Expect a more obvious plutocracy in 2011

AfD Portland chapter president David Delk wrote in a recent blog post that while austerity measures in Greece and Ireland brought people out into the streets for days of protest, the mood here remains docile. "Barely a voice is raised to defend the American working people as we are told that the government is too large, spends too much money on social programs like Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and education. Certainly, the American people have not moved to the street. They don’t even dare talk about it amongst themselves," he writes.

Obama's tax reform package was only the "latest stage of the attack of the rich and powerful on the middle class.  The attack began with President Kennedy when he said we needed to encourage business  by reducing the highest tax rates on the wealthy and on corporations.  It continued with President Reagan and his attacks on the unions. President Clinton pushed forward the Pres George H.W. Bush North American Trade Agreement to further empower the multinational corporations and dis-empower labor and environmental activists.  The tax cuts continued.  More so-called free trade agreements were imposed.  With each new law, the people continued to lose all power."

Last year's Citizens United decision laid it out plain: "The United States is no longer a democracy; the United States is a plutocracy.  No longer 'of the people, for the people, by the people', but 'of the wealthy, for the wealthy, by the wealthy.'

David recommends this article by Jack Rasmus, published in In These Times, as a possible predictor of how the middle class will be eaten up to support the incomes and privileges of the well-to-do. Look for drastic spending cuts in the start of 2011, and the institution of a US variant of the austerity programs being promoted across the globe.