Take Off The Mask

United States, 2008. Behind a rather large curtain of deception lays the true nature of society. The working class has been unknowingly masquerading as the middle class. Low-paying and part time work have been masquerading as temporary stepping stones, and the Democratic Party has been masquerading as the people’s party. It’s time to unveil these myths and expose the truth.

The vast majority, approximately 80%, of Americans are working class. Blue collar, white collar, salary or wage, we are all employed by the upper class that owns the means of production. We work at our bosses pleasure, and when it becomes more profitable to eliminate our jobs….well, have a nice day and good luck.

Which leads us to the service sector and retail sector, which continues to make up a larger and larger percent of our job market. In fact, this sector now accounts for 100% of all new job growth and these jobs pay on average 30% less than manufacturing jobs. So as the traditionally secure, full-time manufacturing jobs have been outsourced, they have been replaced by low paying, part time and temporary jobs, often insecure and without benefits. Most people filling these jobs consider them to be temporary, not serious jobs, but end up staying there for several years waiting for that magical real job to come around. So as the saying goes, good jobs are disappearing from America and reappearing…nowhere.

The Democratic Party, just as much as the Republicans, can be thanked for these problems. We can thank them for wonderful policies like NAFTA, CAFTA and the extremely bloated military budget. The so called progressive democratic presidential candidate right now wants to increase the standing army by 90,000 soldiers, wants to leave a large number of operations troops and private military contractors behind in Iraq and will only offer “For Profit Healthcare” for everyone. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty conservative to me. In comparison, in our favorite war partnering country of England, the conservative party is more liberal than our so called liberal party.

I will of course have to concede that we can’t blame the democrats and republicans for all of our problems because that would fail to address the systemic nature of them. By system, I am of course referring to our economic system. The only purpose and goal of capitalism is capital accumulation, that is, expanding profits. Nowhere does it say “guarantee meaningful work, living wages and a quality life for everyone.” Nowhere does it say “preserve the environment, conserve resources and produce in a sustainable way.” It only says increase profits. The Democrats are just as much a capitalist political party as the Republicans, they are not a workers’ political party. They serve the interests of capitalism. To them a good economy is judged by Wall Street not Main Street, profit margins and revenues not standard of living. Let’s not be confused by their so called solutions to the problems we face today as a world, they are merely band aids at best. We have been voting for democrats to represent us for decades now and have seen nothing but a decrease in real wages, expansion of militarism and cuts to the social safety net. The term “market solutions” has got to be the biggest pot of crap soup I’ve heard since trickle down economics.

This is why I am running for congress as a Socialist. I am not afraid to challenge big business capitalism every step of the way. I am not beholden to corporate interests like the candidates from the major parties. My only interest in public service is simply that, to serve the public, which is overwhelmingly working class folks like you and me and our families and friends. The elite minority at the tip top of the economic ladder already have 500+ representatives in congress, it’s about time that we the working people stop voting for their representatives and start running and voting for our own!

Here are some of my key platform planks:

www.votevachon.com