And Will No Doubt Be Wrong Again.
And speaking of being wrong, I think I may have blown it in an earlier Blog when I dissed the Wall Street Sit-ins.
I labelled them ne'er do wells who would have no effect on the American psyche.
I still think of them as ne'er do wells, but I must admit, they have had an affect on average American thinking. Possibly an affect even greater than that of the Tea Partyers.
For me, this is a major admission.
But dear reader, as many of you can guess, I do not view their supposed "affect" to be a good thing - quite the opposite.
It all starts with Obama and ends with Romney. Obama came into the Presidential Race of 2008 promising to do politics differently; he was going to seek out consensus - work with all americans and consider the views of Democrats and Republicans alike. His new way of doing politics lasted right up until inauguration day in January of 2009.
From then on - he was always right and anyone who dared oppose him, wrong. It was always someone else's fault - George W. Bush, (or anyone having a kind word for Geo. W.), the Bankers, the Car Manufacturers, Big Business generally, the Republicans, the Tea Partyers etc., all became targets of his pettiness and mean-spiritedness. So much for politics anew.
By the time of the 2010 Congressional Elections - Obama's blame the other guy approach was wearing thin and the Republicans advanced mightily.
But then came the Wall Street Occupiers and their dumb campaign to blame the richest 1% for all that ails America.
You know their line - this 1% admittedly controls lots of America's riches but they fail to point out that the 1% also pays the lion's share of the nation's taxes. But the Wall Street Occupiers are never ones to let a fact like that get in their way.
And they will not be happy until everyone is the same boat economically. This, despite the fact that Marx and Engels, tried to do that on a large scale and failed miserably. Plus even under communism - there were the haves and have nots - the Communist Elite fitting nicely into the first grouping.
And don't forget the Iron Lady's warning that Socialism is a great system until the folks run out of other people's money to spend.
Simply stated, the problem with the Occupiers' theory comes down to a number and that number is their own - 1%. There just are not enough rich to satisfy the remainder.
But boy, did this way of thinking come just at the right time for dear old Obama. His 'blame the other guy' having apparently lived out its usefulness, was granted new life; he now had an even better target - the rich one per centers. And he has been using it most effectively as his rise in the polls can attest. Props, like Warren Buffet and his Secretary are frequently paraded out to bring home the message that the rich are not paying their fair share and the remaining 99% are suffering miserably for it. And maybe the 1% is not paying its full share in taxes but presumably those in the 70/80/90 per centiles are not paying their fair share either.
What is known of course, is that nearly 50 % of Americans pay no tax at all and most of that number are in receipt of government payments of one type or another.
What also is known, is that the American debt stands at over $15 Trillion Dollars - a sum too large even to imagine.
And a sum so large that taking even all of their income will do little to reduce that Debt.
What is needed, is a combination of income tax increases along with significant reductions in government spending. Obama has no appetite for the latter and thus focuses exclusively on increasing the taxation on the richest of the rich, a slight of hand trick that could get him back in the White House for a second term. And he has the Wall Street Occupiers to thank for this.
And then there is Romney. In recent debates he is being castigated for being a 1 %er, a money grubbing capitalist. Imagine? These criticisms are coming from his fellow Republicans who up until the Wall Street Occupiers prided themselves in being supporters of a Free Market Economy.
There was a time not long ago when even the poor supported capitalism since they viewed themselves as potential recipients of its bounty. All they had to do was to work hard and they too would be enriched. But sadly, this has changed with the USA having joined the ranks of the Western Society Welfare State.
Capitalism made the USA great. It is why so many of the world's people dream of migrating there. But when you have the leading candidate for the Republican Presidential Nomination being pilloried for being a 1%, you know things are changing dramatically.
That the Republicans will come to their senses, I have no doubt and that Mitt Romney will in the end prevail I have faith in that too. But the mere fact that the masses can be so readily manipulated by such a few rag tagged anarchists is simply unbelievably scary.
As I see it.....
'K.D. Bell'
