After reading through the Ryan budget that was passed by the House on April 10th, I am more than concerned about our mid-term elections. There is more at stake than the House and the Senate, our future as an "American" nation is at stake. What I mean by that is simple; the country that our parents and grandparents began to shape after World War II, you know, the one where upward mobility and the "American Dream" were achievable. Don't get me wrong, there are still opportunities for some, those that choose the right field, those who come from privilege, or simply those who get lucky. Gone, is the day where every citizen can achieve the dream, as long as they work hard and play by the rules.
The reasons why these days are gone are many; corporate greed; concentration of wealth; the dismantling of our progressive ax code; political obstruction; and the list could go on. No matter how you weigh it, the middle class is disappearing, poverty is on the rise, and income inequality has never been greater. The right blames Obama, which is the easy thing to do, yet so far from the truth, that addressing the issue seems almost childish. This nation was headed in the direction we now find ourselves in before Obama was even in College. Once Reagan was elected in 1980, the path and pace of this journey was both solidified and quickened. Allowing our wealthiest citizens to avoid paying a fair "effective" tax rate, combined with deficit spending, has been the blueprint for every GOP President since Reagan. Sure, we had 8 good years during Clinton's administration, but things shifted right back to failed economic and tax policies, and here we are.
This "new" breed of conservative is openly antagonistic to a fiscal policy that demands a shared burden, or one that invests in what this nation needs most. Ryan's plan calls for bigger tax breaks for the wealthy, while cutting every single program that provides services to the poor. His budget does not provide for meaningful infrastructure investments; it does not address our veteran's healthcare issues; it cuts educational funding; it aims to privatize social security, thus ending a guaranteed retirement for tens of millions Americans; it plans to voucherize Medicare for our elderly; while increasing military spending, or corporate welfare for the military industrial complex.
Citizens be warned, what we face in 2014 and 2016 is more than just another election cycle, the next 2 and a half years well determine the future of a nation that stands on the brink of faltering. No longer do we lead the world in education; our healthcare system ranks below every industrialized nation in quality of care and outcomes; while our top 1-2% have never had it better, the middle class and the poor are shrinking and suffering respectively. The GOP of today has made their ideology clear, there is no mistake who they represent and who's business and futures they are going to protect. We either rally to the challenge of saving that American dream, we either come together and put aside our social differences, or we lose. At the end of the day, it truly has come down to us versus them, the 98% versus the 2 %. As much as we do not want to admit it or even say it, America is immersed in class warfare, with the right protecting the minority.
We need look no further than history to see the rise and fall of empires, and the reasons that they could no longer sustain their greatness. The primary or leading factors for the fall of every great empire were brought on by the dissention of the peasant class or poor, and the diminishing ability of the middle class or average citizen to sustain the empire, as the elite took more and more of the collective wealth. These conditions lead to revolt, they made the empires susceptible to foreign invaders, but in the finality of all of their existence, they crumbled into the annals of history.