Things Fall Apart Sometimes

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try to keep them together, things just fall apart.  And when we see that something is falling apart, there is nothing to do but go buy a new one, pay someone to fix it, or fix it yourself.  But what happens when the thing that is falling apart is the fabric of the American political establishment?

As of yesterday, President Obama, maybe even against the advice of his handlers, compromised with Republican leaders in the House and Senate in creating the "framework" for a deal on tax cuts.  Basically, he bargained with the American people's money to give the richest citizens in America a continued tax break that was put into place under Bush Jr.  Of course, part of that tax cut also benefited what our refers to as the middle class - as though we really even have a middle class anymore.  Additionally, he is trying to get a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits, while the extension for the richest Americans is a full 2 years.  That's right, you heard me.  He is "bargaining" for a 2 year extension of tax cuts to the wealthy, against a 13 month extension of unemployment benefits to our most desperate citizens.

This is all going on while the rich already pay less in taxes than they have at any other time in American history, except right before the Great Depression.  Now, I don't profess to be an expert nor even support the American system of taxation, which is by all real accounts a criminal corporate enterprise, but I know enough about its history to confidently state that if there is one sector of the American population that needs to be taxed heavily, it would be those who make above $1 million in a time where unemployment is well above 20% (if you count the under-employed, those no longer looking for work, and those who have already run out of unemployment benefits).  Why the President can't simply change his mind on this and appeal to the obvious majority of Americans who support progressive taxation of the rich is beyond comprehension.  And to all you right wing nut jobs out there, yes, I am talking about the redistribution of wealth.  Just like the redistribution you support - shifting the outstanding bill to the poor, while privatizing the profits from the bailout to the rich - I support shifting the vast majority of the bill to the minority rich population who have enjoyed the majority of the tax cuts over the past twenty years.

This latest piece of unexplained ignorance on behalf of the American political establishment makes me wonder if the entire fabric of our system is starting to finally unravel.  I say finally, simply because I have long believed that it needs to unravel in order for the progressive majority to finally feel they have the political capital to truly reform it.  If it is falling apart, and I'll posit that I think it is, the real question is how to fix it.  We can't just buy a new one.  We can't have someone come and fix it.  That leaves us with two options:  We fix it ourselves or we simply allow it to dissolve into chaos and in the meantime we the people figure out who we want to take it over when the time is right.

Either way, it comes down to we, the people.  Are we going to sit back allow Obama and the rest of the professional compromisers to decide our fate, or are we going to pull ourselves together and have the courage to face down the conservative forces in our society?  By conservative forces, I mean those filthy rich, hegemonic bastards who will fight to the death, politically or otherwise, to keep things just the way they are.  I, for one, will not support any leaders who support capitulating to the rich under any circumstances.  The time has come to deal with the reality we actually live in, not the reality our rich uncles in power want us to adhere to.

Things fall apart sometimes.  It's a fact of life.  And sometimes you have to just let them fall apart so that you can re-build them and create anew.