A little politics and philosophy and mention of the unwashed masses…..

You know, I started this blog sort of under duress….when I was launching my website to try to gain more exposure for my writing, my grandson, Mitchell – the video wizard – thought I should include a “blog”. Now, for the record, I have written likely thousands of blogs over the years – they used to be called “columns” and I’ve written simply a really large number of them. So, I’m sort of tired of it. But Mitchell thought it should be included, that it was sort of a natural, so I agreed. But, in the very first one, I decreed that I would desperately try to stay away from politics – which is just a really, really divisive thing in our society right now.

However, that’s perhaps even more of a reason to discuss it here in “Notes From a Basement”….it shouldn’t be tearing our societies apart – we should be discussing ways to weave our societies more closely together….we so terribly badly need some type of brand new political party….and I hesitate to even call it that….we really, really need a “party” that works for the people and is totally and completely controlled by the people and carries out the wishes of the people. Somebody better get something going….before we all shuffle off the edge of the abyss and into the oblivion of the hereafter – if there is such a thing.

This new “party”, first of all, needs to sort out the whole question of who supports society in some sort of real way. The way things are right now, the middle class is holding the whole damned thing up….since the end of the second great war to end all wars, the tax structures in most Western societies have gone ridiculously askew. Taxes on the wealthy and on large corporations have been slashed and burned and cut to stupidly low levels, while taxes on the middle class have gone resolutely and steadfastly in the opposite direction. If you don’t believe me….”google it”….

Whether it’s been so-called “liberal” or “conservative” governments – either side of the fence – taxes have been adjusted in the same direction – up for those of us on the bottom and down for the folks at the top – google it for chrissakes….so we sure as hell need someone – or something – else running the government and our lives. Because the folks who’ve been doing it for the last 70-80 years are screwing us real good….And I tell my conservative friends all the time that they are all the same…liberal…conservative….right…left…middle….we need a whole new model for governance and that needs to start with a whole new tax structure.

You know, back in the 1930’s, the world was mired in a deep and dark economic depression…it was indeed called “the Great Depression” and it almost destroyed our societies and way of life….Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is credited with saving the American economy by introducing something called “the New Deal”, and what he basically did was put America back to work. He levied huge taxes on the richest people in American society and he used the very large amount of money that generated to start really big make-work projects all over the United States. Put simply, he taxed the rich…..even though he was a rich guy, himself, he knew it had to be done.

FDR got death threats and hate mail for the rest of his life for the actions he took in 1935 to bring some fairness to society. But in the election campaign of 1936, massive crowds of ordinary people showed up everywhere he went and they carried signs that thanked him for literally saving their lives. He won the ’36 election with a monstrous landslide and was president until he died in 1944 – maybe the most popular president in American history….just sayin’….if any politician goes after the rich folks, they’ll be very popular with the “unwashed masses” – and there are a lot more of the unwashed masses than there are rich folks – and they can all vote….darned, eh?

So, let’s get some type of new “party” or movement happening….I obviously can’t do it or I’ve have done it by now….I’m an old guy….but here’s a chance for young people to save the planet from us old codgers….totally re-make the world as a kinder, gentler place….that’s what you need to strive to do….Successive previous generations have done everything in their power to destroy and lay waste to greatest miracle perhaps in the history of being…..someone or something must lead us out of the wilderness and back to Eden….and I’m not even a believer….not in the least….

Well, there’s a little politics and philosophy for you….be well and stay safe, my friends…all life is precious….even unto the tiniest bit of it….