Written by Harrison Kelly   

America is at war.

I’m not talking about the war we’re waging against the Taliban in Afghanistan, a war being prosecuted largely by poorly educated young people from our lowest income families who have few other job opportunities.

Nor am I talking about the costly war instigated after 9/11/2001, fighting like Don Quixote against the nebulous enemy usually labeled as Islamic terrorists or Al Quaeda.

It’s not the cold war against the few remaining militant communists in North Korea and Cuba, or the standoff against fundamentalist Shiites in Iran.

Those are all costly wars that eat up 20 percent of our national budget, which is exactly the same amount we spend on Social Security.

But those are not the most important or most costly wars for the average American.

The war I’m talking about is a WAR BY THE WEALTHY AGAINST THE REST OF US.

Ronald Reagan instigated it in 1980 when he set in motion a series of tax cuts that have continued under both Democrats and Republicans.

When Reagan took office the marginal income tax rate for the wealthiest Americans was 71 percent, and that was down from 91 percent during the Eisenhower administration. The marginal tax rate today for the wealthiest Americans is only 35% and the tax they pay on their investment earnings is only 15%. In addition there are thousands of loopholes in the IRS tax code that result in even lower rates for the rich.

Just this year President Obama and liberal democrats joined with Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts while the government’s budget deficit ballooned to over $1.6 trillion and our national debt is over $14 trillion.

So even the so-called liberal Democrats, who in the past would have argued for higher tax rates for the wealthy, now join the chorus of Republicans for lower taxes even for the wealthiest citizens.

Meanwhile nearly 45 million Americans are living below the poverty line of $10,800. Most are forced to survive without health insurance and only because they collect food stamps.

The middle is also affected as nearly 73 percent of Americans have a net worth of less than $10,000. Even if they own their homes, the mortgage debt combined with credit card and other debts leaves little net worth.

Who are the wealthy? The 400 richest people in the USA have more combined wealth than the bottom 50% - about 155 million Americans.
They are overwhelmingly the owners and executives of large corporations.

Those and other somewhat less wealthy are the people who contribute a very high percentage of campaign contributions to both Democratic and Republican political campaigns. And last year the Supreme Court gave the corporations who employ the wealthy the legal right to contribute unlimited amounts to influence political campaigns.

The scales have been heavily tipped to benefit the already one-sided war in favor of the rich. Conservative politicians at both the state and federal level want to drastically reduce public spending by cutting jobs and salaries of public employees, teachers, health workers, and others, as well as reducing safety net payments for the sick and poor; and in the process eliminating collective bargaining. The result almost certainly will be a second great recession if not a depression.

WE THE VAST MAJORITY HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO JOIN THE WAR THEY HAVE INSTIGATED.

Our ancestors fought a more violent war against the robber barons and big bankers, like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Gould, the Rothchilds and J.P. Morgan. It was a long war that resulted in workers having the right to collective bargaining, minimum wage and anti-monopoly laws, 8 hour work days, women’s suffrage, the progressive income tax and many other rights for the less privileged.

Our ancestors felt they had no choice but to use violent methods.

We now have the example of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Our war will be waged non-violently. How ironic that people of the ancient Egyptian civilization have shown us the way in the past two months. How fitting that Wisconsin, one of our traditionally most liberal states, has followed those examples, standing non-violently against a tyrannical Republican governor who sought to deny the right of public workers to collective bargaining.

WE MUST NOW MOUNT A NATIONAL NON-VIOLENT MOVEMENT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, DISRUPTING THE BUSINESSES OF CORPORATIONS UNTIL THEY AGREE TO REDRESS THE EVER GROWING INJUSTICES.

WILL YOU JOIN THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE AGAINST THE TYRANNY OF THE WEALTHY?

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