Aug 21, 2023·edited Aug 21, 2023Liked by Robert Reich
“Rich men north of Richmond”?
You mean rich men with names like Koch, Uihlein, Ricketts, Ellison, Mercer and Musk, who’ve been using their billions to subvert, buy and wrest control of the government and country from the not-so-rich men, women and children north, south, east and west of Richmond whose stake in the running, possession and direction of this nation is their inalienable birthright?
Some of my hearings were south of Richmond. Bristol, Abingdon, all of Appalachia.
I listened to guys like him most of my life. Robert shouldn't give this a-hole more publicity. “I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bullshit pay,” Anthony sings.
He's a liar. He's just selling records.
Same stuff I heard from my fellow consriptees when I was in the Army. We weren't fortunate sons. Same stuff I heard at the "call of the list" when the criminals were brought in for arraignment. Same stuff I heard for the 10 years I was a judge for the Social Security administration handling disability cases. Same stuff when I heard Black Lung and the other 181 statute :benefits" cases involving the Department of Labor.
The folks he's castigating include anyone collecting benefits while he's supposedly working. What he's working is that dobro..and his mouth.
The folks who appeared in my "benefits" hearings for the most part were just like him. Except they couldn't play the dobro or get a record contract. If they could it would be "substantial gainful activity" making them ineligible.
I love "Americana" music. Bluegrass. Old-timey. The blues. This guy doesn't qualify. He's not authentic.
Aug 21, 2023·edited Aug 21, 2023Liked by Robert Reich
As regards “The folks he's castigating include anyone collecting benefits while he's supposedly working. What he's working is that dobro..and his mouth,”
These guys are a like the other animals the Little Red Hen asked to help her bake her bread, who all found some unconvincing reason as why they couldn’t, but who still were all too happy to help her EAT it once she had gotten it baked.
Just like the Republicans that voted a big fat NO to President Biden's infrastructure plan and then turned around and hollered to their constituents 'Look what I did for you' when the plan brought much needed roads, bridges, etc. to their communities?
Peggy, you are right about this one. The hypocrisy is strong with these ones. And, they don't even care if we notice. They will just lie and keep on going. Their constituents, being mostly uninformed or they wouldn't have elected them, believe whatever garbage comes spewing from their hypocritical mouths. Amazing!
Yes he did. My father worked at a place named Fisk Tire, nights. He rarely saw us. Was dead at age 45. Capitalism steals lives. I remember that song. My father listened to it. It was like a national anthem of 'working stiffs' in the 50's.
Merle had an epiphany? Tell me about it. I guess I missed it. I remember the line clearly, "I don't want your so-called Social Security", but I guess I never heard him recant it. I grew up with the same song and though I grew up in Northern California, I was raised a southerner through and through. What a long strange trip its been.
Somewhat off-topic; I never even knew that song existed until I ran across a band called "16 Tons" and a buddy explained the reference when I revealed my lack of knowledge.
It's a song I heard quite a bit in my early days of listening to the radio, but almost never hear it now even though most of my listening these days is to oldies.
Jaime Ramirez ; There are few protest songs on the radio today. I don't think it's because they are never written. My guess is that the operators of radio stations don't air them. Would not be surprised if several stations are owned by those who don't want to "make waves". A long time ago I liked listening to radio. Not as much anymore.
Jaime Ramirez ; Remember 'Country Joe and the Fish'? They had a great anti Vietnam war song. I bet you know it. "And it's one, two three: What are we fighting for? Don't ask me I don't give a damn! ; next stop is Viet Nam!" Can't remember the title, but people would drive around town blasting it with top down or windows open! I just looked it up on Google; It's title is "Feel like I'm fixin' to die rag". You can hear the one recorded at Woodstock. The lyrics are there too, if you want to read them.
It's been a while but John Fogerty's - Deja Vu All Over Again (Released: September 21, 2004) is a great protest song! John Fogerty has been writing protest songs since the 60's!
I know, I tried to license the copyright for a book. I attached Travis' version.
Ernie ford, with whom I share an alma mater, popularized it as did many others. I did Black Lung cases for 20 years and identify with mining. At one time, many companies used scrip, in lieu of money and therefore they had virtually no earnings records when it came time to collect Social Security.
IMHO, the key here is that the singer is in fact articulating the resentments of a group. The Biden administration bet is that providing good jobs in redneck country will chill their cultural beef. History shows us that this is highly unlikely. So then I think about the electoral college representatives in each state, and which are the battleground states, and what do the Cook Political Report and the Iowa Electronic Market say.
Yes, ol' Merle was fully bromancing with old pruneface 'Saint Ronnie' RayGun ZAP! there for a while, before he himself finally 'woke up', even before the tour(s) with Mr. Zimmerman.
I STILL despise that shit song of his "Big City", which gives an affirmitive nod to those who want nothing more in life than to vaporize Social Security and Medicare. :(
Daniel, I was not raised on "Country Music" but I liked when those songs were played on the general music radio and I especially liked that song. I looked up what a coal miner's life was like and found the song pretty accurate. It reminds me of the kind of hours of unappreciated, poorly paid work my dad did before workers chose to be in a union. The whiny rich folks who can't stand that some people are receiving help "while they are working so hard" are people who never learned about the common good and probably wouldn't understand it even if someone they respect tried to explain it to them. They see themselves as #1 and everyone else who has less than they do or who has just a bit more, as unworthy, undeserving. The problem, a whole lot of these mostly men but not exclusively, have been elected by Republicans to offices all over this country. They have nothing positive to offer anyone but the rich white men they "admire," or claim to admire. They give those guys nearly anything they want with little question while they rake in the donor bucks that feed their own greed. I'm guessing that for them, donor bribes for themselves are more acceptable than money from We the People to help our neighbors who are struggling.
@Daniel. Merle Travis wrote the song. Tennessee Ernie Ford made it a hit. Ford sang the dang thing without accompaniment! Reading your post, I see you didn't say Merle Haggard sang it. Gotcha....
After listening to his song what is upsetting to me is the fact that he felt the need to write the words to the lyrics that told his story. If he truly feels the way his song depicts and he represents a segment of our population we as a society have problem to fix. Robert, drop the "e" in your last name and what you have left is the topic of this thread.
When I heard this line in the song, my first thought was that he was talking about the obvious (welfare cheats) but also the not so obvious (really big welfare recipients, like fossil fuel and pharmaceutical companies) who are small-spirited and short-sighted and mean and fat because they drain the entire country of its resources. It plays on Reagan's welfare queens stereotype while reminding us of the really damaging parasites in our economy. I suppose we'd have to ask the author, but the mark of a good song is that there's more in it than the composer intended.
Completely agree - he's doing exactly the same thing as Trump in playing the victim, turning true socialist principles on their head to protect corporate greed. He's a hypocrite and a traitor to his class.
I have been rereading A Tale of Two Cities. I wish more people knew this timeless and timely tale. I am giving my friends here the first paragraph in case you've forgotten it:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Paula, Thanks for posting the opening. I have on many occasions in the last several years when fear and thoughts of despair creep in, thought of his "best of and worst of times" words. They give me hope of something better rising.
Oh you should look for it! I'm sure it's easy to find on most streaming sites - I own my copy from Amazon Prime, and I think it only cost 3 or 4 dollars. Natalie Portman and Stephen Fry are in it, I can't think who plays V but it's the same guy who played Agent Smith in The Matrix. The plot is about going up against a totalitarian government. I love it!
This makes me think of a cartoon I saw long ago where Charles Dickens is on the witness stand and the lawyer is looking at him pointedly and saying “Well, which was it, Mr. Dickens?! Was it the best of times or was it the worst of times?!?!”
But, when played like that, and especially if it has a round neck instead of a rectangular shaped neck, that is a resonator guitar, and not a dobro. ;)
Yes, it's more like 'forgotten lily-white, racist, CIS male, misogynistic, xenophobic, ANTI-SEMITIC, pure Aryan NAZIS' than anything else at this point.
They had better start realizing that they are NOT the sole "real 'Muricuns" (actually ONLY the native peoples of this land are that anyway! ;) ).
A fervent thank you, Mr. Solomon. I was about to comment that these so-called "forgotten white male, Christian (?) nationalists" are anything >but< forgotten. Our entire government from the get-go was set by and for yt Christian males. Every Repubbie pol in the country is talking to and courting these aggrieved whiners. Some of those males are terrified of losing their (white) privilege; others are just plain angry and busy nursing their grievances.
Call or login to to the SS website. Better yet Go DOWN THE ROAd to your your local Social Security Office. You will have to take a number and wait. Bring a newspaper or a book and a snack. But when it's your turn really nice, really smart people will answer your questions and help you. After I went down to the SSA office in my town I fell in love with The Government.
Ask to speak to a "specialist ". These are senior people in the office who really know the rules and in my experience can cut thru the red tape. Saved my butt when I was struggling with my wife's benefits when others were telling me that she didn't qualify!
Mimi ; Your experience was nice, but not all offices have such good reviews. I had the experience of being told that I could get benefits from two sources for myself and children. I pointed out that I had already been eligible for one relative, and was concerned that the second was not right. She insisted it was OK. A couple years later, I received a letter from SS saying I had received funds for which I was ineligible. They demanded that I return the money! I was able to get help from the attorney who assisted me before. It was their mistake and I even mentioned my concerns to the woman who told me It was OK to apply for the benefits from a second relative. Not all experiences are the same.
Agree we r still dealing with a mistake social security made on eligibility for Medicare, 2 yrs ago. Causing us to have to pay an unnecessary penalty on premium
Yes, them too, but we really need to focus on the roaches that lurk underneath. For instance, Steve Mnuchen, who was involved in creating tranches of mortgage-backed securities while he was at Goldman-Sachs, then went onto snatching up tens of thousands of single-family homes for pennies after the 2008 crash, which he partly caused, and received huge incentives from the government for forcing foreclosures on those homes. In fact, Wilbur Ross did the same...as did Tom Barrack Jr. These are who's who of Trump's administration. And they continue to affect people by keeping a huge portfolio of single-family (starter) homes, making it difficult for ordinary people to own their homes (remember when they took away the mortgage interest deduction?). And they continue to raise the rental cost while more and more maintenance costs are passed on to the tenants. This is some of the pain that an ordinary American feels. And if we don't expose all this corruption, these roaches will once again "govern" the country.
Any business that vaunts itself as a disrupter (stop me if I am repeating myself). Isnt disrupting high cost services. Its disrupting worker pay. The gig economy is about wealth transfer from the have nots to the haves.
Yes, its like a regressive tax. If only the wealthy can afford to buy houses then only the wealthy will own houses. Since houses are a platform for wealth and wealth growth putting them out of reach of the common person whether by high prices or low wages is a direct attack on the wealth of low income folks as they will only be able to rent and any income will go towards funding the wealthy land owners. Similar to serfdom.
In our city a decade or so ago, there was a property tax abatement available for first-time home buyers who were going to live in the houses they bought. A number of shady characters, using variations on their names, bought up homes, got the abatements, and promptly rented out the properties. Nothing happened to them, as far as I know, because the city didn't have/didn't allocate the resources to investigate and prosecute the grifters.
I think we have to look at the roaches on both sides of the equation. Yes, both parties are have roaches and Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur just showed how Democrats no longer associate themselves with the working class, but with the rich elite class
Maybe it's hard for Democrats to decry economic elites when they have too often joined the GOP in retrograde policies the last 40 plus years. That's where Biden is a major break with prior Dem Presidents IMO.When people act out against oppressors like Anthony did in his song you can expect there will be much " irrationality" mixed into it, like the cultural stuff. Things are not tidy.
Exactly. Selling luxury as normal is a great example of capitalism gone mad. But hgtv has a lot of sway in the tastes of working families these days. I see that as a form of marketing these days.
Ms. Kaptur was our representative in a small area of Cleveland for a number of years, due to an extremely gerrymandered district. I didn't support her as fully as I did our previous representative, Dennis Kucinich, but Marcy is a good person who's very cognizant of where her constituents come from.
Yes JJ, how many times do we have to say enough !!!!!!!!!!’. ?????????
Again, those of us who are aware of the housing “buy everything” industry of corporate Amerika ( yes amerika) so that no one, and I mean your sons and daughters will not be able to own anything. Why wait until it is toooooo late? Stop this Fascism now!
Again, health care, education, housing, ways to strengthen middle class , must be owned by the people... all of us. Quit feeding the greedy empty souls with our property!
Rich men north of the old Confederate capitol. Just a reminder of who these clowns are, what they implicitly represent, and what that song is really proposing to do about it, before we even hear the first lyric.
