Dixiecrats and the Tea Party

The recent shutdown in Washington shows again the shift in our country that is forcing the top of our hierarchies to go further and further out. This trend is described on the Death Struggle page of our website (go to "Hierarchies," to "Death Struggle.") 

Using a see-saw model for our country, the Tea Party is on one side, building outdated hierarchies which benefit a few. The other side represents everyone working to bring our history of hierarchies to a close.  

The Tea Party members who want to conserve hierarchies can hold on to power on this see-saw in two ways:

1. Gain weight 

2. Increase distance 

They can't gain weight because fewer and people agree with them, even fellow Republicans. So they must go farther out in their hierarchy ideology to keep the balance. But they can only go so far as eventually they will fall off the end and be out of the game. 

In the New Yorker article "The G.O.P's Dixiecrat Problem," the current Tea Party is compared to other hierarchy builders who wanted to stall African American civil rights by aligning against Democrats and with Republicans. The last lines of the article predicts the fate of our modern-day hierarchy-holdouts: 

"Sixty-five years ago, the Dixiecrats spearheaded a movement toward the G.O.P. The Tea Party is an echo of that same movement, save for one distinction: in 2013, the rebels have nowhere left to go."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/10/the-gops-dixiecrat-problem.html?mbid=gnep&google_editors_picks=true

Welfare for the NFL

The National Football league is wealthy, but still gets welfare from the taxpayers. We are so used to hierarchies, that we don't question when the top gets their welfare checks from tax payers. Easterbrook's article describes how the owner of the Washington Redskins [with their hierarchical racist name] is worth $1 billion, yet the taxpayers paid $4 million to upgrade a workout facility.

Taxpayers in Ohio were hit with a $33 Million bill for stadium costs while the county cut $23.6 million from their health-and-human services budget. In Minnesota, the legislature, facing a $1.1 billion budget deficit, extracted $506 million from taxpayers to pay for a new football facility. Although the capital for the stadiums is being underwritten by the public, most football revenue generated within the facility will be pocketed by club owners. In NFL city after NFL city, the pattern is repeated. The extremely profitable and one of the most subsidized organizations in American history, the NFL also enjoys tax-exempt status.

The article concludes:  "Until public attitudes change, those at the top of the pro-football pyramid will keep getting away with whatever they can. Ordinary people are taxed so a small number of NFL owners and officers can live as modern feudal lords and ladies. Football is the king of sports, based on inequality and greed."

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/how-the-nfl-fleeces-taxpayers/309448/

Congress Lives the Lives of The Rest of Us

We have seen many emails and petition requests that demand that when Congress shuts down the government, they should personally feel the same economic effects that their decisions are forcing on so many people who are losing pay for being sent home from their jobs.

Typical of any hierarchy, the people on the top make decisions that don't personally hurt them, but very  much hurts people in lower levels of the hierarchy.

How about health care? Let members of Congress feel what it is like not to be covered, or to be covered by a less comprehensive policy than they are given as part of being in Congress. We'll see how fast they move to bring health care to them and their families.