Class War / Race War

In an e-mail from Switzerland, an observer who corresponds with one of the diarists at DKos writes: "Watching the events in New Orleans unfold from here in Europe, mostly via BBC World, we have the impression that the storm blew up a corner of the carpet beneath which America had long been sweeping some of its fundamental problems.

Among the fundamental problems revealed are:

"(1) the enormous divide between rich and poor (which has expanded rapidly in the past two or three decades);

"(2) the racial divide leaving blacks in the poorest class (nearly all the stranded, angry, unassisted poor we see on the TV screen are black)."

In the aftermath of the Gulf Coast Disaster, it's pertinent to ask hard questions about race and class in this country, and to recall once again the class warfare in which this government has been continuously engaged since its accession to power.

What's the difference between a child dying of abuse and a child dying from neglect? In the long run, there's none, because in both cases the child is just as dead.

How many poor people along the gulf coast, who just happened to be people of color, are now dead from neglect?

Is anyone naive enough to think it's possible to separate race issues from class issues in this country?

If someone argues that this administration, and the Bush I and Reagan administrations before it were not overtly racist, I'd agree. However, the modern conservative movement is demonstrably prejudiced against the poor, and has always adopted the attitude that people wouldn't be living in poverty if they tried harder. They seem to believe that no one is really "underprivileged."

Therefore, the conservatives are de facto racists. It cannot have escaped their notice that disproportionate numbers of the poor are blacks, Mexicans or other Latinos, and Indians.

Why is that? The reasons are profoundly historical, and are embedded deeply in this country's roots. People write large, heavy, and complex books about such things. However, the short version of the story is that those who have always been on the bottom remain there. Meanwhile, those on top are convinced they are where they are because of their superior virtue.

Next week Congress will abolish the estate tax. Is that a racist move? Some would call such a suggestion ridiculous. How could there be a connection between the estate tax and racism?

In fact, abolishing the estate tax is another example of de facto racism.

From the page entitled "Estate Tax Questions" at the IRS website: Only total taxable estates and lifetime gifts that exceed $1,000,000 will actually have to pay tax. In its current form, the estate tax only affects the wealthiest 2% of all Americans.

The estate tax is not levied on ordinary working people, most of whom now leave debts rather than estates.

Abolishing it is one more blow in the relentless and implacable class warfare this administration has been engaged in since it took office.

Since disproportionate numbers of the poorer classes also just happen to be people of color, the neocon class war is also a race war.

I'm sure conservatives don't see it that way, and would be deeply offended by the suggestion that they're racists. The problem is that de facto racism has the same effect as overt racism, just the same way as neglect is nothing more than a passive form of abuse.

It seems to me that the good Christians of this country have not read their sacred book very closely. The founder of their religion once said, "As you have done unto the least of these, so you have done unto me."