If Oliver Anthony (from Farmville, VA) was living in the 1860s, he would be fighting the Yankees in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia! He might even have a black "servant" to help him out.
"North of Richmond." Hmm....now wouldn't that just be the land of Lincoln? So, let's be clear, this is a song about how the Southern white man has been screwed by the rich men north of the Mason-Dixie line.
This is just BS wrapped in massive cognitive dissonance.
The South did well economically for decades after WWII - because the South always voted Democrat. And Democrats always voted for high taxes on the rich men north of Richmond. Then along came JFK and RFK, two readily identifiable Democrats, who told white southerners that their Jim Crow laws were repugnant. And guess what? Anthony's relatives and friends, all 100 million of them, started voting Republican.
It was Reagan's puppeteers who understood what this meant. In America, for the first time, you could have a platform of cutting taxes on the wealthy, along with that miserable and patronizing metaphor "trickledown," and still get elected!
The result has been a downhill slide for the real income of most Americans ever since.
Blame the Rich man north of Richmond? Sure, but it was your lot who let him out of his cage, asshole.
Absolutely!!! Let's call it what it is/was. Things changed when black Americans began getting access to the government benefits that white Americans were happy to recieve. All of a sudden those government benefits, converted to Gov handouts and the spigot was turned off (public pools were closed in many places to prevent black access- see Heather McGhee "The Sum Of Us"). Unfortunately their racism/otherism was/is exploited to keep the spigot off for everyone, including themselves. The middle class was not expanded by everyone tightening up their own bootstraps, it was expanded because Government of the ppl was run for the benefit of the ppl. Generations later, too few know this history and are mislead to believe Government that benefits certain ppl is bad, and that Gov has no role in improving the quality of their own lives. Southern Strategy has been effective for a while now! Exploited by Nixon, Reagan and Trump. Exploited by Republicans, since the civil war, who have been able to build a coalition of racist and supposed Christians! Have they succeeded in bringing darkness and light together, despite what the Bible says? Or is the coalition all darkness?
Wealth knows no boundaries. Democrats have been made wealthy by the aberrant voting patterns of southern whites. I continue to blame the latter for the massive wealth inequality in America, not the way Anthony claims to believe.
Also Rupert Murdoch. And the politicians they bankroll who stir up animosity against racial minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ people are also rich white mostly men.
Democrats should loudly proclaim that Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Green, and others of their ilk are themselves rich elitists who are trampling on all poor and average people.
"If Democrats don’t tell the economic truth about what’s happened and place the blame squarely where it’s deserved, the lies of Republican cultural populists will fill the void — not just with faux-populist lyrics, but with bad laws." ... This truth is the only thing that will set us free. These combined forces first rob us and then blame the very people who would change this dirty matrix of laws and policies to bring us back into some kind of fairness and balance. Stand up. Vote.
Those are exactly the kind of billionaires we should be talking & singing about & naming!
This song appears to be directed at the politicians in Washington, DC, who do deserve a lot of criticism, especially those on the right, the sycophants of billionaires like those you named.
Mr Reich is exactly right. This is the whole ball game. Wealth = Power and the few at the top Koch, Uihlein, Ricketts, Ellison, Mercer and Musk, Devos, Crow, etc. want more! They have intentionally used their wealth to rig the game (Citizens United) in their favor. And they have deviously used race, gender, sexual-orientation, religion, politics to keep us distracted and fighting each other for their 'Trickled Down' crumbs. They continue to effectively divide us and to have us blame anyone but them- the real culprits (our common enemy). They have us blaming the two things that can keep them in check- our POWER-IN-NUMBERS via DEMOCRACY. We have to use both, together, in order to overcome their oligarchy/plutocracy.
Avie, I suspect the song is supposed to get people to doubt what they have seen with their own eyes through a cutzie song that celebrates something but the songwriter doesn't want people to think very hard about it because if they do, the real meaning will show through. One just must know that if Greene and her toddler friends like the song it is bad and just another chunk of propaganda that is not worth the time it takes to listen to it. The people you name are the ones who really are the villains and they are totally OK with villainhood because it has gotten them riches beyond their wildest dreams and they didn't even have to work too hard to get it, although some did. I wonder what they could have achieved FOR this nation had they skipped the evil stuff and worked on behalf of our nation, our whole nation. Nah! They could never have done that. There is no evil in that, nor is their effective money-grubbing and power stealing. Can't leave that out!
The graph of family wealth vs years is interesting as it looks like the story of my own family wealth over the years. Started out in debt, worked and saved consistently, now in retirement there’s a pile of wealth I’ll likely never live long enough to spend. Have two brothers and a sister now in retirement with similar story, and three more sibs on a similar path. Glad that my grandparents had the foresight to get out of Russia when they did
Your points on this matter may very well be what leads to the downfall of this nation. The GOP lies only resonate because the Dems refuse to speak the truth. When they do, they are crushed by their "peers." Now, we can look to blame the "system," campaign finance issues, the power of elites and all that, but what about courage? What about individuals who stand for more than their reelection?
One of my only political heroes is "Fighting Bob" La Follette, who showed that people will respond if you call out the real corruption. Sure, you will be attacked, maligned...you will have the forces of billionaires come down on you. But THAT is what it truly means to be a public servant in this collapsing empire, not being another idealistic cog who thinks they are the missing spoke to the steering wheel of this Titanic of a Democratic party.
Actually the Titanic of what you speak is not the democratic party, it is the antiquated form of democracy that has been subverted by the ultra wealthy. Democracy was founded on a belief in the "common good" but the system was built with some fatal holes in it and these holes are now what is sinking the Titanic of capitalistic dominated democracy.
We need a new and better form of government and we need to plan for it now. We must do it for our children and our grandchildren and the oppressed of the world.
Yes, but changing government structures won’t help much without politicians of quality character. We need to assess candidate character before we elect them, as per “Assessing the CHARACTER of Candidates for National Political Office” now on Amazon.
we need to fix the boat we're in. If we can't get the good reform Democrat bills passed we're not going to radically change the form of our government.
Ian, Underscoring La Follette as, one might say, an icon is brilliant. In my view, a more recent icon was Paul Wellstone. I say we blitz our Democratic public officials with letters, phone calls, and the like, urging them to get over their seeming reluctance to bite the hand that presumably feeds them and recognize that the benefits of not allowing Republican deceptions and distortions to go unanswered clearly outweigh whatever the costs.
La Follette was a Republican. He ran for president as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in the 1924 presidential election., but he ensured that Coolidge won.
It seems to me that too many commenters like Ian and Jennifer are intent on splitting the Party, and the only result would be a Republican win, and Fascism.
Daniel, My aim is not to split the Democratic Party but to press for a more unified, laser-focused effort to make clear to working families throughout this country, many of whom are prepared to vote Republican, that if they vote Republican, the Party that has been silent on the massive disproportionate amount of wealth, power, and influence, their vote will run counter to their interests and concerns. As I repeatedly have stated, we need Democratic leadership to be focused and disciplined and not to allow Republican deceptions and distortions, particularly as they relate to the state of the economy, to go unanswered.
Daniel, My understanding is that many everyday people don’t even know what Bidenomics means, let alone are experiencing its touted effects. While the latter could change, say, in the next 6 months, I won’t rest until the Party focuses more on its pro-worker agenda—$15 hourly minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, the child tax credit, affordable, quality childcare, universal healthcare, investments in housing, in eldercare, and more—all of which have received zero Republican support. Similarly, in a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when the American people want billionaires to start paying their fair share of taxes, not one Republican has supported the legislation.
We are better off when Republicans aren't motivated. Our best chance is the youth vote. Demographically they can outvote everyone else.
The problem is that all politics is local. What may work in Chicago means nothing in Baghdad By the Sea.
The best argument I had with MAGAts was the child tax credit. The argument works one on one, because as a group, they're motivated by peer pressure and other cultural issues.
I was going to provide a longer reply to the comment above, but will not spend my time doing so. This forum is special because of its tendency to foster serious exchanges. Please refrain from simplistic insults and generalizations. There are plenty of other sites available for that.
Your comment about La Follette references an election result. Elected officials do much more than run for office. They work on legislation, they assist constituents, and of course, their words and deeds can help shape the national debate. That is why I mentioned him in the context of this post, as it is the void of truth-telling from Democrats that is so easily filled by lies by the GOP. If more elected officials were outspoken and pulled the veil back on corruption, even if they were to lose elections, the truth itself would not be so easy to manipulate.
Agree, Ian. Dems do NOT call out GOP lies to any extent, nor do they own their own party's shortcomings (with a few notable exceptions, such as Bernie Sanders and Marcy Kaptur [see Franklin's link, above]). As for splitting the party by speaking the truth, what does that say about the party? If one who votes Dem can't criticize Dems, then we're going to continue to get candidates who approve drilling on public lands, who won't put a public healthcare option out there, who won't back unions, who won't stand up to Wall Street, and so on. Is that what we want? Are we supposed to settle for two steps forward and one-and-a-half steps back, just as long as the GOP doesn't take over? "At least we're not the Republicans," is a pretty low bar.
BS. We are a big tent party and have hundreds if not thousands of credible senators, House members, state officials.
LaFollette was a Republican. The last remnant of the liberal Republican party was the Ripon Society. As in Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin. No longer relevant. Hasn't been since about 1970. Wisconsin is the same state that gave us Joe McCarthy and now Ron Johnson. Until a few weeks ago that state supreme court was controlled by reactionary anti-democratic ideologues. The state is Gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
In order to effectuate change, got to win. We are a country built on compromise. We are facing Fascism. We aren't perfect but there are more Democrats who fit your characterization of LaFollette than Republicans buy a huge factor.
And those former Rippon members today would have to be Democrats to avoid labeled as RINOs.
I agree with Ian, and I understand Bidenomics---I'm clear-eyed about the pros and cons of Biden's legislation. But because I have the audacity to be critical of some things, that makes me either ignorant or a Russian/GOP troll, in your book, Daniel? To be a bona fide, "worthy" Dem, I have to be unequivocally supportive of everything Dems do? Sorry, but lockstep behavior isn't good for any organization. The accusations here are beneath you, Daniel.
Not any measure. 56% of Americans can’t cover a $1,000 emergency expense with savings. They'll have to go into debt. It's not working even though the main stream news (funded by big pharma, big ag, big food and big defense) says it is. We need a fair debate on issues rather than calling people names like foreign agents and willing idiots.
That is extremely noble and humane, but if the citizens of this land "vote from the heart" as you say, we get outright abject FASCISM, at which point ALL HOPE is gone, maybe forever. :(
Your adapted country is just one election away from a la Pen Party, Vichy style fascist takeover itself, so I would not get too comfy with 'not living in fear'. ;)
I feel your pain, Jennifer. To many people, it's accept the [Dem] choice you're given, however bad it might be, or be labeled an enemy. If the Dems had nominated Bernie in 2016, we wouldn't have suffered under mar-a-lardo. Instead, they ran 100% corporate shill HRC, she ran a very ill-advised campaign and repelled all kinds of people---especially Independents---and.....the White House went orange. But to say these things in the presence of Dem absolutists makes one a target.
Fascism huh? You clearly don't know what fascism is or you would be looking towards your own party. The dems and the radical left are the ones that are aligned with Big Tech, Big Pharma and the military industrial complex. They are the ones weaponizing the law thru novel legal theories to imprison their political opponents.
@steveandjanereed, I found your counsel to Josh more productive than any I’ve seen. Were I part of an exchange that warranted a similar reply, I plan to lift yours.
If you define “radical left” as “communist,” then yes, there’s a political party called Communist Party USA, but I don’t know any members. Ever since Stalin was exposed by Khrushchev, USSR-style communism has been seen as a danger by reasonable people.
No doubt why Bernie gained so much support. He showed the way to power for the phony anti-corruption crook.
What really gets me is there seems to me a lack of urgency among Democratic leadership. This is likely an effect of aged leadership in many cases.All the sharp edges rubbed smooth after years of being in the political tumbler. I mean, Diane Feinstein? Really ? This is the Party that will fix climate change but can't or won't ease Feinstein out.
Agree. His approval for drilling in the Arctic and the Gulf; his inclusion of fossil fuel subsidies in the infrastructure plan; and the bone he threw to Manchin about the WV pipeline all prove that he's not going to get drastic about mitigating climate change. Lip service, maybe, but that's all.
When I was 22 my husband and I bought our first house. Today, I have grandkids in their 30s living with me because they can't afford an apartment with both of them working. The things that were done as explained here are the reasons why. And I'm not the only one with a multi-generation household. It's pretty common these days.
