TOPEKA, Kan. - Many of us, living in a democratic republic, understand how important it is to vote every year. Most fail to go any further.
Last month I was part of a protest on the steps of the Capital in Topeka.
A cold rainy day, was brightened with warm spirit (and I'm not talking liquor), and fiery people. It was democracy in action.
Having grown up and lived in predominately small towns, I have not been involved in many protests; a handful at best. I have lived in larger towns, but at times I was to busy to get involved. I regret that.
The point of the protest? People were angry. People who work for a living are being told that they need to take cuts. Meanwhile corporations such as Trans Canada Pipeline are allowed to come into Kansas and are given over 85 million dollars in tax exemptions. This whole time, I thought I paid enough at the pump without needing to donate to them at tax time.
Many protesters were angry that we cannot compete with big players such as the Koch Brothers, GE, TransCanada Pipeline and those who pay much less in taxes per year than my household. Those that fund the campaigns of politicians, and purchase dinners so our legislatures don't have to spend their money.
Many of us were mad that taxes were raised on us last year in the state of Kansas, over 8% sales tax on everything including food in Great Bend, auto fees for some were raised. All of this was raised with a promise to keep our schools funded, and services for the elderly, disabled and children in our area.
Many are angry that we were lied to and taxes are still high, but services are still going to be cut. Services that educate our children to keep them competitive with the rest of the world. Services that keep the elderly in their homes. Services that let your child attend a public college or university. Services that allow thousand of children to receive mental health services to keep them in the home.
Social workers and teachers compete on the ladder of worst paid, and the least desirable professions. So it only makes sense to cut their pay more, so that we have less competent people taking care of our children and our most at risk. Right?
Many in the group were angry that in some areas Head Start has plans to be shut down or severely cut. We are mad that some areas in Western Kansas have a hard time recruiting teachers and still we are cutting pay and benefits.
We are also angry that the government wants to meddle in the private sector businesses in some areas, busting Unions.
We are mad that the middle class is being ignored and those who broke our Country are being pandered to.
Examples? You want them, I've got them.
Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.
Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.
Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.
Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.
Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.
Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.
Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.
With numbers like these isn't it shocking that we are worried about the teacher who lives next door that makes $45,000 a year? Better yet, that my father (a union member) who works for a pipeline company can pay his bills on time every month?
Perhaps the reason we are so worried about the teacher having a good health care package or a union member being able to retire at 55 is because that is what we are directed to pay attention to.
What politician in his right mind would call out those that fund their campaigns? We all know, those that raise the most money generally win, but that is our fault as citizens.
It falls back to ensuring we are active in our democracy. One vote on super Tuesday in November does not a good citizen make.
We need to ensure we read up on numbers and stats, primary sources. Going to the ballot box on election day and blindly voting is a large portion of the problems we have in America. We feel that we have done our good dead for the year when we go in and press a button at the ballot box.
It is time to get involved.
It felt good to get involved. I stood with a thousand other hard working people, who do their part to keep our economy and communities going. As was the message at the protest, "Cut the fat, not the muscle."
We who work for a living are the muscle behind America.
We need to jump start our democracy.
Below is video from the protest:
Thank you, Christina. We need more thinking and acting progressives, who have studied issues and know where they, as individuals, stand in the economic and power structure.
Statistics tell us that insurance salesman are among the highest income segment. How many jobs do they create. How many jobs do the fund managers create? They take home millions in bonuses, even above their commission earnings. Buying and selling paper contracts doesn't create many jobs.
Sales tax is the most regressive tax we have. What percent of the above noted professionals income is paid out in sales tax? Now stop and estimate percentage of the average income earners pay goes to purchase goods that are subject to sales tax.
As the unions have lost presence in the work place, what has happened to the distribution of company profits? Top management has moved to 50 and 100 times the take home pay of the lower echelon workers.
Keep on joining in protests, both the physical crowd kinds and the written communication kind.
Christina--Thanks for the shot in the arm. I was thinking this morning that I was ready to throw in the towel, but reading your blog has inspired to keep trying to change things. I hope others will read it and decide to get involved.
Before bashing General Electric you should know that Obama appointed their CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt as a special liaison to the business community and also appointed him to the presidents council on jobs and competitiveness (KC Star, Pg. A11, 3/29/11).
Obama also had a recent dinner in New York City at an exclusive event to benefit the Democratic National Committee where the price of admittance was $31,000. You know who will be at that dinner.
So much for the great one who promised such hope and change.
Brad--I'm well aware of what Obama did and I'm extremely unhappy about it. I've often conveyed my opinion to the Obama people. If his organizers have any brains, they will pay attention to people like me. We have yet to see if they have any brains.
Unfortunately, GE donates to both sides. They have all their areas covered.
Brad, I don't care if Pres. Obama appointed the CEO of General Electric to an advisory position or not. It is very apparent that GE as a company is not too concerned about balancing the national budget or providing jobs for U.S. citizens. I'm not privileged to know their business structure and policy, except that they have aggressively attacked the union and working class people in their organization. They have moved production out of U.S. taxing districts in an obvious move to find cheap labor and evade U.S. income tax.
