Why Are the Wealthy Supporting Obama When They Know Their Taxes May Double?
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Karl Rove was able to manipulate the American electorate in the 2000 and 2004 elections into believing that a Democratic President would amount to economic disaster and social chaos.
Now that we know what economic disaster really is, and who apparently is responsible for it, the old paradigm of race and class division as the silver bullet for winning elections will no longer work.
By peddling the fraud that Republicans would keep taxes low and protect the sacred shibboleths of family and patriotism, Rove sold us the proverbial mess of pottage.
Evangelical and wealthy voters clamored to donate and vote the party line in 2000 and 2004 in exchange for tax cuts, chest-thumping flag waving and anti-gay legislation.
Now the chickens, or shall we say, the geese, have come home to roost. Everybody loses, but the wealthy lose more than anyone.
It took awhile, but the wealthy now know that they were snookered by the Cheney and company neo-cons who really just wanted to enrich themselves and their pals and ride roughshod over the world with drunken Cowboy bravado and Halliburtonian indifference.
The attitude of the ruling class of the past eight years has been to hell with the rest of you, we're getting ours. And we don't give a damn about the future or anybody's grandkids.
I have written before that the real conservatives, who are not necessarily the wealthiest segment of the electorate, have already deserted the Bush posse; and, so it appears, they so far are not shifting allegiance to John McCain.
The key to this election is shaping up, just like Las Vegas would surely tell you, into who is putting their money where, and why.
The wealthy classes now are putting aside philosophical and ideological aspects and are betting on Barack Obama over John McCain by a ratio of 4-1!!!
Lawyers have given about $18 million to Obama's campaign, $5 million to McCain's; investment firm employees favored Obama over McCain by $8 million to $4.5 million; communications and electronics workers gave $10 million to Obama versus $2 million to McCain;
Professors and other education professionals gave Obama $7 million and McCain ten times less, $700,000; real estate folks favored Obama only slightly $5 million to $4 million for McCain;
Commercial bankers wrote checks for $1.6 million to Obama and $1.2 million to McCain; hedge fund and private equity managers nearly doubled up with $1.6 million to $850,000 for McCain.
David Brooks, New York Times columnist, uses these facts from OpenSecrets.org to assert that Obama's campaign is not the populist revolution, funded mainly by small individual donors, but is old fashioned machine-style fund-raising that makes past Democratic efforts pale by comparison.
The main question we, the average voters, might ask is WHY? Why would wealthy people support a candidate who very likely will raise their taxes by as much as 100 percent?
One conclusion could be that these savvy folks know that we have been killing the Golden Goose and a continuation of the divisive and self-defeating politics of the past eight years will surely cook it.
Rather than begin the browning and basting process, the wealthy are backing, well, you know, CHANGE.
The wealthy apparently have made the decision that OBAMA stands for change and MCCAIN does not. So, they are putting their money on the unknown candidate rather than the known candidate that pundits say will be four (or eight) more of the political and economic policies that have precipitated the national decline.
They've figured out it's easier to pay higher taxes than to lose the source of their wealth -- the financial viability of the nation. They want to keep the Golden Goose alive for a while longer.
Ideology and class could rule voting decisions when we were almost universally wealthy at the top income levels. But now everything has changed. The world has turned upside down, as the old saw goes. It's a matter of survival for all groups from lawyers to hedge fund managers, from Goldman Sachs fat cats to Google geeks.
The ruling class is getting their socks knocked off along with the rest of us -- economically that is.
For example, higher gasoline prices are the biggest tax of all. And an unjustified endless war and the plummeting value of the dollar, dropping 1-2 percent a month, caused by foolish economic policies saps the guts out of fortunes faster than you can say Mother Goose.
And, as the saying goes, money talks.###
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"The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers! |
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mcgyverish Says:
On July 13, 2008
at 06:05 AM
Well put. I believe with this year's election we will see less of a dead-locked election, and more of a land-slide.
Mcsame? Or change? |
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Dave Rogers |
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