Getting a seat at the table

      Last week we celebrated the ratification of the Constitutional Amendment giving women the right to vote.  Women could not give themselves that right since they had no political power.  Except they did.  By protesting they convinced the powerful to give them a seat at the table and share power.  Black people in the 1960s South were not allowed to vote so they had no power.  Except they did.  Working people today also don’t have a seat at the table.  But they can vote to get it.

      White working people have it tough, and if you’re black or Latinx you have it even tougher.  Tax laws favor the rich because they wrote the laws.  Income from corporate dividends is tax free while income from work is taxed.  The small Trump tax cut for working families got wiped out by higher prices due to the trade war.  Union workers can opt out of organizational political spending; corporate shareholders can’t.  Most job losses are not due to immigrants taking them, they are due to big corporations shipping them overseas.

      It’s a lie that Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility and job creation.  Discounting presidencies during world wars, 5 of the top 7 presidents for % increase in the national debt were Republicans.  Job creation has been better on average under Democratic presidents than under Republican presidents back to Hoover.  The last two economic disasters were caused by Republicans: 2008 by letting the banks run wild, and 2020 by letting the coronavirus run wild. 

      You have the power to get the economy to work for you, but you have to vote.  Vote by what the politicians do, not what they say in TV ads bought by the money from rich donors.  If you think the Republicans have your interests at heart, think again.  Obama and Biden got us out of the 2008 disaster. Biden and Harris will get us out of this one.

 

Jim Eliason

Storm Lake

 

Published Storm Lake Times 26 Aug., 2020