Liberal Guilt: The Diet of the Corporate Conservative

Wonder why there is not more anger at the corporate conservatives for their cries of slash big government/tax cuts for the wealthy?  

And what about the wrath of the tea-partyers, who weren't speaking out against the Insurance Industry but against the federal government's attempts to make the industry stop the rape of the consumer?

Why are middle-income republicans so quick (and loud) in criticizing "taxation" when their own taxes have gone down during this Democratic administration?  And why anger at the poor, and not at the big corporations and the corporate conservatives in Congress that have caused and continue to fight for this deficit economy?

And here's the big one:  why are Democrats, you and me and Congressional Democrats, and Barack Obama, not nailing the corporations and republicans for their lies, and for causing this monstrosity of a deficit?

Why are liberals afraid to be liberals is the question.  Why are we afraid to say that the wealthy should be paying more taxes than the middle class?  Why are we intimidated by accusations of wanting to spread the wealth?

When we liberals accept tax cuts, we feel guilty.  When we take food stamps we feel like we are taking from the poor, as well as from the tax-payer (the honest citizen).  That's right, we feel dishonest, taking something for nothing.  Sick leave and vacation pay:  something for nothing.  Disability?  Don't you feel guilty just thinking about taking money for an injury?  How sick do you have to be to call in sick from work?  And how about staying home sick when it's your kids, and not you, that is sick?

We've been listening to, yes, crap about how all us poor and middle class citizens are stealing from the wealthy since Ronald Reagan, who at least was personable when he said it.  He was the story teller that invented the myth about how we, driving up to the welfare office in our limosine, are ripping off the truly hard-working people in this country.

Now, here's where the psychology of this thing has made it all so convoluted:

When someone says "The government shouldn't steal the hard-working American's income" what we hear is that we shouldn't be taking from the government, because then we would be stealing.  And don't we all want to see ourselves as the "hard-working American"?  And if we don't, aren't we guilty of shirking our responsibilities, to ourselves, to our children, and of course, to our country?

Which feeds in to Big Business, who sees raping the public, yes us, as their right.  They don't feel obligated to pay a living wage, or even pay Americans.  They don't believe it is their obligation to pave the roads, pay for teachers or police (or prisons), or even fund the military.  They believe it is their right, in fact, to take tax dollars, and as many as they can get their republican congressional representatives to allot to them, without obligation, and just because they exist.

Big business no longer believes that their wealth comes from the middle and lower classes.  They don't believe it is their obligation to spread it around.  They don't need the consumer anymore, because the government will bail them out with subsidies.  What they do need is politicians that will continue to fight for those subsidies and government contracts, while fighting to make sure that that wealth doesn't get wasted on the middle and lower classes.


And how do they do that?


Guilt.