America's Political Spectrum Is Not Left to Right, It's Top to Bottom—And It has Failed the People
My father, W.F. "High" Hightower, was a populist. Only, he didn't know it. Didn't know the word, much less the history or anything about populism's democratic ethos. My father was not philosophical, but he had a phrase that he used to express the gist of his political beliefs: "Everybody does better when everybody does better."
[Everybody does do better when everybody does better. Or, put another way, a rising tide lifts all ships. But that is not the position of the socialists and communists vying for political power by creating and managing real or imagined scarcity or exploiting a crisis to push their toxic agenda.]
Before the populists of the late 1800s gave its instinctive rebelliousness a name, it had long been established as a defining trait of our national character: The 1776 rebellion was not only against King George III's government but against the corporate tyranny of such British monopolists as the East India Trading Company.
[If nothing else, socialists and communists are all about rebellion and revolution – to install their toxic brand of government rather than fighting for the liberty and freedoms that our nation was founded upon. Our defining trait is to cherish and support individualism over the collective. That there should be no monarchy or other ruling elites.]
The establishment certainly doesn't celebrate the populist spirit, and our educational system avoids bothering students with our vibrant, human story of constant battles, big and small, mounted by "little people" against ... well, against the establishment. The Keepers of the Corporate Order take care to avoid even a suggestion that there is an important political pattern -- a historic continuum -- that connects Thomas Paine's radical democracy writings in the late 1700s to Shays' Rebellion in 1786, to strikes by mill women and carpenters in the early 1800s, to Jefferson's 1825 warning about the rising aristocracy of banks and corporations "riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman," to the launching of the women's suffrage movement at Seneca Falls in 1848, to the maverick Texans who outlawed banks in their 1845 state constitution, to the bloody and ultimately successful grassroots struggle for the abolition of slavery, and to the populist movement itself, plus the myriad rebellions that followed right into our present day.
[Of course, governments to not celebrate that which is inimical to their very existence. And, the educational system – deeply infiltrated and influenced by the socialists and their teachers’ unions do not teach history in the conventional sense, but history that supports their flawed and toxic agenda. America is evolving – hopefully moving towards individual empowerment and minimal government interference with our lives. It is not devolving into a dictatorship of petty tyrants – except when those unionized tyrants no longer feel that they will lose their jobs by being disrespectful or dishonest to those they purport to serve.]
WHAT POPULISM IS NOT: An empty word for lazy reporters to attach to any angry spasm of popular discontent. (And it's damn sure not Sarah Palin and today's clique of Koch-funded, corporate-hugging, tea party Republicans.)
[That angry spasm of popular discontent is the product of socialist and communist agitators – community organizers who seek to manipulate people and situations using Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.” To create enough dissention and discord as to spark a rebellion or revolution that would see these socialists and communists in power. Populism is the new face of socialism and communism. A redefinition to suit the progressive socialist democrat agenda. Note the pejorative language aimed at a woman – a conservative woman who will stand up for freedom and call a spade a spade.
Also note that the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party is not about republicans, but a coalition of individuals be they democrats, republicans, independents, libertarians, meat-eaters or vegans who believe that government has grown beyond a reasonable size, that we are taxed enough already, and that most corrupt politicians are listening to the special interests instead of their constituents. They certainly are not about dictatorships, socialism, communism, or retro-freedom.]
WHAT IT IS: For some 238 years, it has been the chief political impulse in America's body politick -- determinedly democratic, vigilantly resistant to the oppressive power of corporations and Wall Street, committed to grassroots percolate-up economics, and firmly rooted in my old daddy's concept of "Everybodyness," recognizing that we're all in this together.
[This is the socialist/communist philosophy which posits that an elite ruling class must manage our world, our nation, and our lives – not for individuals, but for the collective good of society. In the author’s words: “everybodyness.” Where wealth and other goods are distributed according to the Marxist dictum: “From each according to their ability, to each according to his needs.” A way of forcing producers into involuntary servitude to assist those who produce nothing but political agitation and hungry mouths.]
Although it was organized into a formal movement for only about 25 years, Populism has had an outsized, long-term, and ongoing impact on our culture, public policies, economic structure and governing systems. Even though its name is rarely used and its history largely hidden, and neither major party will embrace it (much less become it), there are many more people today whose inherent political instincts are populist, rather than conservative or liberal.
[Populism appears to be just another name for socialism and communism; because the old names: Liberalism, Progressivism, Socialism, Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, and Communism are associated with dictators and other bad actors, and failed economies where misery is distributed equally except to the elite ruling political class who continues to live high-on-the-hog behind closed doors.
