The Emerging Republican Minority

Fortunately for the overwhelming majority of our citizens, the Republican Party is headed for the crapper. Paul Krugman analyzes why in his column of 3/26/07 in the New York Times. Some excerpts and my comments follow:

"...According to the American National Election Studies, in 1994, the year the Republicans began their 12-year control of Congress, those who favored smaller government had the edge, 36 to 27 per cent. By 2004, however, those in favor of bigger government had a 43 to 20 % lead."

"And public opinion seems to have taken a particularly strong turn in favor of universal health care. Gallup reports that 69 per cent of the public believes that "it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health care coverage", up from 59 per cent in 2000."

"The main force driving this shift to the left is probably rising income inequality. According to Pew, there has recently been a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans who agree with the statement that "the rich get richer while the poor get poorer." Interestingly, the big increase in disgruntlement over rising inequality has come from the relatively well off--those making $75,000 a year."

"Indeed, even the relatively well off have good reason to feel left behind in today's economy, because the big income gains have been going to a tiny, super-rich minority. It's not surprising, under those circumstances, that most people favor a stronger safety net--which they might need--even at the expense of higher taxes, much of which could be paid by the ever-richer elite..."

MrKen ponders why so many Americans continue to put up with the obvious and growing inequities of American life.

Some observers perceive that many U.S. citizens suffer from the "rose-colored glasses syndrome". These citizens are taken in by the main "talking point" of the elites in power; i.e., they try to misrepresent our economic/political system as being really much fairer to most of us than it actually is, in reality. The modern U.S.A. has morphed from its genesis as a modest republic into a super-agressive imperialist plutocratic empire, governed by and for the super-rich & the corrupt corporations that represent them.

Move over Roman Empire! The U.S.A. is the 'big gladiator', now! And we have copied your tried & true formula of "bread, circuses & war" to keep the unwashed masses at bay...

Is the downtrodden & super-stressed middle class & the heavily persecuted lower class finally coming out of their "Neocon-induced" slumber? I surmise that many Americans are finally beginning to realize that real "equal opportunity" and the "American Dream" haved moved well out of reach for them.

But can they do anything about it?

Link to Paul Krugman's colums: http://www.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/
columnists/paulkrugman/