The Literate Donkey: An Introduction

Reclaiming Our Founding Ideals

Democrats need to take back our identity. We shouldn’t tolerate the Neo-Cons routine alienation of Democrats through obfuscation and outright lies!

Neo Cons classify progressive democratic ideals as fringe politics when the fact of the matter is there is nothing more fringe than selling out the middle class for the benefit of the wealthy. When republicans endorse policies and make deals that strip our rights while making corporations wealthy, they are not representing the average middle class worker — no matter what they tell you. How many of you or your friends/family have enjoyed 43% increase in income like the Coporations have? I’m going to take a wild guess and say — few, if any! The fact is though, corporations have experienced huge revenue and income growth.

Americans in all but one income class say the economy is worse off under Bush. The exception is those making more than $100,000 a year. In that group, 36 percent say the economy is better off because of Bush's policies, while 32 percent say it's worse off.
read the complete Bloomberg article

It is this telling fact that underlies why the neo cons do not represent the middle class. There is little that they support that benefits anyone beyond corporations and the wealthy. In the 1980's we learned about the trickle down theory. We found out that a president with a sunny disposition and hope for the future could make headway on a sluggish economy. Of course, who knows whether the change in the economy was a result of a $21 billion dollar tax cut in 1978 followed by a oil windfall tax in 1980? Perhaps, the growth in our economy was fueled by a bourgening technology industry. Perhaps companies like Microsoft, Apple, Intel, IBM etc spurred growth in other industries. Certainly, by the late 1980s that was the case.

There are more problems with the neo con attitude of representing the middle class. The Republicans treat the American working class as though they neither have the right to know what is going on, nor the ability to find out about the clandestine deals that are made:

House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Buget Office.
Read More from this Washington Post article

AND just in case someone thinks this is just one example, check out this from 2004’s Medicare bill — oh yeah, and again with the energy bill of 2004How can the republicans convince the middle class that this is good for them? The average retiree will now pay even more for their health care. These people are on fixed incomes and have no way of making up the difference! The corporations that benefited received a $22 Billion bonus — and some say athletes are overpaid?

The biggest problem facing the Democrats is their inability to illustrate to the media driven public how republicans take advantage of them. There can be no effective progress until the Democrats develop impassioned leadership that represents the middle class again. The misguided belief that Democrats must court the religious right needs to be deleted from the plan. The religious right is a fringe organization that rules by fear and condemnation. Progressive, liberal, enlightened people do not.

The American middle class is not the religious right. The American middle class is not a special interest group.

The American middle class is a group of people who want to make a sound living, take care of their families and quite frankly hear less from their government! Democrats need to become passionate about civil liberties,political greed and is representation and they need to do it now.