From Wikipedia …
"Socialism refers to a broad array of ideologies and political movements with the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community. This control may be either exercised through popular collectives such as workers' councils, a market, or on behalf of the people by the state. As an economic system, socialism is often characterized by state, worker, or community ownership of the means of production, goals which have been attributed to, and claimed by, a number of political parties and governments."
"Populism is a discourse which supports "the people" versus "the elites". Populism may involve either a political philosophy urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style, deployed by members of political or social movements competing for advantage within the existing party system."
Excuse me, did you not notice that, by definition, socialism and communism rely on “elites,” individuals who are deemed enlightened by virtue of their birth, education, training, etc. to rule over the collective.”]
Yet the pundits and politicos frame our choices in terms of that narrow con-lib ideological spectrum, ignoring the fact that most of us are neither, or a bit of both. Our nation's true political spectrum is not right to left, but top to bottom. People can locate themselves along this vertical rich-to-poor spread, for this is not a theoretical positioning: It's based on our real-world experience with money and power. This is America's real politics.
[Human nature dictates that there will be leaders, followers, and the apathetic. Those who inherit assets, amass assets from their own ideas, and those who work for others, selling their time and expertise in return from something of value. Those who sell their own time may do well, but those who sell products or multiply their efforts using the work of others may do exceedingly well. This is not justification for taking the work of the producers and giving it to those who labor. That is immoral and dishonest.]
Today's workaday majority can plainly see that a privileged few at the top are separating their fortunes as fast as they can from the well-being of the rest of us. We've also seen that after the 2008 economic collapse, both major parties rushed to wipe the fevered brows of the pampered few with our tax dollars and did little about the crash in wages, income, wealth and economic power of the bottom 90 percent. Six years later, Congress continues to ignore the ongoing destruction of the middle class and the unconscionable rise in poverty -- unless you count last year's cuts to food stamp funding and jobless benefits as "doing something."
[Has anyone else noticed that this is exactly the same rhetoric used by the socialist unions – whose “elite” leaders live as well and as comfortably as most of the CEOs in our nation? All at the expense of their individual membership.]
Our system of representative government has, in a word, collapsed. Most Congress critters are not even trying anymore -- not listening to the people, not even knowing any regular folks, and not representing their interests. But what we also have is a ripening political opportunity for a revitalized, 21st-century populist movement.
[Funny that the author mentions that our system of representative government has collapsed. Has anyone else noticed that this collapse has been brought about by the corruption of special interests, none more virulent than the socialist unions who continue to corrupt politicians with their member’s money – investing in the progressive socialist democrats to the exclusion of the wishes of the portion of their membership that does not agree with their political choices. Does anyone notice that the unions employ thuggery to whip people into line much as a dictator wields power?
The opportunity for revitalization does not come from more unions, work councils, and coalitions of socialists and communists. It comes from eliminating the union’s evil influence on education where more and more money is spent to turn out this decade’s crop of functional illiterates who lack fundamental skills, but can tell you how to put a condom on a cucumber.]
Every day, there are populist uprisings, both large and small, all across this country. Towns taking on Big Oil frackers, cities raising the minimum wage, fast-food workers demanding a living wage, states taking on GMO labeling, Moral Monday, Truthful Tuesday, and other movements spreading across the South to fight for social justice.
[Take a closer look at these issues and you will see the influence of unions – trying to turn entry-level, low-skill, low-wage jobs into career opportunities to support a family of four – all to enhance union membership and allow the progressive socialist democrats to purchase votes with entitlements.
Forcing higher wages without a corresponding increase in productivity – leading to higher prices and fewer employees. And, if carried to the extreme, the increased automation or outsourcing of production. The only reason burger-flipping has not been automated is because there was always a willing supply of new workers seeking their first jobs. Traditionally, people just out of school seeking to earn a few bucks while they proceed on their career path. Not having multiple babies that they cannot afford without the state’s assistance.
Look at the other causes: GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) – growing more food to feed more people runs counter to the Socialist dictum of population control and the need to create and manage scarcity rather than lift people higher with abundance. These people were anti-nuke to curtail weapons development and to keep people dependent on fossil fuels. Fracking is a technology that allows America to become energy independent – can’t have that because the socialists cannot control the outcome. A better economy results in less misery to the detriment of a political position that demands misery in order to generate political power.
Social justice – there is no justice in robbing productive individuals and giving the proceeds as entitlements to those who vote for socialists and communists. There is no honor in a system that has no reverence for the individual over the collective. In fact, socialism and communism are downright un-American – a self-evident truth.]
Source: America's Political Spectrum Is Not Left to Right, It's Top to Bottom—And It has Failed the People
