Journalism vs. Propaganga Sloganeering.

This great piece by George Packer is at least as enlightening as it is depressing in telling the story of the maddeningly  irrational beliefs of lower-middle class Americans who cling to the Republican Party and their completely bankrupt (literally, at times) slogans about building a better America. The problem is the article weighs in at over 7,000 words and the mouth-breathers have the attention span fit only for a one line slogan. Here is a teaser from the article.

“…societies with lower levels of social mobility. As America has grown less economically equal, a citizen’s ability to move upward has fallen behind that of citizens in other Western democracies. We are no longer the country where anyone can become anything.

Inequality saps the economy by draining the buying power of Americans whose incomes have stagnated, forcing them to rely on debt to fund education, housing, and health care. At the top, it creates deep pools of wealth that have nowhere productive to go, leading to asset bubbles in capital markets bearing little or no relation to the health of the over-all economy.”

I can't imagine anyone in America disagreeing with the Bernie Sanders piece in the NYT...other than Wall Street bankers. Or this:For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions.