Guest Column by Seth Grossman, Published in the Current Newspapers of Atlantic County on February 13, 2014)
Every day, I read at least one political cartoon or opinion column that lumps together and ridicules or demonizes ?the rich 1%? and ?Tea Party? conservatives like me.
Their message is this: ?Most people live in poverty–because of our greed. Blacks, Hispanics, gays, females, the young, old, and disabled cannot get justice in America?because we are bigots”.
We are even blamed for bad weather! Too hot? Too cold? Too much snow? Too little rain? ?Climate Change? (once called ?Global Warming?) is our fault because we are ?anti-science? and love ?Big Oil?. Every day, those opinions are supported by ?facts? in the cherry-picked and slanted “news” we see and hear in newspapers, radio, and TV, and in Hollywood entertainment.
None of this is true. Most violence and poverty takes place where our ideas of constitutional liberty and Judeo-Christian values are rejected.
?Minorities? who claim they are oppressed by white, English-speaking, working American men forget that we are now the powerless minority. Those who claim to be our ?victims? long ago got organized into an almost unbeatable voting majority. They had effective control of the Democratic Party, the media, and the federal and most large state governments since 1990. That was when Republican President George Bush the Elder moved his lips and surrendered to them.
Those who claim the American middle class lifestyle causes ?climate change? forget that giant ice sheets covered New Jersey 10,000 years ago, and that the earth has been getting warmer ever since.
But the biggest lie is that ?Tea Party? conservatives like me are puppets of the ?rich 1%?. Or that they have anything in common with us.
Yes, Charles and David Koch are among the top 20 billionaires in America. They gave a lot of money to ?Tea Party? conservatives. But they didn?t give a dime to LibertyAndProsperity.org or any conservative group that is serious about applying the Constitution, enforcing immigration laws, or opposing Wall Street bailouts.
Most of America?s 20 richest billionaires like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and the Hollywood crowd give many more dollars to ?progressive? causes and candidates of the left.
While applying for historical and education grants for LibertyAndProsperity.org, I learned that America?s biggest corporations like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, ExxonMobil, BP, General Electric, and Walmart disqualify conservative groups. Their massive advertising budgets and charitable foundations spend millions to promote ?progressive? causes, organizations, and/or candidates. Why?
Many of today?s millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations hate liberty, free markets, and equal laws for everyone as much as any communist. They include former Governor Jon Corzine and Bill Clinton?s Secretary of the Treasurer Robert Rubin, both Democrats who once headed Goldman Sachs whose enormous wealth depended on political connections. NJ Democrat Party boss George Norcross owns an insurance company that profits from no-bid government contracts?and now controls the Philadelphia Inquirer. . General Electric paid zero income tax on $14.2 billion of profits in 2010 thanks to special tax breaks created by Democrats. None of them would give a dime to conservative groups like LibertyAndProsperity.org.
Other ?millionaires and billionaires? worked hard for years, played by the rules, put their savings and credit at risk for years, and created good jobs and products. Why don?t they support ?Tea Party? conservatives? Why do they publicly criticize us and give generously to ?progressive? causes and charities?
They remind me of how some Jews responded to anti-Jewish attacks in Europe when my grandparents fled to America. Some thought they would be safe if they pretended to be like the people who attacked them. They shaved their beards, changed their names. Some even converted, and publicly complained about those ?other? Jews.
But instead of being liked or respected by the anti-Semites, those Jews put themselves (and every other Jew) in even greater danger.
It is time for wealthy and successful Americans to learn from them. Lies repeated often enough become truth. Verbal attacks, if not opposed become physical attacks. Right now, ?Tea Party? conservatives are almost alone in defending the basic idea that every American has a right to honestly earn what he or she can, and keep what is honestly earned.
Because we receive no funding from the Koch Brothers, ?Big Oil?, or any ?millionaires and billionaires?, LibertyAndProsperity can only be active if we sell enough $75 each/$100 couple tickets at our annual fundraiser on February 23 at the Carisbrooke Inn in Ventnor, NJ. Please help us and go to www.libertyandprosperity.org for details. Thank you for your consideration.