The most successful Progressive policies were not fundamentally enacted until FDR and after, and only after unregulated free market capitalism destroyed the banking and investment sectors in 1929. Almost exactly 100 years later, history repeated and we continue to suffer the malaise created by unregulated profiteers whose greed exceeds their ethical and moral conscience.

Republicans today, in spite of the recent collapses in the housing, banking and investment industries as backers of the taxpayer subsidized bailouts of industry, continue to fight for fewer regulations and greater tax breaks to the very people who would again create the conditions that would again lead to nation wide financial ruin for tens of millions.

Some people never learn, and as a whole we Americans seem most guilty of this…otherwise we would not be reliving this nightmare.

Lowering taxes on the wealthy in the midst of two wars is a key indication Republicans care little about debt or its affect on the economy and the American psyche. Handing bailouts to banks and investment houses are key indications Republicans do not really care about free market Capitalism or national debt, but rather how to support the wealthy at all costs. And in so allowing the debt to grow to levels that facilitate their justification to call for an end social programs (a.k.a. ‘Starve the Beast’ Strategy), Republicans demonstrate they have zero interest in ‘Human Welfare’ in America. Pure greed fueled evil?

Part of what has made America great since the Great Depression has been America’s capacity for good will and the consideration for human welfare. When we sacrifice men and women and materiel at taxpayer expense to fight wars to free other people and protect our interests, who are we serving? All Americans: rich and poor and the principles upon which America was founded. Why is the will of the Republicans to believe in the cause of war for our collective welfare around the world? Why are they so willing to expend the lives of typically poor and middle class men and women for what are essentially human welfare principles but fail to ask those who have the financial capacity to support these endeavors to pay their share through higher taxes? (especially when the rich don’t typically see their children expended in war)

What is the price of a human life? An American soldier’s life? When one considers the poor and middle classes sacrifice the most when America is at war, can it not be said the poor and middle classes have historically always paid more than their fare share?

Yet Republicans continue to beat the drum that 50% of Americans pay no taxes. I’d love to see the financial standing of those men and women who have given their lives these past ten years, add up their collective wealth & taxes paid as a percentage of income and stack it against an equal number of the folks Republicans love to support. And if you further add those who have lost limbs, eyes, and minds, I’d be willing to bet the collective wealth of those who have sacrificed still would not come close adding up to the wealth of one of those at the top who dodge their taxes every year; but their taxes paid as a percentage of income (all taxes) would far exceed their wealthy counterparts.

And yet Republicans seem to work very hard to co-opt the military as their mascot. Ironic.

When will America learn?