Makers and Takers

I live in one of the more affluent areas of suburban Atlanta and am currently seeing something I have not previously seen much near my home. There are two individuals at a busy intersection with shopping carts, for which I assume they did not pay, filled with what I presume to be all their worldly belongings, and which I assume to be the closest thing they have to a home. They are not bothering anyone and they seem to be together.

Of course, homelessness is a major problem in America. Those in that situation tend to congregate in places like freeway overpasses and vacant lots and have even created small ad hoc communities. Some of it seems to be temporary, just people down on their luck, and much of it involves mental illness. If health problems are treated at all it’s in hospital emergency rooms, not places where there is adequate help for the mentally ill.

Homelessness has become a case where everybody’s problem is nobody’s problem and local and state governments often just put bandaids on a gaping wound without addressing the causes. Often, when people are around the homeless, they become uneasy and afraid, assuming that these people are dangerous and a threat to community safety, which is not usually the case. They are just people trying to get from one day to the next with almost no resources.

The kind of extreme wealth and income disparity we have in America today just exacerbates this and other similar problems, including the fact that, even though the American economy is booming, the benefits of this are not finding their way into the pocketbooks of low income people. It goes to corporations which are seeing record profits and the wealthy people who own stock in these corporations. This is proof that “trickle down economics” does not work. It only lines the pockets of the wealthy who have no real use for it other than to buy one more home the size of a hotel and a yacht the size of a cruise ship, and curry favor with Supreme Court justices with lavish gifts and vacations, which they are all too willing to accept, not thinking it will ever be seen.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not opposed to anyone having as much wealth as they can amass, just so long as it doesn’t come at the expense of other less fortunate people, and that they pay their fair share of taxes like everyone else. The first time I saw the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina I remember thinking that this kind of opulence is the perfect example of the gross extravagance of Mark Twain’s “gilded age” and I thought, “I wonder how many children had to go to bed hungry at night so these people could wallow in this overindulgence?” Sadly, it took a great depression and Franklin Roosevelt to overcome all this, and now we are headed in that direction again.

This problem resides mostly with today’s Republican Party and its unwillingness to take real steps to overcome wealth and income inequality for fear of losing the votes of ultra-wealthy individuals and and the support of large corporations, hedge funds, and their contributors. Of course, there are Democratic Party politicians and operatives who are guilty as well, just not as many and who are not as transparent about it.

We are now seeing the Republican Party, which once touted itself as the party of law and order, at its worst where the leaders would rather see a convicted felon who is awaiting trial in three other venues, and who is becoming more unhinged every day, be elected to the presidency than the current president who, in spite of what Republicans and the print and broadcast media are telling us, has accomplished more for the country at large and average citizens than any president in the lifetimes of most voters. Republican officials the likes of Ted Cruz, Mario Rubio, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, ad infinitum, have hitched their wagons to his star and show no intention of changing, no matter how despicable and crazy he becomes. I am reminded of Republican Senator Joseph Welch, who asked of Senator Eugene McCarthy, “Have you no decency, sir?” In all honesty, this says more about the people who voted for these people than it does about the politicians they elected (and would probably elect again).

The frightening thing about all this is that members of the judiciary all the way up to the Supreme Court are doing what they can to help him in his unabashed efforts to delay being tried for these crimes until after the November election in the hopes that he can be reelected, make all this go away, pardon himself, and impose an authoritative government in America in the same mold as Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-un, just to exact revenge on people he perceives as his enemies and endear himself to these four dictators who seem to be his heroes. He has told us in so many words that this is exactly what he proposes to do and apparently the leaders of his party (and I mean that literally) and millions of voters are willing to accept that for reasons I will never understand.

Even before the 2016 presidential election the Republican Party had become the party of “I’ve got mine, you get yours”, starting with Senator Barry Goldwater, President Ronald Reagan, and Representative Newt Gingrich. Their lame excuse for monetary policy was “trickle down economics” which stated that, if you put exorbitant sums of money, in the form of low taxes, in the hands of the wealthy and corporations, they will invest that money and create more jobs and better living conditions for everyone. That has never worked and it never will work. It is in denial of human nature. I say this because, to most wealthy people, there is no such thing as enough money. Enough money is always “a little more.” Even Reagan’s own vice president, George H. W. Bush, referred to it as “voodoo economics.” Mitt Romney, during his campaign for the presidency in 2008, divided Americans into two groups, makers and takers, a gross oversimplification at best. Never mind that those he calls takers must be able to buy the goods and services produced by the makers and they cannot do that if they cannot make a living wage.

Another faction, which is easily bought, that is supporting the Republicans and keeping them in power, is Christian extremists, or the “religious right”. Christian fundamentalism has become a special interest group, just like the NRA. Their agenda has become to convert America into a “Christian nation”, one that enforces their version of Christian doctrine through laws that deny a woman control over her own body, enforce the notion that homosexuality and transgender identity are choices an individual makes instead of a condition of birth, refuse to allow marriage of two people of the same gender, and now denying women access to birth control, which they see as a form of abortion. My version of a Christian nation is one where no person has to live on the street, no one is denied the basic human needs of food, shelter and clothing, everyone has the right to worship their God the way they chose (or not), everyone is able to find meaningful employment that provides them an income from which they can have a decent life, no one is mistreated because of the color of their skin, and everyone has access to quality healthcare, and a quality education that helps them become the person they were meant to be. It is the unshakable belief of these extremists that Jesus is going to return. In the off chance that happens, wouldn’t it be interesting to ask him which version of Christianity he intended and see what he says? If you think the incident with the money changers in the temple was bad, just wait.

In the midst of all this, in the richest nation in the world which could certainly do better, way too many people are living under freeway overpasses, begging for money on the street, and having a shopping cart as a substitute for a home. Republicans, have you no decency? Franklin Roosevelt said, “The true measure of a democracy is how well it takes care of those who can’t take care of themselves.”

You can’t make this stuff up. It is going on daily right under the noses of people too lazy to stay informed, or practicing intentional ignorance (I don’t know and I don’t want to know), and voting without doing their due diligence before stepping into a voting booth (if they vote at all). The frog is being boiled and too many people can’t even figure out why the water is warm.

Until next time.