I’ve read a few articles lately in newspapers and online that “prove” it is Liberalism that creates classes. In their view, if we were all conservatives, we wouldn’t have classes and all men would finally really be equal. It worked for Louis XVI, so it ought to work here, right?
I have a hot flash for conservatives who are trying to prove the unprovable: there were classes before there was democracy, before the concept of elections by the people, before there were political parties and long before the United States existed. To say anything else, no matter how many big words you use, is absurd.
- Classes exist in the United States because some people have a lot of money and many others have little or none.
- Classes exist in the United States because we have a shameful legacy of slavery and oppression of anyone who isn’t white and Christian.
- Classes exist in the United States because laws are not enforced equally and never were.
- Classes exist because they exist, always have and no doubt always will.
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This quote from a popular columnist in the Washington Post makes me want to scream. Does she think that using big words changes the facts?
We can’t eliminate them, but we can do our best to lessen the differences between them, to enable movement between classes. We can do our best to eliminate the barriers to upward movement by the poor by making education affordable, by equalizing job opportunities and pay between men and women, white and non-white workers.
The real tension in America today is not about black versus white but about liberalism versus conservatism.
Liberalism is about government as a political agent, not as a protector of individual freedom. By it’s very nature, liberalism creates political classes – whether based on race or gender or business interests. Those that get the goodies are happy. Those that pay for them are not. Tensions and animosities get worse, not better.
In the end, we all suffer because giving politicians more power means less growth and prosperity.
Things will never get solved until we finally take “e pluribus unum” seriously – that American diversity can only be finally united through one set of values, under God, that enable freedom, one set of true values for all.
Really? I thought it was about poor versus rich, the haves versus the have-nots … you know, like it’s always been throughout history. Or have we decided that anything that didn’t happen during this election cycle no longer counts? Shall we exclude any history that fails to agree with your warped view of reality?
Get the goodies? What goodies? The Social Security and Medicare for which I paid for more than 40 years? I thought this was my money coming back to me as promised. Free public education? Roads without potholes? Medical care so I don’t have to worry I’ll die for want of money to pay a doctor? What other goodies do I, or anyone else, get? You mean food stamps so that people who are desperately poor don’t starve? Those goodies? How about educational programs to help people develop enough skills to earn a living wage? Are those the goodies creating classes in this country?
What piece of the government’s infrastructure would you like to eliminate? How about student loans? Maybe even state colleges are too much. Let’s go back to the good old days when only the wealthy could afford an education, thus enabling the persistent domination of everybody else by a privileged few.
I am tired of being told about my entitlements. My husband and I worked our butts off for 40 plus years. The bit we get back now will never equal the amount we contributed, but I’ll shut up about the unfairness of that if you’ll shut up about “entitlements.”
As a matter of fact, please, just shut up. I’d appreciate a big empty silence where your voice used to be. Until you have walked in my shoes, or better yet, until you have lost your shoes and had to go barefoot and hungry, shut up. Your silence would go a long way to healing the open sores of society.
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