Red, White and Blue… Deaf, Dumb and Blind by Philip A. Farruggio

by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
25 July, 2010

What we all were taught since grade school is ‘ Voting is the most important civic duty we have ‘ . Sadly, nothing was instilled in us about our rights of free speech, assembly and dissent. Ben Franklin himself stated ‘ Dissent is the lifeblood of democracy’ . The other day this guy comes to our door handing out flyers for some local candidate he refers to as a ‘ Real conservative…. She supports Fair Taxes ‘ . Oh, I said, you mean she wants to get rid of the federal income tax ( obviously, since Florida has no state income taxes ) replacing it with Sales Tax Increases. ‘ No ‘ , this genius parrots back, ‘ We want a Consumption Tax , much fairer than the income tax. ‘ Oh, I reply, you mean , like I just said, she wants a sales tax increase to make up for not having a federal income tax. He wouldn’t budge on the wording Sales Tax, so I went along with his tag. I asked him if he ever noticed how much we all pay at the gas pump in taxes, out of the nearly $ 3.00 a gallon we fork over. He did not have a clue as to what this all meant. When I informed him that, as late as 1980, the top federal income tax bracket was around 71 %, and now it is down to 35 % , again he could not connect the dots as to how much the super rich are saving. Finally, I asked him, if in fact his candidate was a true conservative, why would she support spending almost a trillion dollars twice over; once on invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and secondly to bail out the Wall Street scoundrels. He scowled at me and walked away…. Grumbling under his breath.

A day or so later, I ran into some canvassers for the Democratic Party at our shopping center. They were going on and on about the horrors of the Tea Party Storm troopers and how we must ‘ Stop the right wing Republicans from gaining back our Congressional Seat here ‘ . I told them I agreed with most of what they were saying…. Except what it meant for all of we working stiffs to have a Democrat holding that seat. I asked them if they supported the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. These folks didn’t. Why then, I asked, do you support a President and our Democratic congressional representative who continually fund these occupations and our presence in those countries? They gave the stock Democratic Party answer of ‘ Well, we inherited this mess….. And are doing our best to resolve it. ‘ . I asked them if they supported Medicare for All AKA Robust Public Option . They said they did. Well, the party they were telling me to vote for did not propose or support it. Instead, they came up with a phony bill to not only maintain the private health insurance monopoly, but to mandate it 30 million more customers! I asked them if they realized that under a Democratic President and Congress more money is budgeted for Military spending AKA Defense Spending than under Bush. Or that Mr. Obama and his party continue to support our having over 750 military bases in over 100 countries! Or that he and his party voted to bail out the Wall Street con men to the tune of …. Well …. You know the rest. These folks really did not care……Lesser of two evils and all that rhetoric.

Boy, these two political conglomerates are so shrewd, aren’t they? They sell most of you out there the need to ‘ Join the club to save our republic from ……. ‘ the other party! It cannot be about real issues , core ones that will reflect upon whether or not you can pay for the house, the apartment rental, the doctor or dentist, food, medicine, clothing…… A car. No, these scam artists will find hot button issues that will either A) Frighten or B) Enrage you. You see, the important issues ( to them ) that you should be concerned about are : pro choice or pro life, illegal aliens taking your job or empathy for them being here, gays marrying and living next door, yes or no , handouts to the poor…. And that’s basically it. Of course, this new Tea Party phenomena ( funded by the super rich ) fighting Big Marxist government is almost laughable. Now get this, even if you fail to digest the rest of this column: The same super rich support both political parties- so this latest tactic is to make you believe that the Democrats are Marxist. By doing this, the super rich can continue to have BOTH parties vote for THEIR interests over those of the other 99% of us! It is a ……..CON JOB !! They have been doing it for over a century! What they rely on is you staying Deaf, Dumb and Blind!! Don’t just wear or wave the Red White and Blue…..do something to save it!!

Philip A. Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen. He is an activist leader and free lance columnist. Since the 2000 elections, he has written over 150 columns, many posted on various sites worldwide. Recently, he is finding a home at www.dandelionsalad.wordpress.com, or at his own blog at www.opensalon.com. Philip can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.

see

The Sad Case For Truth! by Philip A. Farruggio

California Enshrines the Duopoly by Ralph Nader

I’m sick and tired of this thing called “patriotism” by William Blum

Put away the flags by Howard Zinn (2006)

“We Pledge Resistance to the Empire” by Cindy Sheehan + Protest video

Independence From Empire… As Tears Go By by Philip A. Farruggio