Progressive elite and crony capitalism

By Allan McNew

Progressive true believers should be putting their redistributive efforts where their ideological vocal chords are. They should be insisting that their elected governmental representatives stand in the faces of rich, Robber Baron Capitalists like Jeff Bezos; Mark Zuckerburg; Bill Gates; Al Gore; Tom Steyre; and George Soros as well as the rich capitalist husbands of House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi and Senator Feinstein and clearly and unmistakably declare “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need: we are taking at least 80% of your wealth.” Fat cat corporate attorneys like the husband of Senator and declared presidential candidate Kamala Harris need to understand that from now on, in the interest of social and economic equality, their after tax income and other compensation will not exceed that of the janitors who clean their office buildings.

But reality is a different thing altogether. For example, the subordinate relationship of Sacramento “progressive” politicians with Silicone Valley capitalists as well as the rest of filthy rich coastal corporate capitalists from San Diego to Seattle is best described by the jail house definition of “punk.”

It’s like the part of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” where the tenet that “All animals [people] are equal” is edited to “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” At the end of the book, the enslaved animals can’t tell the difference between the pigs (who organized the animals and assumed power on the farm) and the group of exploitative farmers exactly like the one from which the animals rebelled and with whom the pigs are partying at the end of the book. The capitalist farmers admired the pigs for their methods, not the least for their control over the animals.

The problem as well as the colossal hypocrisy is that progressive-socialist elites lust for power and upper crust lifestyle and have no problem accommodating their new technology corporate masters who in turn finance their means to power and lifestyle by financing their political career path and the activist organizations progressive-socialist politicians depend on with direct and hidden donation: you don’t see a single wealthy person shaking in his boots due to all the ubiquitous yet remarkably vague rhetoric of “making the rich pay their fair share.”

Rich hypocrites like Warren Buffet (and Barack Obama, who discovered personal capitalism after he ceased being a political activist and became an activist politician) often lament the fact that they pay less effective percentage of taxes than their personal secretaries, but balk at voluntarily forwarding more of their own wealth to state and federal charities beyond taxes due after exploiting all the loopholes not available to the middle class which progressive-socialist politicians refuse to close.

But if the rich aren’t going to be coerced into financing the larger progressive-socialist social agenda beyond promoting it, who is? It will be accomplished by soaking the middle class beyond its means, through crushing hidden and direct taxation, overwhelming fees and strangling regulation for just about everything that can possibly be done by human beings. They might even resort to taxing doors and windows. Part of the progressive-socialist taking of power is to destroy the middle class while babbling incessantly about saving it and make everyone not part of the “more equal” progressive-socialist elite and their crony capitalist partners in crime equally dependent on government.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary