Well, if this whole 99% thing has accomplished anything worthwhile, it’s shown the world that Republicans are, truly, only on the side of the 1%, and they’re no longer the least bit shy about saying so. Gone are they days of sending $200 checks to the hoi polloi to soften the blow of such wanton thievery that seemed necessary a decade ago; this time the rich want it all and they are going to get it. It’s Tom Friedman’s “Suck. On. This.” for everybody who forgot to marry an heiress. Now, each time the Clown Car door opens, another Bozo tumbles out, offering an even bigger candy toss to the rich, and an even harsher dousing of seltzer water on everyone else. Pity poor Herman Cain, whose absurdly confiscatory “9 9 9″ plan would shower millions on such eminent worthies as his benefactors, the Kochs, while doubling or even tripling the tax burden on WalMart clerks and cabbies; turns out it was a little too commie for the teabaggers.
Rick Perry, whose very status as a millionaire and two-term Governor is intrinsic proof that America is no longer a meritocracy, has come up with something even more, if you’ll pardon the expression, Ponzi-like. It slashes, even eliminates, a whole raft of taxes the non-rich will never even know about, and creates deficits that, guess who will have to suffer for. Not to be outdone, Romney (as of this writing, anyway) has leapt off the fence and endorsed a similar “flat tax, ” a code word for making busboys pay for the excesses of plutocrats’ trophy wives, with the now usual elimination of the estate tax, investment tax, etc.
Universally, the Republicans have concluded that the economy their policies (and pals) shattered requires, according to some pretzel logic only they can divine, that the rich, far from being punished for their quite public crimes, must be given more money, or else. Democrats, as you’d expect, are willing to compromise. Has there ever been a bigger reason than this for mass protests?
Granted, Barack Obama richly deserves to be defeated in 2012, but it appears that Republicans just won’t let him. It’s a neat trick, of course, offering voters the choice between date rape and a prison gang bang, given that most will choose the former, but this is clearly a case in which “democracy” is no more than a distracting piece of not very good theatre. Once safely reelected, there is little doubt that Obama will continue the rightward lurch that has become both his millstone and his key to finally joining the 1%, once and for all, not unlike the previous man from “Hope.” An increasingly phony game is being played wherein everyone on the field wins, and only the fans are the losers. No wonder so few bother to watch anymore.
By all appearances, the Republicans are planning to throw this match, but only because they’ve won it already.