Wall Street private equity firms are buying single family homes and then renting them out, driving up the housing and rental costs. I read somewhere that investment companies own about 25% of the single family homes in the USA. How can a person compete against a company with loads of borrowed cash when trying to purchase a house to live-in? The government needs to rein in private equity firms before they own everything!
I am also one of the multi-generation household generations that has 2 of my grown children and one grandchild living with me that is still in high school. Both of my grown children work and at times, they have 2 jobs, but they still can't afford their own home because of the high costs. Sky high rent, and the enormous down payment required to buy a house prevents both of them from having their own house or even renting a house or apartment. A truly sad situation is what it is.
Exactly! I have 3 sets of grandkids here, along with 2 great-grands and my daughter, who is disabled, but can get no help whatsoever from the government. So I, at the ripe old age of 78, need to help support my family. They are not deadbeats, they work, and I resent it when I hear people try to imply that. We are a middle-class family, and we cannot survive without banding together. This is wrong. And I just don't understand why the rich individuals and corporations who got that way because of THIS COUNTRY have no inclination to pay anything back. If we could figure out WHY money is their almighty god, then maybe we could figure out how to combat it. But until then, we just survive. I don't wanna be rich. But I'd like to have teeth; I'd like to get our freezer fixed so we could take better advantage of our grocery budget. I'd like to get a tire on one of the cars because I hate having my family ride around like that. I would JUST like to LIVE. Is that to much to ask? Sorry for the rant!
Thank you, for your great reply. I sure would like to get teeth too, i once had beautiful teeth, but almost all of my upper teeth just deteriorated and broke off or fell out. My 2 grown children work hard and have side jobs in addition to their full time jobs. Luckily, i get a pension and Social Security and i help them out by loaning them money at times, but with my homeowners insurance increasing over $1000 and property tax has went from $300 a year to $1100 now, i can't afford to loan anymore money. I am just breaking even now every month.. Something needs to be done about the high cost of insurance now. I am just thankful i am a good handyman and do my own plumbing and electrical repairs. I am 68 years old. and have had open heart surgery and get tired easily now. You are right about the rich people. money is their God along with Donald TUMP. I don't want to be rich either, i would just like to have a little more than to break even every month. You can't get any Social Security?? I have the understanding that anyone over 65 is supposed to get at least now $1000 a month even if you didn't have enough work credits to get the normal retirement benefit. I have a book about Social Security, and i read almost all of that book. We are also a middle class family, but i just wish the cost of everything would go down to what it was before all of the cost increases. And speaking of tires, i had to buy a whole set of tires for my daughter's car, i had to use one of my credit cards to do that, the whole set of tires was $410. I was worried she was going to have a blowout because her tires were worn so badly they didn't even have any treads left on them.
OMG John I hear you, and I feel you. Seems like we are in much the same circumstances. Yes I do get Social Security, it's my daughter who can't as she in only 57, and she cant get disability because she didnt work during the particular time they looked at. At the time she had a working husband. Now shes disabled and the best she can get is food stamps and they keep lowering those. It's a struggle.
Oh my goodness! I have also had to buy a new set of tires! Come September I will have paid off the 900+ dollars they cost me. That has been a struggle for me as my income is very limited. I also need teeth as mine are falling out (what an embarrassment!) but unfortunately there are no dentists in my area that will accept my medicare advantage plan even though they told me that the dentists would. I am looking at having to pay close to 9,000 dollars for that! It seems every time I turn around something either needs to be fixed or some payment for insurance, bug sprayers (I live in a very bug friendly area!) is due. I can't get ahead because just when I get adjusted to the price of everything, the price goes up again!!! I laugh because when we get a raise in Social Security it is like the corporations raise their prices just enough to take that extra away from you!
This may seem an odd comment, but I live in a buggy area too and refuse to use any bug sprays. If it kills bugs, what do you think it does to you? Instead, leave the spiders alone, let them build their webs (unless they are in the way). Spiders are better than poisons at keeping bugs under control. And almost none of them are dangerous. And no, my house isn’t decorated like halloween. It doesn’t take much to keep the house clear.
Exception, I may use a wasp spray every other year or so if they build a nest too close to my path. But even wasps will leave you alone if you don’t get too close. And if you catch it small, you can knock a nest down while the wasp is away, no spray and they move elsewhere.
It seems also every time we get a Social Security raise, my Medicare deduction from my check goes up to swallow all of the raise we get. My daughter has a compact car that takes the smaller tires and the smaller tires aren't as expensive as the larger tires are. My teeth are an embarrassment to me too, but i am just going to have to live with it, i suppose. I may just have all of what's left of my upper teeth pulled and get false teeth, My bottom teeth are still fairly decent. I sometimes look at my second marriage wedding photos, and my teeth were perfect then, but that was 43 years ago, and my pretty wife left me 7 years ago without giving me a reason, so i have lost my wife and my upper teeth at the same time.
Oh yes, it seems like the struggles never end. My daughter gets a very limited amount of food stamps, but they cut what she was getting when she started working full time about a year and a half ago. Her ex husband somehow gets by with paying her a very meager child support for her son, (my grandson). Her ex has a job that paying just over $100,000 a year and only pays her $75.00 a week child support. That just isn't anything now. I just hope that walking cesspool Donald TUMP goes to prison and rots away there and is banned from running for Dictator. We will be in serious trouble if he got elected for sure
This is what I meant when I said eventually the down-trodden and the middle class will grow weary of being constantly stepped on by the money hungry rich and that is when something akin to a revolution will occur. This type of money grabbing can not continue unchecked. I am sorry about your grandkids and I am hoping that things will get better for them soon and they can have the house of their dreams as well.
Maybe Donald Trump WAS the revolution. Just not in a form people think about when they think about revolution. It was a bogus revolution. An ersatz revolution. But not to the millions who believe Trump was, and is, fighting against the corruption of the "deep state" .
This article explains the anger of those who are turning to Christian white nationalism because they are justly upset at the way the wealthy elites have used the government to tilt the scales to favor policies that allow them to accumulate 90% of all new wealth.
So, we have people like me, who in the last 20 years or so, have used their time to actually understand why the policies that started with Ronald Wilson Reagan and have been pushed mostly by the Republican Party (although the Democrats are partially to blame too) and why we must somehow make our voices heard.
“Wokeism”, immigrants, unions, and the demise of our education system, including, but not limited to, affordable higher education are not to blame. Massive wealth inequality is.
We need to shout these reasons loud enough so that voters know what the major problem is and to support only the people that also are willing to address this at the national level. I normally would say that we need to vote blue only but that is not enough. We also need to get this message to the people so more of us are informed, and yes awake (woke) to this major issue.
Voting only blue becomes easier every time I hear a republican politician or wannabe politician support Trump’s corruption, chaos, attempt to overturn the election (throw actual votes in the trash) and overthrow our government, carelessness and/or possible exposure of the nation’s secrets.
Wokeism has nothing to do with it, it just means treating everyone the same, i just dont understand the rationale against it. To me, if you're against "wokeism" you must be a bigot. Christians are all against it, yet Christ was all about teaching it. Go figure!
Just like when they all rant against, and express their reviling hatred of ANTIfa, they are basically saying (screaming) that they love and DEMAND FASCISM! ;) :(
A few years back there was a UN delegation the went to several parts of the United States,places like skid row in Los Angeles,poor mostly black places in rural Alabama,and West Virginia.What they found was astounding.There are people that live in one of the richest countries on Earth,that live on like $5 a day. They have little if any real job prospects,poor healthcare options that are really far away(when I was growing up in rural SW Virginia a specialist could be an hours drive away.)and little if any real help getting houses or water supplies or sewage systems fixed or improved.
These are the true forgotten people,that no one cares about.These right wing crybabies would be the last ones to consider helping these people out of the deepest poverty.
And it isn't their faults,society likes to point fingers and slather on blame to these people,but if you haven't lived in it or saw it for yourself,you also wouldn't know how easy it is to say the people should try harder or move someplace else.Things that may not be as simple as you think.It wouldn't have taken only a day to be mired in poverty,and wouldn't take only a day to fix it.
Not sure where the article was but could have been in the Atlantic or Mother Jones.There are a few other good sources of stories like this.
Went to Memphis once then drove through Tennessee it was like being in another world. Black kids in rags, no shoes. falling down houses etc. Not sure where these people worked there seemed nothing but fields (work) no shops etc. This was some time ago I expect there is now a huge Walmart somewhere! I was so shocked and sad,
And if you'll note, Tennessee politics have become extremely right wing. People seem to forget what a boon the TVA was to those parts, bringing electricity to places that had none.
Richard Wolff and Peter Turchin also do a good job of explaining what happened, and why inequality has grown to this disgusting degree. Thanks Professor Reich for slugging away at the lies every day.
And we should also be thanking Bernie Sanders for taking the time to expose why the main problem is the policies (of Reagan Republicans) is the cause of this massive wealth inequality, not “wokeism” or any of the things that MTG is ignorantly shouting.
Yeah, those votes for Ralph Nader in 2000 and any number of Green Party candidates have really changed the world. Just not in a good way. Empowering Trump in a two-party world (the real world, like it or not) will lead to worse than 9/11 or Iraq this time.
There will not be any Dems, socialists, or leftists existing anymore (I mean alive and breathing, not just gone ideologically) if we do as you say and help put/enable the evil, putrid SHITler back into power again, this time FOR LIFE.
And then his POS sons for life after the SCUMp has choked on his last KFC drumstick. :( :(
Tell us, are you really for Jean Marie le Pen and her followers, and that's why you want us to vote third party to help her good pal, the SHITler back into power FOR LIFE?!?
This is truly sad. It is lack of education versus propaganda put out by the GOP, Billionaires and Oligarchs to keep the status quo of & who to blame for their poverty. They have not a clue. Billionaires are destroying the planet and it is not a north versus south thing!
Exactly. Commenting on the Faux News discussion about this song being hailed as another right-wing anthem, I posited the fact that Republicans have voted against raising the minimum wage 52 times. The typical comeback? “It was never meant to be a living wage...”
When you point out FDR’s own words, “...By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages, I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the 𝙬𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜. Throughout industry, the change from starvation wages and starvation employment to living wages and sustained employment can, in large part, be made by an industrial covenant to which all employers shall subscribe.”
You can almost see the lightbulb glowing, and then poof! That’s when they start with the insults.
The insults, the 'whataboutism', and their effing culture war, racist/ANTI-SEMITIC/xenophobic total BS.
Let's not forget their well trained (by their right wing oligarchical masters) from WAY WAY BACK, reflexive reaction of 'commie pinko' and more current 'libtard socialist' trash as well. :(
Yes, it's no coincidence that the climate deniers, the GOP, are tied to the fossil fuel industry.. Dark money from the wealthy billionaires have allowed pollution to triumph over our health and our planet. They even want to eliminate the EPA,.
Yep.No coincidence that the information that ordinary people rely upon originates from media outlets owned by billionaires having no ties to any particular country .I hate shopping in my local supermarket partly because I see tabloid "rags" masquerading as newspapers in the baskets of the less well off ,the retired or working poor.Two out of three newspapers bought are propaganda sheets for the super rich with emotive and intentionally divisive big banner headlines. Josef Goebbels would be proud to see his methods still being applied in the 21st century. I should find another supermarket but expect that the checkout survey would yield the same outcome!
Look at Denmark, Sweden and Norway or Finland with more socialist policies and you will see better living standards for a greater number of people. Taxes are higher but they have more benefits for everyone.
Very true, taxes are higher especially for the middle class. Value added taxes are the main cause and they are at a 20% or higher level. In the US the mantra is: tax the rich and lower taxes on the middle class.
In the countries you mention the welfare state has widespread support and people put the money where their mouth is. In the US not do much.
Democrats won't tell the economic truth about what’s happened and place the blame squarely where it’s deserved because, ever since Clinton changed the party from the party of the working and middle classes to a neo-liberal party of the rich, they have relied on donations from the rich. Biden is trying to take the party back to the party of the working and middle classes, but he doesn't dare push too hard because too many Democratic politicians and donors are still neo-liberal and they'll do their best to shaft him like they shafted Bernie if he pushes too hard.
Nice summary, Maureen. Well done. In my view, we need a complete turnover at the top of the Democratic Party. I’m old, so I can say this: Feinstein, Schumer and yes, even Bernie need to open the door to the next generation. Ask Sheldon Whitehouse who his ten favorite politicians are and support them - whoever they are. That might be a good place to start.
