Pathways

The American middle class cannot stand it any longer. And the Democratic Party cannot support it anymore, as it is not what it used to be. It’s been a long time since the beginning of the past century that the Democratic Party used to play the leading part on social changes. Nowadays, the dialogue between the two main American political parties is reduced to determining how fast the middle class’ old conquests will be taken away from them – the Republicans say “right away” whereas the Democrats say “gradually”.

The Republicans want to hand social security over to private companies, so that they can use taxpayers’ money to invest in those companies that have been outsourced. In other words, what they’re trying to do is make the American middle class fund its pauperization itself. The Democrats stand for doing nothing for social security at this point, and that they should just let it take its course towards destruction. Just as Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine writes, new troubles await the middle class: after mortgages and oil prices, the big companies veer their hands towards the savings of the middle class. And because these are the companies that fund politicians, we’ll never hear that someone suggested they “pay the bill” for the current financial crises or to sacrifice their provocative profits to the altar of public interest. We do hear, however, that most of the damages these companies suffer are actually covered with taxpayers’ money. Its seems that the troubled middle class – and not just in America but elsewhere as well – will have to fall even lower if they want to make their politicians pay attention to their issues, more than once every four years.

Elections in America have always been like a fun-fair, an uber-production with well-groomed and well-dressed candidates and top-of-the-line election rallies. But not anymore, according to Matt Taibbi. It appears that the current financial crises made Americans turn their interest to the real politics and ask themselves about their country’s true political issues: how many Americans will be hungry and freezing during this winter? How many will lose their houses and find themselves on the streets, how many will have their car taken away?

For quite some time, talking about social classes in America was considered a taboo. Most Americans believed they were members of a shapeless but nevertheless prosperous group that was able to consume its political power in wishy-washy pre-election debates every four years. Reality proves to be a lot more different nowadays. And maybe this is the year that everybody will have to confess that to themselves.