It is astounding how thoroughly many Americans have been misled regarding the specific intent of America's founding fathers. It is truly surreal to hear so called patriotic Americans attempt to wax eloquently about the intent of this nations founders to limit the power of government, while at the same time ignoring that the very people who promote that argument are attempting to use government to take over every aspect of Americans lives. Conservatives would control womens rights to make decisions regarding their own health and bodies. They would turn control over citizens health care to people whose only purpose in life is to make money, which of course they expect will spill over into their hands. Under the efforts by conservative, right wing, tea party republicans every aspect of American life would be controlled and regulated by those who have the least amount of interest in any of our actual well being. And they do it by saying that this is what the the founding fathers wanted.
Yet, read the personal writings of Americas founding fathers and most will reveal that exactly the opposite was true. In fact, what conservatives are attempting to do to this country is exactly what Americas founding fathers attempted to protect this nation from.
One of the ideas aggressively promoted by republicans is that the idea of redistribution of wealth is an evil thing. But in fact, our founding fathers most feared that if this government did not serve to protect the rights of the poor and middle class that they would be subjugated by the extremely wealthy in exactly the way they are attempting to do right as we speak.
While living in France, and seeing that the French revolution was inevitable, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to James Madison. In it he said that America must have a progressive tax system. What he meant was, poor people, and those below a certain income amount should pay NO income taxes. The more money a person made, the larger percentage of that money they should pay in taxes. This was based on the idea that the government should be responsible for protecting peoples abilities to raise themselves up in their society. They believed the government should be redistributing money because the more money we make, the more we utilize the infrastructure that all of us own and contribute to. People love to say they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, but without infrastructure like roads, utilities, police protection, etc. there would be no boot straps to pull yourself up by. No one succeeds without the contribution and sacrifices of the others around them.
Economies thrive when money circulates. The more hands that money moves through, the more everyone, including the rich benefit. Henry Ford thrived because included in his vision of his company was that those who worked to produce his cars had to be able to afford to buy them. Look back over Americas history and you will find many truly patriotic wealthy Americans who understood that the country was stronger when the economy thrived, and the key to that is a strong middle class. Nothing right wing conservatives offer will benefit the survival of the middle class. Privitizing health care, the postal service, and everything else possible is a recipe for disaster. Simply look at gas prices, which is unregulated and compare them to electricity which is regulated, and the truth should be obvious. Look at the banking industry when it was regulated as it was during Americas most prosperous years, and then look at what has happened since the so called Reagan revolution when regulatiuon was removed or undermined.