Even the neo-liberals were (though marginally) were at least a tiny bit better than the hardcore rightwing fascist, genocidal/politicide if given the chance, 'Muricun NAZI Party. ;)
Crying into his beer. Lamenting why I ain't got something better by blaming those that do.
Dick Cheney and Bush and republicans cut federal funding to public voc/tech training because lobbies wanted to direct these type people looking to gain skills to for profit private training programs. They did cut funding and as result welding, electronics and other programs were hurt or dropped .
Instead of building opportunities to help displaced people , they cut funding to good programs .
All done under the mantra of turn everything over to the private sector that can do no wrong.In fact, if there was a way to turn it all over to Halliburton, even better !
Andrew White - raising the federal minimum wage has very different effects in different states. Recall HRC promising to raise it to $12/hr in 2016 - but not getting the votes she expected in PA, WI, MI, and other "swing states." Recall the 2007 increase to $7.25/hr - which may have helped some Dem races, but wasn't exactly a close factor in either parties performance in 2008 compared to the Recession. And in 2010 that minimum wage hike yielded almost no help for midterms.
Some "working poor" voters actually feel offended by minimum wage hikes if they don't get a raise themselves - instead of everyone doing better, they perceived themselves relative to other workers and feel like they lost something if anyone else gains something. (Irrational - but exceptionally common psychology)
There are good reasons to discuss and increase the minimum wage, but it hasn't been a way to win votes for many decades.
You may be right, but I'd really want to know more about why we would believe it to work - or not - in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, etc.
Most people following Prof. Reich are not likely to buy into the fantasy that "minimum wage workers get what they're worth" - and will understand some of his explanation for why minimum wages have fallen so far over the last 40+ years. But a lot of other people believe that this is really just a 'handout' - as if golfing in Mar-a-Lago was harder work than what most people in fast food, retail, nursing, hospitality, and other minimum wage jobs are doing. Add in a bit of 'color' to many peoples expectations, and it could well prove that fighting this the wrong way will backfire in the swingier states.
I'd be willing to take that risk - people's lives really are on the line and they must pay a rent. BUT I'm a bit more cautious too - everybody's life is on the line if someone gets hold of the nuclear button who doesn't really care about people unless they vote for him.
This nice thing about people voting for Trump is it ensures a Biden win. Trump has never commanded more than 35% of the general populous and, as an insurrectionist, he's actually not qualified to hold public office, so at least some Secretaries of State will be leaving his name off the ballot. If by some freak chance he were to win there will be a law suit to have him removed on grounds of the 14th amendment, section 3. The Supreme Court is stacked conservative, yes, but only Thomas is a Trump sycophant. The rest are liberals and "originalists." The constitution says what it says. Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Roberts, even ACB will rule in favor of the constitution.
I wouldn't want to bet the future of the country (and perhaps the world) on any of them.
But assuming this singer is trying in good faith - there's a lot in his song that is worth respecting and acknowledging, coupled with some misfiring lines. Nobody will ever reform the Supreme Court or Trump, but I am fairly sure that if Robert Reich and this country singer sat down for a dinner together, the former could explain and the latter could understand exactly why so many millions are working too hard for bullsh!t pay.
I'm betting the future of the country on THAT. Biden is mortal. He might not survive to face Trump next November - anything could happen. But this singer strikes me as someone worth trying to reach and rectify - unlike the other bad song of the summer, "Try that in a small suburb."
All true. But Democrats would be much more convincing if they were vocally supporting unions, calling for universal health care, reproductive autonomy, emergency climate change actions, as well as repealing the 2nd Amendment which was birthed in racism & has caused guns to ne the #1 cause of death for all American children.
Most Democrats are actually only mildly more palatable versions of Republicans. Both are primarily allied to capitalism and its oligarchs whose money funds American politics and allegiances.
Thank you for writing about this powerful song. Oliver may be white and possibly Christian but he doesn’t bring it up in the song and I don’t see the song deals with identity politics.
Your discussion of the growing disparity of wealth in this country is very important. When the song says “Your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end” he’s not only discussing the inequity in the tax code but inflation. Asset inflation (not measured very well by the CPI) rewards those that store their wealth in assets and punishes those that store it in cash (or who are in debt). This has been a big problem since Nixon took us of the gold standard. I’m glad you mentioned Sanders and how the party squashed his campaign for recognizing economic elites.
The song also talks about welfare, health, mental health and suicide. We have an epidemic of diabetes and obesity in the county. Whether food stamps should fund sugared soda is a question that could be brought up. I believe RFK Jr. has. We obviously want to protects public health, but it seems we don’t want a “nanny state” when it comes to taking profits from big pharma, big food and big agriculture.
While right-wing reactionaries like Margorie Taylor Green like the song this doesn't mean it should be dismissed as a right-wing anthem. The media has made a big deal about the song being appropriated by the right but why should ‘nt it be a song for everyone who is disenfranchised. The friend of your enemy is not necessarily your enemy. It’s like saying RFK Jr is a bad guy because he accepts funds from the Heritage Foundation. It ‘s a logical fallacy.
William, I am a glad you mentioned how his song can evoke different thoughts and feelings based on our life experiences. I listened to it recently to feel the soul of the bluegrass because in doing some family research recently, much to my surprise, I found family who homesteaded on a mountainside in colonial VA. So, I brought that to his song.
William, I grew up in a small town/rural community.. I worry about rural folks'access to the things they need like medical care, transportatiom, etc. Hope you and your community are doing okay.
Actually, accepting funds from the Heritage Foundation does make you one of the bad guys. How do you think we got all these sick assholes on our (supposed to be) SCOTUS?
I've done business with folks I don't agree with. Take a look at who funds the DNC and the GOP. I think we can agree our campaign finance laws can be improved.
It is one thing to "do business with folks you don't agree with" and another whole universe to do so with those who want to painfully obliterate you. ;)
I agree, there’s no doubt that our campaign finance laws need to be improved. This all started with the stupid SCOTUS decision on Citizens United. Next, we need to restore voters' rights by passing a new Voters Right Act.
It could be much more open to interpretation and such if he specified EVERYONE, ALL INCLUSIVE when stating "like you and me", and left out the dog whistle welfare references.
Yes, obesity and diabetes is just as rampant in the lily-white community as any others (maybe even more so), but I think I 'got' what he was referencing correct on that one.
(I would gladly admit to being dead wrong if HE would specify and explain such, or just outright reject the rightwingnuts' MAGAt adaption, or co-opting of this song somewhere. ;))
Even though it is NOT 'secular', A.P. Carter's "No Depression" seems much more all inclusive, even if it was not meant to be (I don't know if that musical family was overtly racist or not??), despite being written some 87 years ago.
Yes I assume he was referring to "lily white" welfare recipients because he's from Appalachia. I don,'t know what you mean by "dog whistle". Why should the man reject anyone that likes his song? I guess you "know what he thinks" as the song says.
I don't know if the Carter Family was racist either but their music was good. Steven Foster may have been racist too but his "Hard Times" is one of the greatest songs ever written.
“Rich men north of Richmond”?
You mean rich men with names like Koch, Uihlein, Ricketts, Ellison, Mercer and Musk, who’ve been using their billions to subvert, buy and wrest control of the government and country from the not-so-rich men, women and children north, south, east and west of Richmond whose stake in the running, possession and direction of this nation is their inalienable birthright?
THOSE rich men?
Some of my hearings were south of Richmond. Bristol, Abingdon, all of Appalachia.
I listened to guys like him most of my life. Robert shouldn't give this a-hole more publicity. “I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bullshit pay,” Anthony sings.
He's a liar. He's just selling records.
Same stuff I heard from my fellow consriptees when I was in the Army. We weren't fortunate sons. Same stuff I heard at the "call of the list" when the criminals were brought in for arraignment. Same stuff I heard for the 10 years I was a judge for the Social Security administration handling disability cases. Same stuff when I heard Black Lung and the other 181 statute :benefits" cases involving the Department of Labor.
The folks he's castigating include anyone collecting benefits while he's supposedly working. What he's working is that dobro..and his mouth.
The folks who appeared in my "benefits" hearings for the most part were just like him. Except they couldn't play the dobro or get a record contract. If they could it would be "substantial gainful activity" making them ineligible.
I love "Americana" music. Bluegrass. Old-timey. The blues. This guy doesn't qualify. He's not authentic.
As regards “The folks he's castigating include anyone collecting benefits while he's supposedly working. What he's working is that dobro..and his mouth,”
These guys are a like the other animals the Little Red Hen asked to help her bake her bread, who all found some unconvincing reason as why they couldn’t, but who still were all too happy to help her EAT it once she had gotten it baked.
Just like the Republicans that voted a big fat NO to President Biden's infrastructure plan and then turned around and hollered to their constituents 'Look what I did for you' when the plan brought much needed roads, bridges, etc. to their communities?
No limit to their hypocrisy.
No limit to my desire to kick every lying grifting RW nutter in the nuts!
Peggy, you are right about this one. The hypocrisy is strong with these ones. And, they don't even care if we notice. They will just lie and keep on going. Their constituents, being mostly uninformed or they wouldn't have elected them, believe whatever garbage comes spewing from their hypocritical mouths. Amazing!
Merle Haggard was their minstrel...untl he got old and had an epiphany,
I grew up on this song.
You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
You get another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szbwQbe1NsI
Tennessee Earnie Ford sang 16 tons......
Yes he did. My father worked at a place named Fisk Tire, nights. He rarely saw us. Was dead at age 45. Capitalism steals lives. I remember that song. My father listened to it. It was like a national anthem of 'working stiffs' in the 50's.
Merle Travis has the copyright.
Merle had an epiphany? Tell me about it. I guess I missed it. I remember the line clearly, "I don't want your so-called Social Security", but I guess I never heard him recant it. I grew up with the same song and though I grew up in Northern California, I was raised a southerner through and through. What a long strange trip its been.
At the end he campaigned for Democrats.
https://www.russellmoore.com/2007/03/07/merle-haggard-endorses-hillary-clinton/
Perhaps influenced by his buddy Willie Nelson? Nelson has been a vanguard of protest songs with a liberal bent.
Thanks and thanks for the links.
Somewhat off-topic; I never even knew that song existed until I ran across a band called "16 Tons" and a buddy explained the reference when I revealed my lack of knowledge.
It's a song I heard quite a bit in my early days of listening to the radio, but almost never hear it now even though most of my listening these days is to oldies.
Jaime Ramirez ; There are few protest songs on the radio today. I don't think it's because they are never written. My guess is that the operators of radio stations don't air them. Would not be surprised if several stations are owned by those who don't want to "make waves". A long time ago I liked listening to radio. Not as much anymore.
Jaime Ramirez ; Remember 'Country Joe and the Fish'? They had a great anti Vietnam war song. I bet you know it. "And it's one, two three: What are we fighting for? Don't ask me I don't give a damn! ; next stop is Viet Nam!" Can't remember the title, but people would drive around town blasting it with top down or windows open! I just looked it up on Google; It's title is "Feel like I'm fixin' to die rag". You can hear the one recorded at Woodstock. The lyrics are there too, if you want to read them.
It's been a while but John Fogerty's - Deja Vu All Over Again (Released: September 21, 2004) is a great protest song! John Fogerty has been writing protest songs since the 60's!
That was Merle Travis' song, not Merle Haggard's. Travis wrote it in 1947.
I know, I tried to license the copyright for a book. I attached Travis' version.
Ernie ford, with whom I share an alma mater, popularized it as did many others. I did Black Lung cases for 20 years and identify with mining. At one time, many companies used scrip, in lieu of money and therefore they had virtually no earnings records when it came time to collect Social Security.
IMHO, the key here is that the singer is in fact articulating the resentments of a group. The Biden administration bet is that providing good jobs in redneck country will chill their cultural beef. History shows us that this is highly unlikely. So then I think about the electoral college representatives in each state, and which are the battleground states, and what do the Cook Political Report and the Iowa Electronic Market say.
🤦♀️😱
Pete Seeger was the guy I followed most. Still remember the Smother Brothers trying to get his music on tv.
Talk about censorship... canceling The Smothers Brothers Show was blatant! Betty White was another civil rights fighter and a lefty.
Yes, ol' Merle was fully bromancing with old pruneface 'Saint Ronnie' RayGun ZAP! there for a while, before he himself finally 'woke up', even before the tour(s) with Mr. Zimmerman.
