It's clear by now that the GOP wants a return to the robber baron era of the 1890's. They want to roll back the 20th century. And they've already succeeded in echoing the robber barons to a considerable extent. We've got oil magnates in power, corporate control over much of Congress, the erosion of civil liberties, millions of working poor with not enough to eat, and imperialist warfare.
Consider what Emma Goldman said of the war in the Philippines:
But when the smoke was over, the dead buried, and the cost of the war came back to the people in an increase in the price of commodities and rent-- that is, when we sobered up from our patriotic spree-- it suddenly dawned on us that the cause of the Spanish-American war was the price of sugar.
The parallel with the Gilded Age is hardly new. But if this is old hat, then why can't we follow through with this analogy and realize that the vote is not going to restore our liberal democracy?
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