2011-10-26

Class Warfare, Redux

I shouldn't have to post about this twice in the same month. And yet the current state of my nation seems to demand it. Suffice to say that if we never hear the Republican canard of "class warfare" again, the world would be better off for it.

And there's a simple reason for that. Creating a system of national healthcare to preserve the lives and well-being of everyone in this country would not be class warfare. Ensuring that there is a social safety net to support people that have fallen on hard times would not be class warfare. Raising taxes all the way to 92% on the top tax bracket would still not be class warfare!

If you want to see class warfare? Look to Oakland. Go and watch videos of police firing on a peaceful demonstration. Ask yourself if that's really justified. Ask yourself whether it was necessary for police to use a stun grenade (at the very end of the video, 3:20) on a group of people gathering to help one of their fellow protesters. Ask yourself if it's a good thing that we're practically looking at a war zone on the streets of an American city!

There are a lot of words that should rightly only be applied to the specific action that they describe. Perhaps it is long past time that "warfare" became one of those. Advocating for progressive economic policies is not "class warfare". Taking a group of people gathered to protest growing class inequality and opening fire, even with "non-lethal" weaponry... now that can rightly be called warfare.

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