I STILL despise that shit song of his "Big City", which gives an affirmitive nod to those who want nothing more in life than to vaporize Social Security and Medicare. :(
Daniel, I was not raised on "Country Music" but I liked when those songs were played on the general music radio and I especially liked that song. I looked up what a coal miner's life was like and found the song pretty accurate. It reminds me of the kind of hours of unappreciated, poorly paid work my dad did before workers chose to be in a union. The whiny rich folks who can't stand that some people are receiving help "while they are working so hard" are people who never learned about the common good and probably wouldn't understand it even if someone they respect tried to explain it to them. They see themselves as #1 and everyone else who has less than they do or who has just a bit more, as unworthy, undeserving. The problem, a whole lot of these mostly men but not exclusively, have been elected by Republicans to offices all over this country. They have nothing positive to offer anyone but the rich white men they "admire," or claim to admire. They give those guys nearly anything they want with little question while they rake in the donor bucks that feed their own greed. I'm guessing that for them, donor bribes for themselves are more acceptable than money from We the People to help our neighbors who are struggling.
@Daniel. Merle Travis wrote the song. Tennessee Ernie Ford made it a hit. Ford sang the dang thing without accompaniment! Reading your post, I see you didn't say Merle Haggard sang it. Gotcha....
EXACTLY!
After listening to his song what is upsetting to me is the fact that he felt the need to write the words to the lyrics that told his story. If he truly feels the way his song depicts and he represents a segment of our population we as a society have problem to fix. Robert, drop the "e" in your last name and what you have left is the topic of this thread.
When I heard this line in the song, my first thought was that he was talking about the obvious (welfare cheats) but also the not so obvious (really big welfare recipients, like fossil fuel and pharmaceutical companies) who are small-spirited and short-sighted and mean and fat because they drain the entire country of its resources. It plays on Reagan's welfare queens stereotype while reminding us of the really damaging parasites in our economy. I suppose we'd have to ask the author, but the mark of a good song is that there's more in it than the composer intended.
Now he won't have to work the overtime.
Completely agree - he's doing exactly the same thing as Trump in playing the victim, turning true socialist principles on their head to protect corporate greed. He's a hypocrite and a traitor to his class.
I have been rereading A Tale of Two Cities. I wish more people knew this timeless and timely tale. I am giving my friends here the first paragraph in case you've forgotten it:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Paula, Thanks for posting the opening. I have on many occasions in the last several years when fear and thoughts of despair creep in, thought of his "best of and worst of times" words. They give me hope of something better rising.
I also have thought of that line many times recently. And from a completely different genre - the film based on the DC comic: V for Vengeance 😉
Paula, I am not familiar with it.
Oh you should look for it! I'm sure it's easy to find on most streaming sites - I own my copy from Amazon Prime, and I think it only cost 3 or 4 dollars. Natalie Portman and Stephen Fry are in it, I can't think who plays V but it's the same guy who played Agent Smith in The Matrix. The plot is about going up against a totalitarian government. I love it!
Good citation 👍.
This makes me think of a cartoon I saw long ago where Charles Dickens is on the witness stand and the lawyer is looking at him pointedly and saying “Well, which was it, Mr. Dickens?! Was it the best of times or was it the worst of times?!?!”
My novel, Miami '90 is a tale of two cities -- Miami and Havana.
I will look for it! I hope there's a kindle version!
But the so-called "working class" have been hypnotized by the "blame game"
which the elites are winning BIG TIME!!!
I could not agree more with anything above!
But, when played like that, and especially if it has a round neck instead of a rectangular shaped neck, that is a resonator guitar, and not a dobro. ;)
Yes, it's more like 'forgotten lily-white, racist, CIS male, misogynistic, xenophobic, ANTI-SEMITIC, pure Aryan NAZIS' than anything else at this point.
They had better start realizing that they are NOT the sole "real 'Muricuns" (actually ONLY the native peoples of this land are that anyway! ;) ).
I agree. He is not Woody Guthrie by any stretch of the imagination. Woody was more attuned to the working class than this.
A fervent thank you, Mr. Solomon. I was about to comment that these so-called "forgotten white male, Christian (?) nationalists" are anything >but< forgotten. Our entire government from the get-go was set by and for yt Christian males. Every Repubbie pol in the country is talking to and courting these aggrieved whiners. Some of those males are terrified of losing their (white) privilege; others are just plain angry and busy nursing their grievances.
Solomon
You came up the hard way using your wits and hard work. I respect that.
I have a completely off-topic Social Security question for you, if you wouldn't mind? I could really use an expert's input.
Call or login to to the SS website. Better yet Go DOWN THE ROAd to your your local Social Security Office. You will have to take a number and wait. Bring a newspaper or a book and a snack. But when it's your turn really nice, really smart people will answer your questions and help you. After I went down to the SSA office in my town I fell in love with The Government.
Ask to speak to a "specialist ". These are senior people in the office who really know the rules and in my experience can cut thru the red tape. Saved my butt when I was struggling with my wife's benefits when others were telling me that she didn't qualify!
Mimi ; Your experience was nice, but not all offices have such good reviews. I had the experience of being told that I could get benefits from two sources for myself and children. I pointed out that I had already been eligible for one relative, and was concerned that the second was not right. She insisted it was OK. A couple years later, I received a letter from SS saying I had received funds for which I was ineligible. They demanded that I return the money! I was able to get help from the attorney who assisted me before. It was their mistake and I even mentioned my concerns to the woman who told me It was OK to apply for the benefits from a second relative. Not all experiences are the same.
When you have doubts regarding what someone says, check another source to be sure that what you have been told is correct.
Agree we r still dealing with a mistake social security made on eligibility for Medicare, 2 yrs ago. Causing us to have to pay an unnecessary penalty on premium
Get a lawyer.
I am disappointed in this response Daniel-by-the-sea.
I am not permitted to give advice about a case.
That was super helpful, thanks.
Rachel Raccoon ; Actually that can help expedite the process.
The 'process' was just a question about Social Security (posed to the self-proclaimed expert on Social Security).
Yes, them too, but we really need to focus on the roaches that lurk underneath. For instance, Steve Mnuchen, who was involved in creating tranches of mortgage-backed securities while he was at Goldman-Sachs, then went onto snatching up tens of thousands of single-family homes for pennies after the 2008 crash, which he partly caused, and received huge incentives from the government for forcing foreclosures on those homes. In fact, Wilbur Ross did the same...as did Tom Barrack Jr. These are who's who of Trump's administration. And they continue to affect people by keeping a huge portfolio of single-family (starter) homes, making it difficult for ordinary people to own their homes (remember when they took away the mortgage interest deduction?). And they continue to raise the rental cost while more and more maintenance costs are passed on to the tenants. This is some of the pain that an ordinary American feels. And if we don't expose all this corruption, these roaches will once again "govern" the country.
Companies should own zero houses. Its just another way the rich have figured out how to take advantage of our lower purchasing power.
Bill Reitz ; Another form of Vulture Capitalism that works against the Common Good.
Any business that vaunts itself as a disrupter (stop me if I am repeating myself). Isnt disrupting high cost services. Its disrupting worker pay. The gig economy is about wealth transfer from the have nots to the haves.
Right: only people who intend to live in a house, should be able to buy it.
Yes, its like a regressive tax. If only the wealthy can afford to buy houses then only the wealthy will own houses. Since houses are a platform for wealth and wealth growth putting them out of reach of the common person whether by high prices or low wages is a direct attack on the wealth of low income folks as they will only be able to rent and any income will go towards funding the wealthy land owners. Similar to serfdom.
Really good nutshell statement, Stan.
In our city a decade or so ago, there was a property tax abatement available for first-time home buyers who were going to live in the houses they bought. A number of shady characters, using variations on their names, bought up homes, got the abatements, and promptly rented out the properties. Nothing happened to them, as far as I know, because the city didn't have/didn't allocate the resources to investigate and prosecute the grifters.
Denise, there never seems to be funding for follow up investigating or accountably for only the biggest rascals.
Exactly right. Unfortunately.
Spot on … The distortionists, the money grubbers, the complete hypocrites ...
I think we have to look at the roaches on both sides of the equation. Yes, both parties are have roaches and Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur just showed how Democrats no longer associate themselves with the working class, but with the rich elite class
https://www.businessinsider.com/marcy-kaptur-chart-working-class-districts-top-democrats-2023-3
This is not a party issue, this is an American issue and by recognizing that, and working towards that, that's the only way we can heal this nation
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/why-we-should-appreciate-desantis
2 choices: democracy or Fascism.
90% of Republicans vote contrary to their economic and physical well being.
Vote Democratic or suffer the consequences.
Maybe it's hard for Democrats to decry economic elites when they have too often joined the GOP in retrograde policies the last 40 plus years. That's where Biden is a major break with prior Dem Presidents IMO.When people act out against oppressors like Anthony did in his song you can expect there will be much " irrationality" mixed into it, like the cultural stuff. Things are not tidy.
Qanon references and attacking welfare recipients isnt "irrationality". Its MAGA politics.
Exactly. Selling luxury as normal is a great example of capitalism gone mad. But hgtv has a lot of sway in the tastes of working families these days. I see that as a form of marketing these days.
Thanks for the link, Franklin. What a visual!
Ms. Kaptur was our representative in a small area of Cleveland for a number of years, due to an extremely gerrymandered district. I didn't support her as fully as I did our previous representative, Dennis Kucinich, but Marcy is a good person who's very cognizant of where her constituents come from.
Yes JJ, how many times do we have to say enough !!!!!!!!!!’. ?????????
Again, those of us who are aware of the housing “buy everything” industry of corporate Amerika ( yes amerika) so that no one, and I mean your sons and daughters will not be able to own anything. Why wait until it is toooooo late? Stop this Fascism now!
Again, health care, education, housing, ways to strengthen middle class , must be owned by the people... all of us. Quit feeding the greedy empty souls with our property!
That Mnuchin is quite a piece of work. Especially if by “work” you mean a quilt of greed, fraud, and thirst for power.
Rich men north of the old Confederate capitol. Just a reminder of who these clowns are, what they implicitly represent, and what that song is really proposing to do about it, before we even hear the first lyric.
If Oliver Anthony (from Farmville, VA) was living in the 1860s, he would be fighting the Yankees in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia! He might even have a black "servant" to help him out.
In this case, >he's< the servant, "a'ham-bonin'" a little ditty for the troops, just to keep their hearts & minds focused on the right compass point.
What's your point? You do realize it's 2023, right?
"North of Richmond." Hmm....now wouldn't that just be the land of Lincoln? So, let's be clear, this is a song about how the Southern white man has been screwed by the rich men north of the Mason-Dixie line.
This is just BS wrapped in massive cognitive dissonance.
The South did well economically for decades after WWII - because the South always voted Democrat. And Democrats always voted for high taxes on the rich men north of Richmond. Then along came JFK and RFK, two readily identifiable Democrats, who told white southerners that their Jim Crow laws were repugnant. And guess what? Anthony's relatives and friends, all 100 million of them, started voting Republican.
It was Reagan's puppeteers who understood what this meant. In America, for the first time, you could have a platform of cutting taxes on the wealthy, along with that miserable and patronizing metaphor "trickledown," and still get elected!
The result has been a downhill slide for the real income of most Americans ever since.
Blame the Rich man north of Richmond? Sure, but it was your lot who let him out of his cage, asshole.
Absolutely!!! Let's call it what it is/was. Things changed when black Americans began getting access to the government benefits that white Americans were happy to recieve. All of a sudden those government benefits, converted to Gov handouts and the spigot was turned off (public pools were closed in many places to prevent black access- see Heather McGhee "The Sum Of Us"). Unfortunately their racism/otherism was/is exploited to keep the spigot off for everyone, including themselves. The middle class was not expanded by everyone tightening up their own bootstraps, it was expanded because Government of the ppl was run for the benefit of the ppl. Generations later, too few know this history and are mislead to believe Government that benefits certain ppl is bad, and that Gov has no role in improving the quality of their own lives. Southern Strategy has been effective for a while now! Exploited by Nixon, Reagan and Trump. Exploited by Republicans, since the civil war, who have been able to build a coalition of racist and supposed Christians! Have they succeeded in bringing darkness and light together, despite what the Bible says? Or is the coalition all darkness?
The ring of truth, although a lot of the wealth generated by Democrats seems to have been in military and associated enterprises.
Wealth knows no boundaries. Democrats have been made wealthy by the aberrant voting patterns of southern whites. I continue to blame the latter for the massive wealth inequality in America, not the way Anthony claims to believe.
Excellent analysis, Michael!
Also Rupert Murdoch. And the politicians they bankroll who stir up animosity against racial minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ people are also rich white mostly men.
