Let’s hope the rains this weekend cleared out some of our voter confusion along with that bad air. There is some absurd political rhetoric circulating about who is responsible for rising inflation, crime, death and taxes.
I refuse to be conned by the folks who show up with plenty of criticisms but no solutions. Their strategy appears to be to divert our attention, right or wrong, to the patsies they assign with “blame” this time.
From my view, our innovative, dynamic, American individualism and drive have been corrupted. Our existing tax system rewards exploitation of workers, unadulterated greed, monopolies that crush competition, wealth hoarding and all forms of chicanery to enable billionaire tax-dodging. These are not my “American family values.” Are they yours?
I don’t understand how anyone paying a big mortgage or 50% of their income in rent would vote for the party that burdens 98% of us in order to provide tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. In fact, one party wants another major tax cut for corporations, but they don’t want us to worry about the federal deficit. They plan to pay for it by getting rid of those bloated “entitlements” the government pays out, like Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Let’s face it folks. If our elderly, differently-abled, widows and orphans cannot get out there and work like everybody else, what’s happening to America? (Yes, this is sarcasm.)
A few more crackpot ideas easily demonstrate my point. Eliminate immigrant farm labor and we’ll see $20 heads of lettuce. We are not going to heal America by punishing workers with unfair tax collection policies either.
Life will not be better in Clark County by strengthening corporate exploitation of workers while they weaken health care benefits and worker protections. We are not going to educate children by purifying the shameful aspects of our history, because we are too cowardly and dishonest to admit them.
The culprits driving inflation are multiple and global. We can include Putin’s war on Ukraine, OPEC’s exploitative restriction of oil production, COVID fallout, the federal safety-net payouts we all received, and those soulless opportunists and middlemen who continue to exploit the entire supply chain.
Most of all, we need to hold the corporate boards accountable, along with their executives and stockholders, as it is their insatiable appetites for bloated profits and fat dividends that hurt our prosperity the most. Corporate avarice, anti-labor practices, tax-dodging and limitless greed are simply a disgrace.
If we continue to tolerate it, we are guilty too. As upset as we feel, it is difficult not to be manipulated by bad actors who appeal to our worst selves. We have to stand up to the bullies and call them out. The best way to do that is to make sure when we vote, our vote serves people, not corporations.
Elizabeth Madrigal,
Ridgefield
