> [TB] Not surprisingly, the only place class warfare has started to rear its
> head is from those supporting the Mayor.
No, that's not accurate. Class warfare has been part of this
country from the very start.
Only if you insist ion viewing history through the Coke-bottle
lenses of Marxist doctrine.
At the beginning of the US of A
as a country, it was only those with land who could vote. It
is, however, since the Republicans took the US Congress this
last time, been the hue and cry of Republicans that their
opponents are creating class warfare by mentioning that the
Republican policies disadvantage the working and poor
classes for the benefit of the ultra-rich.
I guess I must qualify as ultra-rich on my lousy $33,000
salary then, because I certainly benefited (and continue to benefit)
from the Reagan and Bush tax cuts. I guess I don't qualify as
working-class either, whatever that means in these modern times
when the only purely Communist nations are wretched holes like
Cuba and North Korea. Was welfare reform class warfare too?
How about winning the Cold War? Yeah, us Republicans are all
just a bunch of ultra-rich white boys pining for the good old days
when we could just go out and whip on the black folks...oh, that's
right, those were all Democrats, weren't they?
As for the Republican Party being the party of the ultra-rich,
my memory may be failing me but where are most of the ultra-rich
Hollywood folks and media stars sending their donations? Not to the
GOP! The GOP is not the party of the economic status quo, and
hasn't been since Barry Goldwater got trashed in 1964. Know your
enemy, Wizard. The only party of the rich in this country is the
Democrats - or am I supposed to believe that the Kennedys and
Rockefellers are just po' folks from Boston and Charleston?
The Repubs in the
MN legislature have created policies--including giving the
surplus to the more wealthy among us--
There you go again, Wizard. I got my pittance of a refund
check so I guess I'm "more wealthy". Feh. Besides, since when
did it become just the GOP's responsibility? That tax refund was
proposed by an independent governor and passed by a DFL Senate
as well as a Republican House. Finally, I fail to see what is unfair
about returning 80% of the refund (for example) to the people that
paid 80% of the taxes. It is their money, you know, the same way
if Target overcharges you for a pair of undies they give you back your
money.
that directly
disadvantage Minneapolis by failing to pass the senaate $100
million affordable housing bill,
Let's follow the logic here. Minneapolis pisses away $115
million on the downtown Target, demonstrating their commitment
to affordable housing, so the Legislature should pony up another
$100 mill to them? Where is the logic in this?
by not combining early
childhood education and child care,
Having served on the state's Early Childhood Care & Education Council
under Governor Carlson, I can tell you there's no consensus on this issue.
Heck, you can't even get some people to go along with the notion that the state
should be taxing single-wage two-parent households for the benefit of
two-parent two-earner families. Don't even try to tell me it's just for single moms
on welfare, either.
and by not funding K-12
education increases which, of course, hit inner-city kids
the hardest.
Adding money to the system does not produce higher test scores
or better performance by any measure, otherwise DC & NYC would have crops
of geniuses coming out of their schools and North Dakota would be
graduating class after class of unlettered peasants. So long as the MFT
and MEA fight teacher testing and merit pay, why should we keep throwing
money at the problem in the hope that something will stick and do some good?
This is institutionalized class warfare and
it's been going on aa long time
No, this is people having had enough of being separated from their
money for years and seeing it pissed away by bureaucracies more interested
in preserving their jobs and increasing their salaries than doing an effective job
with the money they have. It's not class warfare, it's common sense.
I don't claim to speak for the state GOP, but I know damn well
why I tend to vote for Republican candidates: it's because I keep
looking over at the Democrats and seeing candidates like Wizard,
whose answer to every problem is to throw more of my money at it.
Kevin Trainor
East Phillips, 6-10