Democrats should loudly proclaim that Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Green, and others of their ilk are themselves rich elitists who are trampling on all poor and average people.
"If Democrats don’t tell the economic truth about what’s happened and place the blame squarely where it’s deserved, the lies of Republican cultural populists will fill the void — not just with faux-populist lyrics, but with bad laws." ... This truth is the only thing that will set us free. These combined forces first rob us and then blame the very people who would change this dirty matrix of laws and policies to bring us back into some kind of fairness and balance. Stand up. Vote.
Yes! Thank You! This guy gets it!!!
If anyone's interested in know who those rich men are, here are some articles:
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/who-are-the-bad-guys
https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/why-esoteric-philosophy-is-vital-329
Those are exactly the kind of billionaires we should be talking & singing about & naming!
This song appears to be directed at the politicians in Washington, DC, who do deserve a lot of criticism, especially those on the right, the sycophants of billionaires like those you named.
Hate sells!
Mr Reich is exactly right. This is the whole ball game. Wealth = Power and the few at the top Koch, Uihlein, Ricketts, Ellison, Mercer and Musk, Devos, Crow, etc. want more! They have intentionally used their wealth to rig the game (Citizens United) in their favor. And they have deviously used race, gender, sexual-orientation, religion, politics to keep us distracted and fighting each other for their 'Trickled Down' crumbs. They continue to effectively divide us and to have us blame anyone but them- the real culprits (our common enemy). They have us blaming the two things that can keep them in check- our POWER-IN-NUMBERS via DEMOCRACY. We have to use both, together, in order to overcome their oligarchy/plutocracy.
Avie, I suspect the song is supposed to get people to doubt what they have seen with their own eyes through a cutzie song that celebrates something but the songwriter doesn't want people to think very hard about it because if they do, the real meaning will show through. One just must know that if Greene and her toddler friends like the song it is bad and just another chunk of propaganda that is not worth the time it takes to listen to it. The people you name are the ones who really are the villains and they are totally OK with villainhood because it has gotten them riches beyond their wildest dreams and they didn't even have to work too hard to get it, although some did. I wonder what they could have achieved FOR this nation had they skipped the evil stuff and worked on behalf of our nation, our whole nation. Nah! They could never have done that. There is no evil in that, nor is their effective money-grubbing and power stealing. Can't leave that out!
The graph of family wealth vs years is interesting as it looks like the story of my own family wealth over the years. Started out in debt, worked and saved consistently, now in retirement there’s a pile of wealth I’ll likely never live long enough to spend. Have two brothers and a sister now in retirement with similar story, and three more sibs on a similar path. Glad that my grandparents had the foresight to get out of Russia when they did
You got that right!
You forgot Ttump! [sic]
Your points on this matter may very well be what leads to the downfall of this nation. The GOP lies only resonate because the Dems refuse to speak the truth. When they do, they are crushed by their "peers." Now, we can look to blame the "system," campaign finance issues, the power of elites and all that, but what about courage? What about individuals who stand for more than their reelection?
One of my only political heroes is "Fighting Bob" La Follette, who showed that people will respond if you call out the real corruption. Sure, you will be attacked, maligned...you will have the forces of billionaires come down on you. But THAT is what it truly means to be a public servant in this collapsing empire, not being another idealistic cog who thinks they are the missing spoke to the steering wheel of this Titanic of a Democratic party.
Actually the Titanic of what you speak is not the democratic party, it is the antiquated form of democracy that has been subverted by the ultra wealthy. Democracy was founded on a belief in the "common good" but the system was built with some fatal holes in it and these holes are now what is sinking the Titanic of capitalistic dominated democracy.
We need a new and better form of government and we need to plan for it now. We must do it for our children and our grandchildren and the oppressed of the world.
Yes, but changing government structures won’t help much without politicians of quality character. We need to assess candidate character before we elect them, as per “Assessing the CHARACTER of Candidates for National Political Office” now on Amazon.
Trump showed us who he is and millions voted for him anyway!
Beverly Asmutis ; Hey! They saw him on the TV!
On their 'talking box' (yup, a blatant original "Beverly Hillbillies" reference!) FIRING everyone in sight.
Exactly the figurehead they should LOVE being the supposed 'working class'.
we need to fix the boat we're in. If we can't get the good reform Democrat bills passed we're not going to radically change the form of our government.
Revolution............maybe NOT one person should vote.
Ian, Underscoring La Follette as, one might say, an icon is brilliant. In my view, a more recent icon was Paul Wellstone. I say we blitz our Democratic public officials with letters, phone calls, and the like, urging them to get over their seeming reluctance to bite the hand that presumably feeds them and recognize that the benefits of not allowing Republican deceptions and distortions to go unanswered clearly outweigh whatever the costs.
La Follette was a Republican. He ran for president as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in the 1924 presidential election., but he ensured that Coolidge won.
It seems to me that too many commenters like Ian and Jennifer are intent on splitting the Party, and the only result would be a Republican win, and Fascism.
Daniel, My aim is not to split the Democratic Party but to press for a more unified, laser-focused effort to make clear to working families throughout this country, many of whom are prepared to vote Republican, that if they vote Republican, the Party that has been silent on the massive disproportionate amount of wealth, power, and influence, their vote will run counter to their interests and concerns. As I repeatedly have stated, we need Democratic leadership to be focused and disciplined and not to allow Republican deceptions and distortions, particularly as they relate to the state of the economy, to go unanswered.
By any measure, Bidenomics is working.
I criticized people like Ian and Jennifer, who may very well be agents or willing idiots for Russians or Republicans.
Daniel, My understanding is that many everyday people don’t even know what Bidenomics means, let alone are experiencing its touted effects. While the latter could change, say, in the next 6 months, I won’t rest until the Party focuses more on its pro-worker agenda—$15 hourly minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, the child tax credit, affordable, quality childcare, universal healthcare, investments in housing, in eldercare, and more—all of which have received zero Republican support. Similarly, in a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when the American people want billionaires to start paying their fair share of taxes, not one Republican has supported the legislation.
Yes, in other words, the DNC should adopt Bernie’s agenda.
Mostly cultural.
We are better off when Republicans aren't motivated. Our best chance is the youth vote. Demographically they can outvote everyone else.
The problem is that all politics is local. What may work in Chicago means nothing in Baghdad By the Sea.
The best argument I had with MAGAts was the child tax credit. The argument works one on one, because as a group, they're motivated by peer pressure and other cultural issues.
I was going to provide a longer reply to the comment above, but will not spend my time doing so. This forum is special because of its tendency to foster serious exchanges. Please refrain from simplistic insults and generalizations. There are plenty of other sites available for that.
Your comment about La Follette references an election result. Elected officials do much more than run for office. They work on legislation, they assist constituents, and of course, their words and deeds can help shape the national debate. That is why I mentioned him in the context of this post, as it is the void of truth-telling from Democrats that is so easily filled by lies by the GOP. If more elected officials were outspoken and pulled the veil back on corruption, even if they were to lose elections, the truth itself would not be so easy to manipulate.
Agree, Ian. Dems do NOT call out GOP lies to any extent, nor do they own their own party's shortcomings (with a few notable exceptions, such as Bernie Sanders and Marcy Kaptur [see Franklin's link, above]). As for splitting the party by speaking the truth, what does that say about the party? If one who votes Dem can't criticize Dems, then we're going to continue to get candidates who approve drilling on public lands, who won't put a public healthcare option out there, who won't back unions, who won't stand up to Wall Street, and so on. Is that what we want? Are we supposed to settle for two steps forward and one-and-a-half steps back, just as long as the GOP doesn't take over? "At least we're not the Republicans," is a pretty low bar.
"Dems refuse to speak the truth."
BS. We are a big tent party and have hundreds if not thousands of credible senators, House members, state officials.
LaFollette was a Republican. The last remnant of the liberal Republican party was the Ripon Society. As in Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin. No longer relevant. Hasn't been since about 1970. Wisconsin is the same state that gave us Joe McCarthy and now Ron Johnson. Until a few weeks ago that state supreme court was controlled by reactionary anti-democratic ideologues. The state is Gerrymandered to favor Republicans.
In order to effectuate change, got to win. We are a country built on compromise. We are facing Fascism. We aren't perfect but there are more Democrats who fit your characterization of LaFollette than Republicans buy a huge factor.
And those former Rippon members today would have to be Democrats to avoid labeled as RINOs.
I agree with Ian, and I understand Bidenomics---I'm clear-eyed about the pros and cons of Biden's legislation. But because I have the audacity to be critical of some things, that makes me either ignorant or a Russian/GOP troll, in your book, Daniel? To be a bona fide, "worthy" Dem, I have to be unequivocally supportive of everything Dems do? Sorry, but lockstep behavior isn't good for any organization. The accusations here are beneath you, Daniel.
You dismiss all the people I support?
ALL of us?
2 choices: democracy or Fascism.
90% of Republicans vote contrary to their economic and physical well being.
Vote Democratic or suffer the consequences.
/
Oh for God's sake...........you need a revolution. IF not the same will go down each year until you are completely owned by your masters.
Not any measure. 56% of Americans can’t cover a $1,000 emergency expense with savings. They'll have to go into debt. It's not working even though the main stream news (funded by big pharma, big ag, big food and big defense) says it is. We need a fair debate on issues rather than calling people names like foreign agents and willing idiots.
Sometimes one has to vote from the heart otherwise the same old shit will go on and on.
Could not agree more, Jennifer. Vote for the same old Establishment candidates, get the same devotion to Big Corp.
Oh Thank YOU. I am called so many names on here!
I never have believed that the poor should be poor and without medical aid.
You live in France -- vote in France!
As much as I respected Nader, he cost us the election in 2000. Too many Bernie supporters supported Tump over HRC in 2016 .
That is extremely noble and humane, but if the citizens of this land "vote from the heart" as you say, we get outright abject FASCISM, at which point ALL HOPE is gone, maybe forever. :(
Your adapted country is just one election away from a la Pen Party, Vichy style fascist takeover itself, so I would not get too comfy with 'not living in fear'. ;)
I feel your pain, Jennifer. To many people, it's accept the [Dem] choice you're given, however bad it might be, or be labeled an enemy. If the Dems had nominated Bernie in 2016, we wouldn't have suffered under mar-a-lardo. Instead, they ran 100% corporate shill HRC, she ran a very ill-advised campaign and repelled all kinds of people---especially Independents---and.....the White House went orange. But to say these things in the presence of Dem absolutists makes one a target.
Fascism huh? You clearly don't know what fascism is or you would be looking towards your own party. The dems and the radical left are the ones that are aligned with Big Tech, Big Pharma and the military industrial complex. They are the ones weaponizing the law thru novel legal theories to imprison their political opponents.
Schmuck. With your last name you should know that white supremacists want to put you in a microwave and turn you into a crispy critter.
Most likely WHY he chose that username for his 4th REICH trolling. ;)
Josh if you won't quit listening to people who don't care about you, at least listen to/read more widely.
@steveandjanereed, I found your counsel to Josh more productive than any I’ve seen. Were I part of an exchange that warranted a similar reply, I plan to lift yours.
Is there a radical left in the USA?
I keep asking the same question?
If you define “radical left” as “communist,” then yes, there’s a political party called Communist Party USA, but I don’t know any members. Ever since Stalin was exposed by Khrushchev, USSR-style communism has been seen as a danger by reasonable people.
Can you send me a link that specifies this?
Thanks, Barbsra, for thinking positive with concrete action!!!
No doubt why Bernie gained so much support. He showed the way to power for the phony anti-corruption crook.
What really gets me is there seems to me a lack of urgency among Democratic leadership. This is likely an effect of aged leadership in many cases.All the sharp edges rubbed smooth after years of being in the political tumbler. I mean, Diane Feinstein? Really ? This is the Party that will fix climate change but can't or won't ease Feinstein out.
Well....they're not making climate change all that urgent, either, so there's that....
not enough. March in NYC coming up to get Biden to declare a climate emergency. He won't do it though.
Agree. His approval for drilling in the Arctic and the Gulf; his inclusion of fossil fuel subsidies in the infrastructure plan; and the bone he threw to Manchin about the WV pipeline all prove that he's not going to get drastic about mitigating climate change. Lip service, maybe, but that's all.
Dems don't tell the truth? Do tell. Repubicas don't either. So what else is new under the sun?
When I was 22 my husband and I bought our first house. Today, I have grandkids in their 30s living with me because they can't afford an apartment with both of them working. The things that were done as explained here are the reasons why. And I'm not the only one with a multi-generation household. It's pretty common these days.
