In the US, class war still means just one thing: the rich attacking the poor

The Democrats need to represent the swelling ranks of have-nots as vigorously as Bush has stuck up for the haves

Gary Younge in New York
Monday September 3, 2007
The Guardian


In July the Florida Republican state representative Bob Allen was caught offering to pay a black undercover cop $20 so that he could perform oral sex on him in a park. Allen's defence? Blow jobs and cash are to black males what kryptonite is to Superman - the only known means of depleting their superhuman strength. "There was a pretty stocky black guy," he explained to the arresting officer. "And there was nothing but other black guys around in the park." Fearing he "was about to be a statistic", he claimed he would have said anything just to get away. Allen had indeed become a statistic - yet another desperate conservative politician mangling logic to explain his hypocrisy.

Last week it was the turn of the Idaho senator Larry Craig, who in June was caught propositioning an undercover officer in the toilets of Minneapolis airport. Two months later he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct without consulting his lawyer. Then Craig, who finally resigned over the weekend, claimed that he framed himself. "I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously," he explained. "In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty." If he's telling the truth now he's a perjurer; if he was telling the truth then, he's a gay man who legislates against gay people.
There are moments when things really are the way they seem and facts really do speak for themselves. Bad as the facts may appear, attempting to rationalise them only makes matters worse. Trying to convince people otherwise only insults their intelligence.

There are moments when things really are the way they seem and facts really do speak for themselves. Bad as the facts may appear, attempting to rationalise them only makes matters worse. Trying to convince people otherwise only insults their intelligence.

So it would have seemed last Tuesday when the US census bureau revealed its latest findings on income, poverty and health. The report showed that since George Bush came to power the poverty rate had risen by 9%, the number of people without health insurance had risen by 12%, and real median household income had remained stagnant. On the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina we learned the racial disparity in income and the gap between rich and poor show no sign of abating.

Bush declared himself "pleased" with the results, even if the uninsured presented "a challenge". He pointed out that over the past year poverty had declined (albeit by a fraction, and from the previous high he had presided over) and median household income had increased (albeit by a fraction and primarily because more people were working longer hours). Maybe he thought Americans would not realise that five years into a "recovery" their wages were stagnant, their homes were being repossessed at a rate not seen since the Depression, and their pension funds were on a roller coaster.

Article continues @ link below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2161250,00.html

The ranks of the poor and working classes,
and all their allies, must stand up and not
back down!

That's the only answer.

Working class individuals are busy earning a living, typically at 2 or more jobs just to make ends meet. Very difficult to do much planning or conspiring.
The people they vote for to represent them in government are typically millionaires themselves and take campaign donations from "interests" who are trying to make themselves richer at the expense of working people (NAFTA/WTO, etc.). When these political representatives are through in government, they become lobbyists or get cush jobs from the industries they REALLY represented.

... that it's not about race, it's about class.

:rofl:

wealthy using race to split the middle and lower class and wealth to split the classes over all. Imagine if middle and lower classes banded togather.....You would have a completely different life here in the USA. It is the old divide and conquer and we have been stupid enough to take the bait.