Rollingstone's Tim Dickinson: How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich

[flpoljunkie]

How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich
The inside story of how the Republicans abandoned the poor and the middle class to pursue their relentless agenda of tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent


Party of the Rich
Matt Mahurin

By TIM DICKINSON
November 9, 2011

The nation is still recovering from a crushing recession that sent unemployment hovering above nine percent for two straight years. The president, mindful of soaring deficits, is pushing bold action to shore up the nation's balance sheet. Cloaking himself in the language of class warfare, he calls on a hostile Congress to end wasteful tax breaks for the rich. "We're going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share," he thunders to a crowd in Georgia. Such tax loopholes, he adds, "sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary – and that's crazy."

Preacherlike, the president draws the crowd into a call-and-response. "Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver," he demands, "or less?"

The crowd, sounding every bit like the protesters from Occupy Wall Street, roars back: "MORE!"

The year was 1985. The president was Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Today's Republican Party may revere Reagan as the patron saint of low taxation. But the party of Reagan – which understood that higher taxes on the rich are sometimes required to cure ruinous deficits – is dead and gone. Instead, the modern GOP has undergone a radical transformation, reorganizing itself around a grotesque proposition: that the wealthy should grow wealthier still, whatever the consequences for the rest of us.

Modern-day Republicans have become, quite simply, the Party of the One Percent – the Party of the Rich.

"The Republican Party has totally abdicated its job in our democracy, which is to act as the guardian of fiscal discipline and responsibility," says David Stockman, who served as budget director under Reagan. "They're on an anti-tax jihad – one that benefits the prosperous classes."

more...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Misanthrope Sycophant Machine are all Alexander Hamilton's Bastards!

Ike is the last caring Republican we've enjoyed and not been Victimized by.

[Tippy]

2. K&R

[underpants]

3. I added the RS link to my favorites - there are several great looking articles at the bottom

thanks

[sufrommich]

4. I wish this article was required reading in this country.

Incredible read.

[Doc Holliday]

5. "Incredible" describes it pretty well.

What is it about the truth that scares the shit our of some people?

When I tried to link an excerpt (plus the link) from the RS article to post it on a hometown blog, it got "moderated" by the folks who run the blog, and "will be published after approval." (Historically speaking, this only means one thing-- say bye-bye.)

This stuff should be shouted from the housetops.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. but the 'Joe six packs' love the GOP too?

[Skittles]

7. big money buys big propaganda

and there is no shortage of idiots

[Ikonoklast]

9. That's where the divide-and-conquer social issues come into play.

Racism.
Religion.
Guns.
Welfare.
Abortion.
Immigration.

The Republicans actually give two shits less about any of these issues, but know that stupid people do, and they use this fact to get the politically ignorant to vote against their own self-interest.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

8. It cuts cuts through all the bullshit and gets to the heart of

our current situation.