Wall Street private equity firms are buying single family homes and then renting them out, driving up the housing and rental costs. I read somewhere that investment companies own about 25% of the single family homes in the USA. How can a person compete against a company with loads of borrowed cash when trying to purchase a house to live-in? The government needs to rein in private equity firms before they own everything!
sounds like a great Dem party talking point if they advance legislation to deal with it
I am also one of the multi-generation household generations that has 2 of my grown children and one grandchild living with me that is still in high school. Both of my grown children work and at times, they have 2 jobs, but they still can't afford their own home because of the high costs. Sky high rent, and the enormous down payment required to buy a house prevents both of them from having their own house or even renting a house or apartment. A truly sad situation is what it is.
Exactly! I have 3 sets of grandkids here, along with 2 great-grands and my daughter, who is disabled, but can get no help whatsoever from the government. So I, at the ripe old age of 78, need to help support my family. They are not deadbeats, they work, and I resent it when I hear people try to imply that. We are a middle-class family, and we cannot survive without banding together. This is wrong. And I just don't understand why the rich individuals and corporations who got that way because of THIS COUNTRY have no inclination to pay anything back. If we could figure out WHY money is their almighty god, then maybe we could figure out how to combat it. But until then, we just survive. I don't wanna be rich. But I'd like to have teeth; I'd like to get our freezer fixed so we could take better advantage of our grocery budget. I'd like to get a tire on one of the cars because I hate having my family ride around like that. I would JUST like to LIVE. Is that to much to ask? Sorry for the rant!
Thank you, for your great reply. I sure would like to get teeth too, i once had beautiful teeth, but almost all of my upper teeth just deteriorated and broke off or fell out. My 2 grown children work hard and have side jobs in addition to their full time jobs. Luckily, i get a pension and Social Security and i help them out by loaning them money at times, but with my homeowners insurance increasing over $1000 and property tax has went from $300 a year to $1100 now, i can't afford to loan anymore money. I am just breaking even now every month.. Something needs to be done about the high cost of insurance now. I am just thankful i am a good handyman and do my own plumbing and electrical repairs. I am 68 years old. and have had open heart surgery and get tired easily now. You are right about the rich people. money is their God along with Donald TUMP. I don't want to be rich either, i would just like to have a little more than to break even every month. You can't get any Social Security?? I have the understanding that anyone over 65 is supposed to get at least now $1000 a month even if you didn't have enough work credits to get the normal retirement benefit. I have a book about Social Security, and i read almost all of that book. We are also a middle class family, but i just wish the cost of everything would go down to what it was before all of the cost increases. And speaking of tires, i had to buy a whole set of tires for my daughter's car, i had to use one of my credit cards to do that, the whole set of tires was $410. I was worried she was going to have a blowout because her tires were worn so badly they didn't even have any treads left on them.
OMG John I hear you, and I feel you. Seems like we are in much the same circumstances. Yes I do get Social Security, it's my daughter who can't as she in only 57, and she cant get disability because she didnt work during the particular time they looked at. At the time she had a working husband. Now shes disabled and the best she can get is food stamps and they keep lowering those. It's a struggle.
Oh my goodness! I have also had to buy a new set of tires! Come September I will have paid off the 900+ dollars they cost me. That has been a struggle for me as my income is very limited. I also need teeth as mine are falling out (what an embarrassment!) but unfortunately there are no dentists in my area that will accept my medicare advantage plan even though they told me that the dentists would. I am looking at having to pay close to 9,000 dollars for that! It seems every time I turn around something either needs to be fixed or some payment for insurance, bug sprayers (I live in a very bug friendly area!) is due. I can't get ahead because just when I get adjusted to the price of everything, the price goes up again!!! I laugh because when we get a raise in Social Security it is like the corporations raise their prices just enough to take that extra away from you!
This may seem an odd comment, but I live in a buggy area too and refuse to use any bug sprays. If it kills bugs, what do you think it does to you? Instead, leave the spiders alone, let them build their webs (unless they are in the way). Spiders are better than poisons at keeping bugs under control. And almost none of them are dangerous. And no, my house isn’t decorated like halloween. It doesn’t take much to keep the house clear.
Exception, I may use a wasp spray every other year or so if they build a nest too close to my path. But even wasps will leave you alone if you don’t get too close. And if you catch it small, you can knock a nest down while the wasp is away, no spray and they move elsewhere.
Live With nature, not against it.
Thats the problem everywhere, they SAY they have dental but in reality it's not doable. I wish you well.
It seems also every time we get a Social Security raise, my Medicare deduction from my check goes up to swallow all of the raise we get. My daughter has a compact car that takes the smaller tires and the smaller tires aren't as expensive as the larger tires are. My teeth are an embarrassment to me too, but i am just going to have to live with it, i suppose. I may just have all of what's left of my upper teeth pulled and get false teeth, My bottom teeth are still fairly decent. I sometimes look at my second marriage wedding photos, and my teeth were perfect then, but that was 43 years ago, and my pretty wife left me 7 years ago without giving me a reason, so i have lost my wife and my upper teeth at the same time.
Oh yes, it seems like the struggles never end. My daughter gets a very limited amount of food stamps, but they cut what she was getting when she started working full time about a year and a half ago. Her ex husband somehow gets by with paying her a very meager child support for her son, (my grandson). Her ex has a job that paying just over $100,000 a year and only pays her $75.00 a week child support. That just isn't anything now. I just hope that walking cesspool Donald TUMP goes to prison and rots away there and is banned from running for Dictator. We will be in serious trouble if he got elected for sure
Until we rant we can’t rave!!! We need to rave in the streets and make our voices heard.
Katrina, no apologies necessary for ranting. We need to let it out and have someone hear it. Sorry, things are so challenging.
This is what I meant when I said eventually the down-trodden and the middle class will grow weary of being constantly stepped on by the money hungry rich and that is when something akin to a revolution will occur. This type of money grabbing can not continue unchecked. I am sorry about your grandkids and I am hoping that things will get better for them soon and they can have the house of their dreams as well.
Maybe Donald Trump WAS the revolution. Just not in a form people think about when they think about revolution. It was a bogus revolution. An ersatz revolution. But not to the millions who believe Trump was, and is, fighting against the corruption of the "deep state" .
This article explains the anger of those who are turning to Christian white nationalism because they are justly upset at the way the wealthy elites have used the government to tilt the scales to favor policies that allow them to accumulate 90% of all new wealth.
So, we have people like me, who in the last 20 years or so, have used their time to actually understand why the policies that started with Ronald Wilson Reagan and have been pushed mostly by the Republican Party (although the Democrats are partially to blame too) and why we must somehow make our voices heard.
“Wokeism”, immigrants, unions, and the demise of our education system, including, but not limited to, affordable higher education are not to blame. Massive wealth inequality is.
We need to shout these reasons loud enough so that voters know what the major problem is and to support only the people that also are willing to address this at the national level. I normally would say that we need to vote blue only but that is not enough. We also need to get this message to the people so more of us are informed, and yes awake (woke) to this major issue.
Voting only blue becomes easier every time I hear a republican politician or wannabe politician support Trump’s corruption, chaos, attempt to overturn the election (throw actual votes in the trash) and overthrow our government, carelessness and/or possible exposure of the nation’s secrets.
I used to be able to listen to both sides, but until they start being rational, I cant
Dems are just as bad. I do wish Dems would pay more attention to what is going on instead of always saying the above. They are NO better.
They aren't perfect Jen, but they are nowhere near as bad.
To a certain extent I agree but Biden is a warmonger!
Warmonger? Explain.
All you need to do is look up Biden anywhere and see for yourself.
Just in parting also remember he voted against Anita Hill.
Wokeism has nothing to do with it, it just means treating everyone the same, i just dont understand the rationale against it. To me, if you're against "wokeism" you must be a bigot. Christians are all against it, yet Christ was all about teaching it. Go figure!
Katrina, it puzzles me as well. Christ was accepting of everyone; republicans not!
Just like when they all rant against, and express their reviling hatred of ANTIfa, they are basically saying (screaming) that they love and DEMAND FASCISM! ;) :(
Yes massive wealth inequality, and a radically changed info ecosystem that pumps out misinformation and polarizes the masses.
A few years back there was a UN delegation the went to several parts of the United States,places like skid row in Los Angeles,poor mostly black places in rural Alabama,and West Virginia.What they found was astounding.There are people that live in one of the richest countries on Earth,that live on like $5 a day. They have little if any real job prospects,poor healthcare options that are really far away(when I was growing up in rural SW Virginia a specialist could be an hours drive away.)and little if any real help getting houses or water supplies or sewage systems fixed or improved.
These are the true forgotten people,that no one cares about.These right wing crybabies would be the last ones to consider helping these people out of the deepest poverty.
And it isn't their faults,society likes to point fingers and slather on blame to these people,but if you haven't lived in it or saw it for yourself,you also wouldn't know how easy it is to say the people should try harder or move someplace else.Things that may not be as simple as you think.It wouldn't have taken only a day to be mired in poverty,and wouldn't take only a day to fix it.
Not sure where the article was but could have been in the Atlantic or Mother Jones.There are a few other good sources of stories like this.
Went to Memphis once then drove through Tennessee it was like being in another world. Black kids in rags, no shoes. falling down houses etc. Not sure where these people worked there seemed nothing but fields (work) no shops etc. This was some time ago I expect there is now a huge Walmart somewhere! I was so shocked and sad,
And if you'll note, Tennessee politics have become extremely right wing. People seem to forget what a boon the TVA was to those parts, bringing electricity to places that had none.
Yes.Nothing stranger than people.
Richard Wolff and Peter Turchin also do a good job of explaining what happened, and why inequality has grown to this disgusting degree. Thanks Professor Reich for slugging away at the lies every day.
And we should also be thanking Bernie Sanders for taking the time to expose why the main problem is the policies (of Reagan Republicans) is the cause of this massive wealth inequality, not “wokeism” or any of the things that MTG is ignorantly shouting.
Thank you. Absolutely!
Vote for Cornel West.
Yeah, those votes for Ralph Nader in 2000 and any number of Green Party candidates have really changed the world. Just not in a good way. Empowering Trump in a two-party world (the real world, like it or not) will lead to worse than 9/11 or Iraq this time.
IF you don't vote these Dems and Repubs out then don't whine?
Fairy tales can come true. They can happen to you.
At some point people have to make them happen?
There will not be any Dems, socialists, or leftists existing anymore (I mean alive and breathing, not just gone ideologically) if we do as you say and help put/enable the evil, putrid SHITler back into power again, this time FOR LIFE.
And then his POS sons for life after the SCUMp has choked on his last KFC drumstick. :( :(
That's stupid.
That is today's most ignorant post yet. There's still time though.
Cornel West? Oh no he's a Pinko!
You live in France, correct??
Tell us, are you really for Jean Marie le Pen and her followers, and that's why you want us to vote third party to help her good pal, the SHITler back into power FOR LIFE?!?
Do you know anything about French Politics?
If so tell me how many party's we have?
What a stupid question.
To summarize your thoughts Mr. Reich, the top 1/10 of 1% are the whales and the rest of us are the KRILL!
Your summary doesn't include the "why" which is the point of the essay.
Greed.
This is truly sad. It is lack of education versus propaganda put out by the GOP, Billionaires and Oligarchs to keep the status quo of & who to blame for their poverty. They have not a clue. Billionaires are destroying the planet and it is not a north versus south thing!
Most of it is cultural. 90% of Republicans vote against their own self interests.
Exactly. Commenting on the Faux News discussion about this song being hailed as another right-wing anthem, I posited the fact that Republicans have voted against raising the minimum wage 52 times. The typical comeback? “It was never meant to be a living wage...”
When you point out FDR’s own words, “...By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages, I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the 𝙬𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜. Throughout industry, the change from starvation wages and starvation employment to living wages and sustained employment can, in large part, be made by an industrial covenant to which all employers shall subscribe.”
You can almost see the lightbulb glowing, and then poof! That’s when they start with the insults.
The insults, the 'whataboutism', and their effing culture war, racist/ANTI-SEMITIC/xenophobic total BS.
Let's not forget their well trained (by their right wing oligarchical masters) from WAY WAY BACK, reflexive reaction of 'commie pinko' and more current 'libtard socialist' trash as well. :(
In some cases, against their very own existence.
Yes, it's no coincidence that the climate deniers, the GOP, are tied to the fossil fuel industry.. Dark money from the wealthy billionaires have allowed pollution to triumph over our health and our planet. They even want to eliminate the EPA,.
