The American autumn

By Don Klein

 

There is an interesting movement afoot that just might make a difference in the American political environment. Just might, I say, because nowadays we can’t be sure of any positive force in politics. First we had a disastrous Svengali-Trilby relationship in the White House for eight years and now we have a faltering lamb running the show when we need a lion.

 

The movement I speak of is the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd, an assemblage of seemingly unrelated dissidents who have one thing in common – they all believe the government no longer represents their best interests. Sounds like the Arab Spring uprisings and some are even calling it the "American Autumn." No question that on taxes Washington has not been friendly to the people.

 

The country has become a plutocracy thanks to the stranglehold of the Republican Party by virtue of its control of the House of Representatives and the incompetence of Democratic leadership. The GOP stance, fired by noisy Tea Party intransigence, is to repel any attempt to equalize the tax burden.

 

That permits the one percent of the wealthiest Americans to pay less taxes than the remaining 99 percent who pay taxes. It also is terribly irksome that some very profitable corporations don’t pay taxes at all and other prosperous firms receive billions of dollars in subsidies.

 

All this while the country struggles in severe economic times and the middle class is withering as they watch their benefits being reduced in government austerity programs. To many, it is amazing that it took this long for protesters to take to the streets over this clear disparity.

 

The Wall Street occupation received little attention until some strong-armed tactics by a police commander to pepper spray a defenseless group of non-threatening, non-violent young women corralled by other cops. That unjustifiable behavior by a bullying police officer brought the protesters’ issue onto the front pages.

 

Now there are pickets across the nation in most large cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Baltimore demanding a change in the way corrupt Washington does business to favor the wealthy at the disadvantage to everyone else. The issue is not necessarily police brutality, which served to bring the issue to the attention of millions, but economic inequality.

 

The 99 percent movement, named for the people who are not millionaires, is not made up only of a ragtag bunch of kids who cant find jobs even though it might seem that way. The majority of Americans feel the same way and although the body politic has not yet thrown its total weight behind the movement anyone can see that the issue has touched a nerve.

 

An NBC-Wall Street Journal survey resulted in finding that 81 percent of the people nationwide support higher taxes for the rich and only 17 percent oppose. That is an enormous majority. Imagine, if you stopped five people on the street, four of them would agree to higher taxes for the rich.

 

When this fact sinks into Republicans like John Boehner and Eric Cantor they have to conclude that the 2012 election is in jeopardy if they continue to protect their rich friends at the expense of others. This will become even more apparent when Boehner-Cantor realize that a majority of the Tea Party also agrees that millionaires should pay their fair share.

 

By a 52 to 29 percent margin of those who identify themselves as Tea Party adherents they indorsed the Buffet Rule, which calls for plutocrats to pay a higher tax rate than a plumber.

 

And here is the biggest surprise of all. An American Express survey exclusively directed at those earning six figure salaries or more discovered that 65 percent of them favored higher taxation. Further, those people who claim they are Republican Party members support the higher tax for the rich by 66 to 17 percent opposed.

 

George W. where are you now?

 

It is clear that the 99 percent are utterly tired of playing chump for the privileged one percent. It is a revolution of sorts, but fortunately at this point is nonviolent. It is no longer comfortable for the Boehner-Cantor wing of the Republican Party to ignore this trend. If they don’t act, imagine the country’s future with people suffering and being dispossessed from their homes, jobless and their children going hungry. Anything might happen.

 

You don’t have to be a professor of history to know that the root of all revolutions is an injustice of one sort or another. Marie Antoinette got her just desserts, so did Louis XVI and George III and Czar Nicholas. Boehner and Cantor are placing their heads on top of political spikes, figuratively speaking, if they continue to block tax equality.

 

The fact that there are thousands now, and perhaps millions later, protesting on the streets against the corruption in Washington will not mean it is a sure thing that the Democrats will benefit from the movement. It is time for them and for President Obama to show some gumption and leadership to carry this issue to fruition.

 

People want the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes as the rest of us do, they want giant corporations to pay taxes, they want the government to close tax loopholes and end unessential subsides. That’s not too much to demand and if the people don’t get it, expect to see many new faces in Washington very soon.