Wake Up!

Cross-Cutting Conflicts Mask Class Divisions

A few weeks ago, an article appeared on line to talk about why baby boomers are hoarding their wealth instead of sharing it. I think that the article is mostly nonsense, but it is a symptom of something really important, which is the tendency of American progressives to split into cross-cutting groups along lines that prevent progressives from focusing on fundamental class conflicts. 

Young vs. Old

One of those lines is generational. The split is between the aging baby boomers and younger generations like gen-X or the millennials. On the one hand, we have articles that accuse old people of hoarding the wealth that they gained because they were born and grew up at a time when our expanding economy provided. We read that the fifties were a golden age in which a family could live well on one income, and we read that today’s young people face much higher barriers to the accumulation of wealth than the boomers did. On the other side of the divide, we see articles saying that old people should not have to pay property taxes on their homes because – it is said – the old people have already paid their dues. Both versions set up a conflict between the young and the old.

Men vs. Women

Then, there is the gender divide in which men are accused of oppressing women through the dominance of a patriarchy. Again, there is truth in this. Most positions of authority in the United States are held by men, but this argument obscures the fact that most men do not hold such positions. Most men are workers who are oppressed, but many of us do not see that. As a result, instead of rising together, men and women fight with each other.

White vs. Black

We also have a divide based on race. Again, it is real. People of color are and have been oppressed in our country since its founding. Policies like “red-lining” are or at least were real. Seniority policies promoted by unions have worked against people of color who became “the last hired and the first fired.” The difference in wealth between white people and people of color in our country is real, but who are the real oppressors? Remember that in the Civil War, poor white southerners died by the thousands to protect the plantation system that oppressed them.

Oligarchy

These political divisions come together in the phrase that says that political leaders in the United States are “pale, male and stale.” There is truth in this, too, but the phrase lacks an important adjective, and that adjective is “rich.” Our country is an oligarchy, and the oligarchs are rich people who use their money to control our electoral system and the representatives we elect. Some of the oligarchs are young, and some are old; some are men and a few are women; most are white, but a few are black. The oligarchy’s control is not perfect, but the oligarchs are working on that.

The oppression of young people, women or racial minorities is not the oligarchs' goal although, they can live with oppression. Their goal is to protect and increase their wealth. However, the oligarchs are happy to have the rest of us fighting among ourselves - men against women, black against white, young against old – because as long as we are doing that, the oligarchs can pick our pockets at their leisure, and they can run the country for their benefit. We need to wake up.

We Need to Wake Up

The oligarchs' current instrument for keeping us fighting among ourselves is the MAGA movement. The MAGA movement is in essence an immense diversionary tactic. It promotes the divisions that mask the oligarchy and blames women and minorities for the problems of working Americans. It also promotes a conflict between immigrants and native-born Americans.  MAGA focuses attention on cultural issues too. It works to make sure that voters focus on anything rather than the oligarchs.

The MAGA movement does these things while in the background, its leaders reduce income taxes and increase tariffs, which are consumption taxes, to shift the tax burden onto ordinary, working Americans. It eliminates environmental regulations that reduce the profits of corporations. MAGA's leaders hope that if they can keep the rest of us fighting among ourselves, they can continue to pick our pockets at leisure. We need to stop being suckered into fighting with each other and focus our attention on our real enemies. Wake up!