The legacy of accumulated (and still growing) fossil fuel wealth may be enough to do us in. The growth of renewable wealth not happening fast enough.
Yep.No coincidence that the information that ordinary people rely upon originates from media outlets owned by billionaires having no ties to any particular country .I hate shopping in my local supermarket partly because I see tabloid "rags" masquerading as newspapers in the baskets of the less well off ,the retired or working poor.Two out of three newspapers bought are propaganda sheets for the super rich with emotive and intentionally divisive big banner headlines. Josef Goebbels would be proud to see his methods still being applied in the 21st century. I should find another supermarket but expect that the checkout survey would yield the same outcome!
Ol' Rupie Murdoch is basically a modern day Goebbels.
we need a bigger media footprint. Easy to say.
Education OR 'pull yourself up by your boot straps' mentality!
I have to say the propaganda machine has worked wonders..........very frightening the idea of SOCIALISM.
Look at Denmark, Sweden and Norway or Finland with more socialist policies and you will see better living standards for a greater number of people. Taxes are higher but they have more benefits for everyone.
YES, and just look at the homeless they do not have. Most education there is free. To have a thriving Democracy you must have an Educated Population.
The right wing would rather starve themselves than see someone get something they believe that, by 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 measure, doesn’t “deserve” it.
Everyone deserves food, shelter, safety, and good health. Judge not lest ye be judged. Old saying: On your nose it’s a wart; on my nose it’s a pimple!
Very true, taxes are higher especially for the middle class. Value added taxes are the main cause and they are at a 20% or higher level. In the US the mantra is: tax the rich and lower taxes on the middle class.
In the countries you mention the welfare state has widespread support and people put the money where their mouth is. In the US not do much.
and here in France.
Democrats won't tell the economic truth about what’s happened and place the blame squarely where it’s deserved because, ever since Clinton changed the party from the party of the working and middle classes to a neo-liberal party of the rich, they have relied on donations from the rich. Biden is trying to take the party back to the party of the working and middle classes, but he doesn't dare push too hard because too many Democratic politicians and donors are still neo-liberal and they'll do their best to shaft him like they shafted Bernie if he pushes too hard.
Nice summary, Maureen. Well done. In my view, we need a complete turnover at the top of the Democratic Party. I’m old, so I can say this: Feinstein, Schumer and yes, even Bernie need to open the door to the next generation. Ask Sheldon Whitehouse who his ten favorite politicians are and support them - whoever they are. That might be a good place to start.
I'd keep Bernie.
That's my read. Biden can catch it from both sides.People don't realize he does not have the freedom they might imagine him to have.
A full 80% of the ads during MSNBC's prime time shows are for brokerage houses, hedge fund asswipes, and wealthy luxury items, etc.
So you are correct, sadly.
But still they are at least a tiny bit better than the hardcore rightwing fascist, genocidal/politicidal if given the chance, 'Muricun NAZI Party. ;)
Even the neo-liberals were (though marginally) were at least a tiny bit better than the hardcore rightwing fascist, genocidal/politicide if given the chance, 'Muricun NAZI Party. ;)
VOTE PROGRESSIVE BLUE!
Crying into his beer. Lamenting why I ain't got something better by blaming those that do.
Dick Cheney and Bush and republicans cut federal funding to public voc/tech training because lobbies wanted to direct these type people looking to gain skills to for profit private training programs. They did cut funding and as result welding, electronics and other programs were hurt or dropped .
Instead of building opportunities to help displaced people , they cut funding to good programs .
All done under the mantra of turn everything over to the private sector that can do no wrong.In fact, if there was a way to turn it all over to Halliburton, even better !
All Biden needs to do to win back the poor vote is raise the national minimum wage. It would also help shore up the SS and Medicare trust funds.
They tried that in 2021. The GOP shot it down.
They should try again. Most people support raising the minimum wage, even people who vote Republican.
Andrew White - raising the federal minimum wage has very different effects in different states. Recall HRC promising to raise it to $12/hr in 2016 - but not getting the votes she expected in PA, WI, MI, and other "swing states." Recall the 2007 increase to $7.25/hr - which may have helped some Dem races, but wasn't exactly a close factor in either parties performance in 2008 compared to the Recession. And in 2010 that minimum wage hike yielded almost no help for midterms.
Some "working poor" voters actually feel offended by minimum wage hikes if they don't get a raise themselves - instead of everyone doing better, they perceived themselves relative to other workers and feel like they lost something if anyone else gains something. (Irrational - but exceptionally common psychology)
There are good reasons to discuss and increase the minimum wage, but it hasn't been a way to win votes for many decades.
I think, considering how long it's been since it was last raised, this time would be different.
You may be right, but I'd really want to know more about why we would believe it to work - or not - in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, etc.
Most people following Prof. Reich are not likely to buy into the fantasy that "minimum wage workers get what they're worth" - and will understand some of his explanation for why minimum wages have fallen so far over the last 40+ years. But a lot of other people believe that this is really just a 'handout' - as if golfing in Mar-a-Lago was harder work than what most people in fast food, retail, nursing, hospitality, and other minimum wage jobs are doing. Add in a bit of 'color' to many peoples expectations, and it could well prove that fighting this the wrong way will backfire in the swingier states.
I'd be willing to take that risk - people's lives really are on the line and they must pay a rent. BUT I'm a bit more cautious too - everybody's life is on the line if someone gets hold of the nuclear button who doesn't really care about people unless they vote for him.
This nice thing about people voting for Trump is it ensures a Biden win. Trump has never commanded more than 35% of the general populous and, as an insurrectionist, he's actually not qualified to hold public office, so at least some Secretaries of State will be leaving his name off the ballot. If by some freak chance he were to win there will be a law suit to have him removed on grounds of the 14th amendment, section 3. The Supreme Court is stacked conservative, yes, but only Thomas is a Trump sycophant. The rest are liberals and "originalists." The constitution says what it says. Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Roberts, even ACB will rule in favor of the constitution.
I wouldn't want to bet the future of the country (and perhaps the world) on any of them.
But assuming this singer is trying in good faith - there's a lot in his song that is worth respecting and acknowledging, coupled with some misfiring lines. Nobody will ever reform the Supreme Court or Trump, but I am fairly sure that if Robert Reich and this country singer sat down for a dinner together, the former could explain and the latter could understand exactly why so many millions are working too hard for bullsh!t pay.
I'm betting the future of the country on THAT. Biden is mortal. He might not survive to face Trump next November - anything could happen. But this singer strikes me as someone worth trying to reach and rectify - unlike the other bad song of the summer, "Try that in a small suburb."
This singer is a co-opted stooge unaware that he's doing the work of the elites that he so criticizes in his song.
Forgive me Robert Reich, but I had to do it :)
To Tell The Truth
by Katrina Haney
In a land of greed and growing divide,
Where wealth is concentrated on one side,
The Congressional Budget Office reveals,
The staggering truth that our nation conceals.
From '89 to '19, a span of 30 years,
The distribution of wealth brought forth our fears,
The top 10% now hold the lion's share,
While the bottom half struggles, burdened with despair.
A mere 2% of total wealth they possess,
While negative net worth engulfs the rest,
The policies enacted, decisions made,
Have deepened the chasm, our nation's trade.
Opening borders, imports flooding in,
Deregulating Wall Street, a gamble with our kin,
Tax cuts for the wealthy, corporations on top,
Unions bashed, workers left to drop.
Private equity swooping, companies laid bare,
Workers fired, assets sold, it's simply not fair,
Mergers and acquisitions, big corps in control,
Leaving little room for others to enroll.
Banks bailed out, homeowners left in strife,
Profits prioritized over rebuilding life,
Higher education privatized, debt on students' backs,
These policies have left us in relentless tracks.
The wealthy elites, with their power and sway,
Have shaped the rules and had their say,
Donations to politicians, both left and right,
Ensured their interests took flight.
But let us not be fooled by populist tales,
Blaming the marginalized, as their rhetoric pales,
It's the rich who have leveraged their wealth for gain,
Changing the game, causing others pain.
While Democrats advocate for equity and change,
They tread lightly, reluctant to rearrange,
Higher taxes on the wealthy, labor laws to empower,
Rolling back the structural changes, they cower.
They shy away from placing blame where it belongs,
Afraid of confronting the wealthy throngs,
But if they don't speak the truth, loud and clear,
Republican lies will fill the void, we should fear.
So let us demand economic truth be told,
Hold the wealthy accountable, they are uncontrolled,
For the soul of this nation, we must arise,
And dismantle the system that perpetuates these lies.
Katrina, WOW! EXCELLENT!!!! I am speechless. Thank you so much for sharing!
Oh thank you so much, poetry is just something i do :)
All true. But Democrats would be much more convincing if they were vocally supporting unions, calling for universal health care, reproductive autonomy, emergency climate change actions, as well as repealing the 2nd Amendment which was birthed in racism & has caused guns to ne the #1 cause of death for all American children.
Most Democrats are actually only mildly more palatable versions of Republicans. Both are primarily allied to capitalism and its oligarchs whose money funds American politics and allegiances.
Agree.
Excellent piece
Thank you for writing about this powerful song. Oliver may be white and possibly Christian but he doesn’t bring it up in the song and I don’t see the song deals with identity politics.
Your discussion of the growing disparity of wealth in this country is very important. When the song says “Your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end” he’s not only discussing the inequity in the tax code but inflation. Asset inflation (not measured very well by the CPI) rewards those that store their wealth in assets and punishes those that store it in cash (or who are in debt). This has been a big problem since Nixon took us of the gold standard. I’m glad you mentioned Sanders and how the party squashed his campaign for recognizing economic elites.
The song also talks about welfare, health, mental health and suicide. We have an epidemic of diabetes and obesity in the county. Whether food stamps should fund sugared soda is a question that could be brought up. I believe RFK Jr. has. We obviously want to protects public health, but it seems we don’t want a “nanny state” when it comes to taking profits from big pharma, big food and big agriculture.
While right-wing reactionaries like Margorie Taylor Green like the song this doesn't mean it should be dismissed as a right-wing anthem. The media has made a big deal about the song being appropriated by the right but why should ‘nt it be a song for everyone who is disenfranchised. The friend of your enemy is not necessarily your enemy. It’s like saying RFK Jr is a bad guy because he accepts funds from the Heritage Foundation. It ‘s a logical fallacy.
William, I am a glad you mentioned how his song can evoke different thoughts and feelings based on our life experiences. I listened to it recently to feel the soul of the bluegrass because in doing some family research recently, much to my surprise, I found family who homesteaded on a mountainside in colonial VA. So, I brought that to his song.
I live in a rural community now and play folk music myself. Thanks for your comment
William, I grew up in a small town/rural community.. I worry about rural folks'access to the things they need like medical care, transportatiom, etc. Hope you and your community are doing okay.
I'm a volunteer EMT for the fire department. We look out for each other in Andes NY.
Glad you volunteer William and play folk music. ---- things from the heart. Your community is lucky to have you helping out.
Actually, accepting funds from the Heritage Foundation does make you one of the bad guys. How do you think we got all these sick assholes on our (supposed to be) SCOTUS?
I've done business with folks I don't agree with. Take a look at who funds the DNC and the GOP. I think we can agree our campaign finance laws can be improved.
It is one thing to "do business with folks you don't agree with" and another whole universe to do so with those who want to painfully obliterate you. ;)
I agree, there’s no doubt that our campaign finance laws need to be improved. This all started with the stupid SCOTUS decision on Citizens United. Next, we need to restore voters' rights by passing a new Voters Right Act.
It could be much more open to interpretation and such if he specified EVERYONE, ALL INCLUSIVE when stating "like you and me", and left out the dog whistle welfare references.
Yes, obesity and diabetes is just as rampant in the lily-white community as any others (maybe even more so), but I think I 'got' what he was referencing correct on that one.
(I would gladly admit to being dead wrong if HE would specify and explain such, or just outright reject the rightwingnuts' MAGAt adaption, or co-opting of this song somewhere. ;))
Even though it is NOT 'secular', A.P. Carter's "No Depression" seems much more all inclusive, even if it was not meant to be (I don't know if that musical family was overtly racist or not??), despite being written some 87 years ago.
Yes I assume he was referring to "lily white" welfare recipients because he's from Appalachia. I don,'t know what you mean by "dog whistle". Why should the man reject anyone that likes his song? I guess you "know what he thinks" as the song says.
Perhaps you're making his point.
I don't know if the Carter Family was racist either but their music was good. Steven Foster may have been racist too but his "Hard Times" is one of the greatest songs ever written.
Yes, I love Nanci Griffiths' version of that one. :)