(Written by an American expat living in the European Union, who holds an MBA degree)
Clearly this diary is not about the movie Saving Private Ryan, rather it's about the GOP trying to save Ryan's plan to privatize what's left of America's social safety net.
But this diary is also about the devil hiding behind the innocence of a young Jimmy Stewart boyish smile!
(Spiegel quote:)
And even if the man has a warm smile, that prospect is cold comfort.
This diary is instead about how the GOP is attempting to save
Paul Ryan's private agenda for America, which is in effect an agenda which has been adopted wholesale from
Ayn Rand, who gives a full throated embrace of the neo-feudalist American agenda. Their aim of which is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer by prostrating themselves in front of the altar of unbridled avarice, in an agenda that the German mainstream magazine Spiegel "called more dangerous than Sarah Palin". Unlike Palin, Ryan has a
private plan 14 years in the making, since he came to Congress. A plan to sow, destroy the remnants of what is left of the American social safety net, so as to set America back a hundred years, much to the delight of the Tea Party, who keep telling us they want their country back. Wherein the only question is just how far back in time do they want to take America?
(Spiegel quote:)
But behind Ryan's puppy-like face is the determination of a crusader. His soft words during the convention speech revealed a hard line.
Unlike Palin, who became candidate without much preparation, Ryan has been preparing for his appearance on the grand political stage ever since he entered Congress 14 years ago. Romney's running mate has a battle plan ready that will have a bigger impact on America's democracy than all of Palin's rhetorical attacks put together. It is nothing less than a declaration of war on social solidarity in America.
In considering how far back in time the GOP and their Tea Party supporters who are filled with hate want to take America, let's remember how far back in time they've already taken America. To see this clearly we should look at the symbol that built America. The symbol that is credited with winning the American West, the grid iron tracks that linked America from coast to coast,
America's railways are the so called iron horse of yesteryear. If you don't think America has been thrown back in time by GOP policies, you have to look no further than America's railway systems, where there is no hi-speed rail dear Mr Ryan from sea to shining sea. Where America's locomotives move at 1950's speed, where apparently you Mr Ryan want to keep the rest of America, save the 1950's housing prices of course. Where there were no underwater mortgages anywhere in America, and one could buy a modest starter family home for a single year's wage of an average worker. Certainly Mr Ryan and his Tea Party ilk doesn't want to provide that American past. Nor does he and his ilk want to revive the 1950's medical costs when America couldn't imagine having 59 million medically uninsured persons. Certainly in the 1950s, it would have been unimaginable to have a depoliticized election bought by over 2 billion dollars of private capital, primarily financial capital. In the face of an American public who has become completely atomized, angry and confused, who no longer knows the way out certainly that's not what the real Mr Smith took back to Washington, is it? But then the real iconic Mr Smith was a Washington outsider. After 14 years Ryan is a Washington insider, isn't he? Let's not be confused about that.
(Spiegel quote)
he reminds some more of the Jimmy Stewart character in the film classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," which tells the story of an upstanding citizen who travels to the US capital to remind politicians of their obligations. Like Stewart, Ryan also comes across as an amiable man next door -- a normal guy who, with a smile but also with resolve, tells his fellow citizens to finally put the public finances in order.
As the only major industrialized nation in the world not to have universal medical access for all of its citizens as a human right. No Mr Ryan and his ilk want to take us back to a neo-feudalist America of wage slavery and legalized indentured servitude. If you don't believe that just look at the national debt, where every living citizen to include the newborn are indebted to the tune of $131,000 dollars, because American billionaires and multi-millionaires don't want to pay their fair share of tax and that includes his boss Mitt Romney, whose tax burden would sink to 0.82%. Clearly that is less than 1% and the rest of us are left to pick up the bills. Clearly that's the name of that tune isn't it?
(Spiegel quote)
Ryan also wants to give more to the rich. He would reduce their taxes, so that Mitt Romney, say, who has an estimated personal fortune of around $250 million, would only face a tax rate of 0.82 percent.
The people this would benefit most are billionaire Republican donors. But Ryan still sees himself as a man of the people. He loves to quote Ronald Reagan's assertion that, when the rich have more, their wealth will "trickle down" to all citizens. He seems to forget that the results of that experiment are well known. In 1982, Reagan had to massively increase taxes because the US budget deficit had grown so huge.
Link to full article:
http://www.spiegel.de/...
Mr Ryan is coming for your social security, your Medicare, your public schools, your pensions, your life savings and your hope for a better future.
Can America really afford to underestimate Mr Ryan's privatizing agenda disguised by a boyish Jimmy Stewart - Mr Smith goes to Washington, smile?