Complaints of a Liberal Elitist

Why Liberals Need to Draw a Line in the Sand
We got a massive bailout of the very rich, lackluster stimulus funds bogged down with bureaucratic red tape for the rest of us. Our tax system encourages the constant flow of wealth away from the middle and working classes to the super rich.

We got a national health care bill that curtails a woman's right to choose, transfers more of the nation's wealth to the insurance companies, places a heavy burden on small employers and forces citizens to buy over-priced product from private-sector companies.

Despite financial reform, credit card companies continue to charge usurious interest rates, banks continue to fleece depositors with outrageous fees and savers get barely visible returns on their deposits.

When corporations seek Chapter 11 protection to "reorganize," taking out small shareholders and debt holders and relieving themselves of pension liabilities, it is considered savvy financial management. When homeowners walk away from mortgages they can no longer afford (no Chapter 11-style reorganization available to them), they are considered dishonest free loaders who violated "sacred" contracts. The Secretary of the Treasury is a tax evader who, when he finally paid them, faced none of the consequences ordinary tax payers have to face.

Ending "don't ask don't tell," keeps getting put on the back burner. Guantanamo Bay remains open. Corporations have achieved the legal status of citizens. Acorn was destroyed but Goldman Sachs flourishes.

Our prisons are privatized and our infrastructure is being sold off. Much of our precious water supply is owned by Nestles, a Swiss corporation with a questionable human rights record.

Oil companies rule. While China develops renewable energy technologies, we contemplate our navels.

The media labels conservative Democrats "moderate" and liberals are termed "activists." The media is controlled by a handful of conglomerates whose very existence violates antitrust laws.

Our leaders preach the importance of small business and let the big guys undersell them into receivership, swallow up their assets and innovations, and raise prices.

The poor are blamed for the depredations of the rich. Hardworking Americans impoverish themselves acquiring college educations, then cannot get jobs.

Politicians praise American initiative and self sufficiency while individual citizens are prevented from participating in disaster abatement and big corporations are allowed to buy up and bury the technologies (or export them to other countries) that might reignite our economy.

While Republicans catered to their base, Democrats threw meager bones to theirs, assuming "liberals" had no place else to go. That "no place" threatens to include the polls in November.

Yeah, liberals need to draw a line in the sand.