It's time for a Class War

"That's class warfare!" shouted nearly every conservative politician in nearly every situation.

"Would you like paper or plastic?"

"That's class warfare, sir!"

"Honey, does this dress make me look fat?"

"Mam, that's class warfare!"

Good.  That's what I say.  Because aside from being an ingenious response to that last question; it's about time we actually had one of those infamous "class wars" we hear so much about.

"I want a war between the rich and the poor...if I'm told to kill...there'll be a class war, right here in America."  That this song from the 1970's references conscription only heightens the idea that the wealthy or ruling class can dictate the fate and indeed decide the lives of the less fortunate in our society.  For today we have what is known as a "back-door draft," or an epidemic of socioeconomic-induced military volunteerism.  The poor simply don't have many other options.

Conservatives will be happy to extol the virtues of our current state of affairs for you.  They'll tell you that we should simply be happy for the success of the top 400 richest Americans who control more wealth than the bottom 150 million combined (Politifact).  Also, they aren't the "rich," but rather the "job-creators."  They say the reason we currently have high unemployment is because these "job-creators" can't invest capital in the hiring of employees because they are overtaxed and their corporations over-regulated.  Their argument, as it has been since 1980, is that if unburdened the wealthy will produce jobs for the rest of us and that this rising tide will lift all boats.

Unfortunately for those who subscribe to this argument, "trickle-down economics" does not work.  It is nothing more than an excuse for the wealthy to further enrich themselves.  It not arguable that the 1990's were a prosperous time for the United States; with 22 million jobs being created under Bill Clinton's tenure alone (Politifact).  Clinton mainly eschewed supply-side economics and raised taxes on upper-earners.  The wealthy paid a higher tax rate and there was far less income inequality than we find today (Talking Points Memo).  Then again, since slightly more equitable wealth distribution is supposedly akin to socialism (again, gasp!), to remain as capitalistic as humanly possible perhaps we should just let them eat cake.

We are at each others throats in the country.  This is not coincidence; it is a time-tested divide and conquer strategy.  If the proletariat is consumed with rage over people who aren't harming them such as minorities, immigrants and homosexuals, these groups won't band together to fight the people who are actually screwing them.

At least metaphorically, it's time for a class war...

CHARGE!!!