988

AVERAGE WORKER HAS FEW FRIENDS

AMONG

DEMOCRATIC OR REPUBLICAN ELITE

By Carroll Cox

Democratic top dogs have been exceedingly clever at perpetuating the myth that theirs is the party of the working man and woman, champion of the small fry and downtrodden, unlike the wicked Republicans whose hearts throb only for the rich.

The truth is, there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the two major parties on fundamental issues affecting the present and future well-being of America's working people.

And the long-cherished Democratic myth is beginning to unravel at the seams.

President George W. Bush, in a speech to the left-wing World Affairs Council on the importance of granting special trade favors to Communist China, said: "Open trade (with China)....is a force for prosperity in the United States." In granting permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with the Beijing dictatorship, Bush's philosophy is identical to Clinton's before him and Bush Senior before that. Or Reagan. Or Carter. None of them have seen the promise of their rhetoric fulfilled, says Sheila R. Cherry, writing in Insight magazine (6/25). Instead the trade gap with China grew to an $83 billion deficit last year, as hundreds of U.S. plants closed after monoliths like Wal-Mart and Home Depot replaced their products with cheaper goods from China. Imports of manufactured goods from China the first two months of this year soared $9 billion above those imported in the same period last year. Increase in machinery/transport equipment and iron and steel products from China added another $5 billion.

The unions, those bastions of Democratic loyalty, are finally beginning to get ticked off.

Thea Lee, a spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO, scoffs bitterly at claims that increased China trade translates into high-paying U.S. jobs. "Our imports are six times as high as our exports," she said. The steadily growing numbers are becoming difficult for the faithful to ignore.

As 26,000 Motorola workers prepare for pink slips, their company has moved the work, capital and technology to China. Boeing laid off 23,000 U.S. workers in 1999, while announcing proudly that it had instructed 11,000 Chinese aviation professionals since 1993.

8 million U.S. jobs were slashed from Fortune 500 companies during the Clinton Administration between January, 1997 and December, 1999. Half a million more were cut in the first five months of this year under the Bush Administration, with no end in sight. Associated Press published a three-page list of companies laying off thousands each during the first few months of 2001. They include such U.S. icons as: Daimler/Chrysler, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee, Goodyear, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, Whirlpool, Xerox, Intel, Dow Chemical, Corning, The Walt Disney Co., Kodak, Dupont, Polaroid and American Greetings.

Workers might ask themselves why, if the Democratic Party is truly their champion against giant corporations that under Clinton's watch over a long period of prosperity, corporate tax revenues to the U.S. steadily declined. MCI earned $2.7 billion in profits in 1998 and paid NO income tax. It actually earned $113 million in rebates from the Internal Revenue Service. Also paying no income that year and earning rebates were Pepsico with $1.6 billion in profits, Pfizer with $1.2 billion, General Motors with $952 million, Chevron, J.P. Morgan and many others which earned both profits and rebates.

Green Party Presidential candidate Ralph Nader castigated the major parties, accusing both of supporting policies that sacrificed American jobs and small businesses on the altar of corporate interests. Only by eliminating expensive U.S. overhead and highly-paid jobs, replacing them with cheaper foreign labor, can corporations keep their stockholders happy. The more they downsize, the more their CEOs are paid.

During the last few years, the global plantation philosophy, the constant quest for cheaper labor and less regulated investment opportunities, has paid off handsomely for corporations and stockholders. Of the world's hundred largest economies, fifty-one are not countries but corporations.

As one economist said, in a world where multinationals dominate, Democracy is no longer the key to business success. Slavery is. Educated slaves. Uneducated slaves. Good, docile worker bees. That's why, dear American workers, you see the big guys moving operations overseas or south of the border by leaps and bounds and the percentage of corporate tax flow to U.S. Government coffers narrowing to a single-digit percentage of total government revenues. Those taxes have been systematically replaced (under both Democratic and Republican Administrations) by personal income taxes, employment taxes and a multitude of hidden fees, permits, licenses, regulations and other costs that are not called taxes but actually are.

A list published in the Wall Street Journal of the top corporate and association donors to both major parties contains more surprises for the working people of America. Contrary to what Democratic Party elders would have their followers believe, many corporations gave as much to the Democratic Party as to the Republicans. Sometimes more. Three-quarters of Goldman Sach's election contributions went to Democrats, as did well more than half of Citigroup's donations.

The 'party of the working man' has some holes to patch in its humble facade when it enjoys such favor from two of the largest and richest financial organizations in the world!

Contributions from Verizon, Microsoft and surprise!--the National Association of Realtors was almost evenly divided between the two parties.

Far right Pat Buchanan and far left Ralph Nader may be poles apart on many issues, but they share a mutual concern about the ongoing damage being inflicted on America's once vast middle-class and a justified anger at being excluded from the Presidential debates by a united Democratic/Republican front. With nothing to lose, Buchanan, Nader and other Third-Party candidates would undoubtedly have brought to the forefront uncomfortable realities that the major parties prefer not to mention.

Such as the fact that the two parties are like a frosted doughnut, their common goals bound inextricably by "dough" (pun intended), concealed by the substance-deficient, long and loudly-debated frosting of their so-called differences.

Republican workers on the land have long believed that Democrats are out to get them.

Democratic working people have cherished the same view of Republicans.

But the truth is, both parties have retreated far from the daily struggles of most Americans and the landscape is becoming littered with the victims of their combined failed policies.

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