Earlier in the "Year of the Jubilee," I wrote the following [words in brackets are corrections or amplifications]:
"Fran????ois Marie Arouet, better known to the world as Voltaire, made what was perhaps his most profound observation [on government] in his Dictionnaire Philosophique [(1764): the] primary--if unspoken--purpose of all governments is the redistribution of wealth. Our only choice is whether that wealth will be redistributed from the poor to the rich, or the rich to the poor."
"We know, from our experience over the last thirty [years, when] it is redistributed from the poorer citizens to the richer ones, we end up with a corrupt and unresponsive government whose sole goal is to keep the poor so destitute that they cannot rise against their oppressors. Such governments do not use bread and circuses to keep their people in [line--in spite of what many conservative historians, starting with Edward Gibbon, think--but] wars and economic malfeasance [are used] as an excuse to keep the poorest members of society frightened, undereducated, and unsure of having the means to support themselves and their families tomorrow. The only guaranteed way out of [this] predicament for the poorest citizens [in America today] is military service, just as it was in Rome. The rich on the other hand, gobble up military and other related government contracts that make them richer still, and then arrange the laws so that their own total tax liability[--if any--]is kept to a bare minimum."
A Lie, Told Often Enough, Is Perceived as the Truth
Joshua Holland in his 30 May 2009 AlterNet.org article "The Results Are In: Americans Are Now More Closely Aligned With Progressive Ideas Than at Any Time in Memory," pointed out that the United States of America is not now a "center-right" nation. I would add the question of whether or not it was it ever really a center-right nation, or was this a perception created by polling companies and mainstream media for the benefit of the oligarchs? If the American people were ever actually center-right at any time in the last forty years, it was a subconscious reaction to the continual loss of wages and benefits as the reactionaries began to implement Justice Powell's memo that I mentioned earlier, destroying unions and undermining the so-called "Peace of Detroit"; a government-imposed understanding between labor and business that engendered cooperation between labor and owners during the Second World War and its aftermath. The breach of this understanding between business and labor, starting with President Reagan's unwillingness to negotiate with, and subsequent firing of, the air traffic controllers in PATCO, has returned the relationship of business and labor to one of mistrust and open hostility.
Let me quote here from Mr. Holland's article:
This week, a new report released by the Campaign for America's Future and the media watchdog group MediaMatters attempts to finally bury the idea that the U.S. leans rightward. It takes a comprehensive look at the political landscape in which we live and a look forward at America's shifting demographic profile -- all of which reveal a citizenry that is anything but center-right and will only continue to trend in a more progressive direction, leaving modern conservatism increasingly isolated in its ideas.
The study gathered public-opinion data from a number of respected, nonpartisan polling outfits, findings from the (huge) National Election Study series and official statistics on ethnicity and gender to make the case. Among the findings:
On what may be the key difference between liberals and conservatives today -- the role of government -- more than twice as many people agree with the statement, "there are more things government should be doing" than believe the Reaganite adage, "the less government, the better."
In 1994, more than half of Americans said, "government regulation of business usually does more harm than good" and fewer than 4 out of 10 thought "government regulation of business is necessary to protect the public interest." That's been flipped on its head during the 15 years since -- today, fewer than 4 in 10 believe regulation causes more harm than good.
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