Reader Teri L sent a link to a post that sums up a lot of what I’ve been trying to say- but never as eloquently, that we’re in a class war, and as the economic divide widens, eventually, we’ll implode and kiss it all bye-bye.

America will be a third world nation, if we’re not already there now by many standards.

Read this post in its entirety- I think it’s worth a discussion here:

this is class warfare, and it is becoming worse in the US than at any time since the 1930’s. And the outcome of this will be a fundamental test of the US commitment to its republic.

The media stokes the viewing public into emotionally-based and virulently distracting arguments about liberal versus conservative, while the gentried class skins them all alive.

One only has to watch the “news shows” on American television to see the lack of real content and discussion, with diametrically opposed “strategists” hurling sound bytes at each other with all the depth of a schoolyard standoff.

It is comfortable to retreat into an “us versus them” view of the world, and the noble class in the States is all too ready to facilitate that appeal to the darker emotions. People know deep down that it is a scam, and believe that it is easier to go along and get yours while you can, than actually attempting to change a system grown corrupt in an aging empire….

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Warren Buffett New York Times, November 26, 2006.

“The class warfare is over — we lost. I want to make that announcement today. Working people lost. The middle class lost.” Dennis Kucinich, 18 December 2009

And in the short term there will be quite a bit of jostling at the middle of the ladder, by those who fancy themselves, or their children, suited for the new nobility and so seek to perpetuate the status quo, with a lot of kicking and dog eat dog going on at the lower levels as the ladder shortens, trying to knock the immigrant, the less connected, off into the abyss, to feed the beast.

Out of all of this will come something different, and most likely something unexpected. It’s an old story, one that replays over and over. The remedy is sound reason and the Constitution, but these forces have been in retreat for the past ten years at least. Reform and justice have few friends while the looting of a generation is in progress.

via Jesse’s Café Américain: Class Warfare American Style.

With a failing fourth estate (the news media)- and a totally unregulated campaign finance system- there is little hope that the rich won’t be able to continue their dismantling of the middle class until the people rise up and try to put a stop to it.

I have thoughts of what that may look like- but they are too grim to share here. Our systems are so intertwined and interdependent, that even small disruptions can cause massive ripples. Look back to Katrina or 9/11 to see how our economy has reacted.

In these mid-term elections, it’s our duty as voters to start asking candidates hard questions about how much longer we’re going to tolerate bonuses for executives that robbed our pension funds and then taken a golden parachute ride. It’s time for clawback, prison and some serious payback.

The question is, will it be done in an organized fashion, or by a lynch mob.

If you question the possibilities of the latter- spend some time at a Tea Party rally looking at the signs- they should give you a good indication of how ugly it could get.