For those reasons I'm not supportive of Pres. Obama's choice of advisors in this instance. But, who can I support from the other political party that I think will do better?
Sad to say, we sometimes just have to vote for the lessor of two evils.
I say to Christina and others, whatever your position or opinion is, don't be afraid to stand up and let it be known. The voice of the people must be heard. If we don't individually make our opinions known, the brave minority will. At the present time, the minority of the wealthy are speaking not only verbally but with their pocket books, too.
Most big Conglomerate firms and even the super wealthy give to both sides as a hedging their bets/ gain acess type Thinking
Ken, You ask whom should you support?
Well for one within the democratic party are certainly some leaders like Dennis Kucinich who dont suck up to the wealthy corporations.
Democrats are so odd. At the conventions they love to show all the minorities, the teachers, and the union workers to give this idea they are a party of the "working class". Yet get behind the curtain and its all about the wealthy donors and corporate interests.
Brad--It's not an either/or situation. Those minorities, teachers, union members, feminists, etc., show up at the conventions because the Democrats have been responsible for most of the laws benefiting them. Even Obama, who often has been on the wrong track, was on the right track with the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Health Care Reform law. Don't forget the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the decision not to defend DOMA. Also, don't forget the Civil Rights laws that benefited minorities and Social Security, both initiated by Democratic presidents.
Also, when was the last time the Republicans nominated and elected a black person for president? Hmmm. Never.
Some of my friends won't become involved in either major party because they want their party to be pure. There's no such thing. I have voted for Republicans when they were the better candidates in state or local races. For me, it's not a "lesser of two evils" situation; for me it's being with the party with which will I as a liberal woman have more clout. I would have no clout at all as a Republican.
I would say Democrats aren't nearly as odd as the Republican who want to "get government out of people's lives," then they make laws curbing reproductive freedom or abortion rights, if you like that better, curbing union rights, and curbing the rights of people to sue for malpractice or for damages when they are harmed by companies. Now isn't that just a little bit odd?
Diane, The jury is still out on how good a president Obama will turn out to be. Republicans did have some black leaders who they considered for president like Colin Powell but they declined the job.
As for the concept that republican or conservative equals sexism you might want to take a second look at conservative women. Women in the press like Sarah Palin, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, or Laura Ingraham are making waves. Maybe republicans havent elected a black president but they've elected the first Indian governor in Nikki Haley and the first hispanic in Susana Martinez. More conservative women are on the rise. Check out sites like Smart Girl Politics at http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/.
Brad--As a pro-choice, union member feminist, I consider the women you listed as not helpful to women's causes. Thanks to certain women like Geraldine Ferraro, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton, those women have been able to gain some traction in their own party. I admire Republican women like Olympia Snow, but Republican women like her are few and far between. Also, such women get relegated to the junior varsity when it comes to party participation.
Ann Coulter? Really? She once told Al Franken that she did her schtick for money, not because she really cares about those issues. She's the female Glenn Beck. Who can take her seriously? For that matter, who can take Sarah Palin seriously? I can't. But to each his or her own.
Diane, Once again you do your homework with a great rebuttal. However I don't think the female governors you mentioned will not be forced to serving tea to republican men.
Back to your earlier statement about democrats electing a black candidate. I have to ask, was the party really being colorblind? In 2008 both candidates Hillary Clinton and John Edwards were much more qualified than Obama but you could see in the debates they were afraid to bring up such issues with Obama because of the fear of being labeled RACIST. It's like back in 2004 when they allowed a goofball like Al Sharpton equal time with candidates like Joe Lieberman and Richard Gephardt.
Its wrong to deny a person a job because of race but its equally wrong to give a person brownie points because of it. Obama wasnt treated as an equal.
When democrats feel comfortable criticizing black candidates, I'll see them truly as colorblind.
Brad--If you were part of the Democratic Party structure as I am (I'm secretary of the 4th District Democrats), you would know that many of us criticize Obama's policies. Also, I supported Hillary Clinton in the Kansas caucus because I believed, as you said, she was better qualified to serve as president. Once Obama got the candidacy, he was my choice. Of course, in Kansas most of the time support of a Democratic presidential candidate doesn't make any difference. As I've said earlier, I'm an issues voter and if a Republican candidate is better on the issues than the Democrat I will vote for the Republican. So far, no Republican who might be the 2012 candidate is better on the issues than Obama is, even though he falls short.
I'm not colorblind. That's not possible, given the world we live in. I have a few minority friends, African-Americans and Hispanics, and I know we have some cultural differences. However, I like knowing about other cultures and, while I don't pretend to be able to adopt the practices of other cultures, it's fun and life-expanding to learn about them. I live in a mixed neighborhood and it seems many of the Mexican families put tall iron fences around their property. I don't know why they do it. It's not soemthing the Anglo neighbors do, even though many them have wooden fences. That might come from the practice in Hispanic countries of the house abutting the street and the yard area being in the back. I noticed the same thing was the case when I was in Italy.
If I thought I could find a viable third party that more closely adhered to my stand on issues, I would join it. But why throw my energies and my vote away on a party that's going nowhere?