The rich get richer...

Graph from United for a Fair Economy via DailyKos

...the workers get squat. Republicans deny this or deny that this is a problem for our society, greeting anyone who points this out as waging "class warfare". Fortunately, some Democrats are not intimidated by this and are talking about this issue. Jim Webb has been very outspoken on this, with his November 15th editorial in the Wall Street Journal:

The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.

This is a massive problem involving basic issues of fairness and equality. Of course there are some large, "out-of-our-control" global forces at work here, but Republicans use those as excuses to cover up the specific policies they have enacted which have exacerbated this problem. Tax breaks that benefit extremely wealthy people, making student loans harder to obtain, blocking increases in the minimum wage, blocking universal health care, gutting IRS enforcement of corporate tax law, making bankruptcy more punitive, the list of Republican class warfare tactics goes on and on.

Why anyone with assets of less than 5 million dollars votes Republican is something of a mystery to me. The Republicans don't deliver on the social issues: Gay marriage and civil unions are on the upswing, anti-sodomy laws are struck down, abortion is still legal, and erotica has never been more available (if you can read this and can't find porn, you got a problem!). But the capital gains tax is down, and the ceiling on the inheritance tax is up. When it comes to helping out the rich, the Republicans actually perform. Indeed, transferring wealth to the wealthy is the one thing they actually seem to be able to accomplish. Enough. Let's be marching in the direction of greater equality, not away from it.