustainable, unbalanced more volatile instability to the economy.
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It's hard to tell just how big a blow to "conservatism" (and how much relief for so many people could be gained) exposing, debunking and severing this "wealth redistribution" lie from the "conservative" movements grasping hands would turn out to be, but I do know it has been one, if not thee most important building blocks of deception that the GOP has nurtured for decades.
I mean to try
For starters is this. Jared Bernstein @ CBPP has the accurate telling of it; Primary distribution of wealth means that wealth is moving from those of lower to modest/median income to those most wealthy. A reverse Robin Hood scheme that has become the norm and that "conservatives" insist we need more of to "fix" what ails this country.
The basic idea behind this enormous theft and the false "wealth redistribution" smokescreen to hide it can be found in the effort to dominate democracy as spelled out in the confidential Lewis Powell memo addressed to the non-United States private business lobbying group known as the U.S. Chamber of commerce. The Powell memo came out in 1971 and it took ten years for this almost complete reversal of the truth to become a common phrase, but it eventually did thanks in large part to a actor with few skills other than likability and a marginal command of the stage; President Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Since then it's been all down hill for the American worker when it comes to wage gains in the shorter term and to economic mobility in the long. Workers wages and economic mobility have been stuck in place and worsening, especially with austerity, one of the more recent variants making the rounds as the solution
The primary purpose of the Powell memorandum and it adherents was to undo the governmental programs geared towards advancement of the people - the New Deal - and any polices including tax structure (Thomas Pickety graph) and/or programs designed to achieve the same goals for a flourishing middle class. (Debunking GOP's false/favorite scapegoats/culprits vs What does matter: LABOR UNIONS)
The Powell memo at its core had one basic directive; to increase profits for corporate ownership part of society (the 1%ers in today's terms). To achieve this meant diminishing the share of production of the everyday worker, eliminating any regulations on corporations; rolling back worker safety protocals, eliminating environmental protections, disenfranchising "undesirable" voting blocs, evading taxation, and to sell and label all efforts to build a more egalitarian society as an "attack on free enterprise" - an "attack on America" - actual words used In the Powell Memo - and very likely the genesis of the "un-American" slur so popular with the GOP these days
The opposite is true. The chamber of commerce, "conservatives' movement is the guilty party here. They launched an attack on America - and NO this so called "conservative" movement is not an ideology as many speak it. It is greed plain and simple. I say this with too many examples to list of "conservatives" enacting and attempting to enact policies which run counter to the very "ideology" they spew when laying claim to it. The so-called "free market" topping the list. Wall Street and financial too big to fail monopolies. Monopolies; another issue, as Thom Hartmann explains, where the"conservatives' have thrown accusations, reversing the truth to cover their own wrong doing, but enough of that..
The Powell memo reads like a war plan detailing the many angles of "conservative" attacks on: education & textbooks, infiltrating colleges, labor union busting, civil rights rolled back, controlling courts and politicians, dominating T.V. (Fox - future eg.) and other forms of media (Limbaugh eg.) and on and on - and is well worth the time it takes to read it over to get a feel for the mind set it takes to accept an oligarchy running this country as the way things are meant to be. A view (which is actually just plain old greed/avarice masquerading as a "belief" - see: trickle down economics - imo) that goes so far as promulgating the notion that wealth inequality is necessary for a sustainable economy. The greater the disparity the bigger the boost. It's a fantastic pile of shit, and also the backbone of the "conservative" movement's vaunted "trickle-down supply side" myth
That's not what America, the land of equal opportunity is supposed to be about, but it is the direction we are going. Here is a link to some very informative charts (Moyers & Co.) and literature on just how destructive this primary distribution of wealth going to the highest paid disguised behind the "wealth distribution" propaganda has been for the vast majority of people in this country. We're going backwards with this "trickle-down capital trumps labor" farce.
By flipping the narrative and accusing others of what they are most guilty of, the "conservatives" have gotten away with an agenda of austerity for the majority of citizens while gifting a tiny minority of those most wealthy already hoarding as much as all the combined wealth of all the "other" people in the world
To this day, those with the highest income continue to make off with the lion's share of the income gains off the top. Privatizing gains while socializing the losses these most affluent incur when they screw up gambling at Wall Street or foul our air, land and oceans with toxic drilling and poisonous Oil spills. Existing by Picking the pockets of the middle and even those with the lowest income; the people who actually earn their paychecks supporting these societal parasites
So this Diary by me and focus on just this one thing, this one accusation and all its "welfare queen" variants that has become so ingrained - "wealth redistribution" - may seem myopic, and perhaps it is. But this one thing, this single trick of language has been at the center of the most brutal policies and has paved the way for some of the most vicious attacks on whole groups of people. It has also served as a blunt instrument of division amongst people that under normal healthier economic circumstances would be rallying together. Instead the opposite happens while the owners of great wealth remain safe from the actions they have put upon people.
And since many if not all of the Powell memo's reactionary policies put forth in this planned assault on the middle class worker remains foundational to the GOP's "conservative" movement agenda to this day and that includes many of the same tactics employed 30 years ago; taking out this main pillar, this - "wealth redistribution" cudgel - and exposing it for the smoke screen it is, seems to me to be a good thing to do.
Primary distribution is what it's all about for the 1%ers picking our pockets. Lying about "wealth distribution". Taking the lions share off the top and conning the world into believing it is not only fair but necessary for wealth to trickle down in a modern economy
So I say it again. It's hard to tell just how big a blow to "conservatism" and how much relief could be gained by exposing, debunking and severing this "wealth redistribution" lie from the "conservative" movements grasping hands would turn out to be, but I do know it has been one, if not thee most important building blocks of deception that the GOP has nurtured for decades.
I mean to try
- thank you for hearing me out
- time to turn in, be back later today - ♫♪♫