One fundamental characteristic of the America of the past is that we were all barn builders.

When someone in town was having troubles, when someone’s barn burned down, the town would get together and help build a new barn for their neighbors. We survived as a country because we helped each other.

Our forefathers, knowing that we were a country of neighbors helping each other, build a country and a constitution based on that knowledge.

In fact, the preamble of the constitution lays it all out in plain English:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This country and our government is created to make it easier for us to help one another.

This country was founded and became a strong leader in the world because we were barn builders.

Does your political party try to help you build barns and help your neighbors? Or are they trying to make it harder and harder for us to pool our tax dollars together to make a better country for everyone? Is your political party for helping your neighbors by providing for all of our welfare? Do they make it easier for us to donate to a retirement insurance program that we can all collect from in old age? You know, Social Security Insurance?

Is your political party pro-America and pro-barn-building or is your party for the rich and the greedy and the oil companies and anti-American?

And you want to know the best part? When we take care of one another, we all have money to help create jobs. Who creates jobs? A thriving middle class. A thriving America.

It seems that America is starting to wake up and revolt against the Republican efforts to destroy our country. Seeing the hundreds of thousands of Americans marching against the anti-worker, anti-middle-class policies of the corrupt Republican governors gives me hope.

The Tea Baggers are starting to wake up and realize that they’re being used by the billionaires. They’re beginning to realize their weird signs made no sense since what they really wanted conflicted with what Dick Armey and the Koch brothers were telling them.

The corporate press is trying their hardest to hide this non-violent revolution but they can’t hide it much longer. Americans are waking up to the fact that our media is part of the problem, not the solution. For the real news regarding the revolution, Americans are resorting to news on the Internet.

Let me suggest a few places you can go to see the real news when it comes to America revolting against Republican crimes.

• Thom Hartmann
• Think Progress
• Democratic Underground
• and, of course, right here, Just-Say-Why

So we hear the republican chanting over and over how the sky is falling if we don’t balance the budget, even if it means we have to take food out of the mouths of our elderly and sick and weak and poor. The world will end. Why all the noise?

The Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling 18 times during Reagan’s administration. Got that? 18 times. During that time Reagan increased our nation’s deficit by three trillion dollars, more than all the previous presidents combined.

Where did all that money go? It went to tax breaks for the rich, mostly. That and to the military budget and his failed Star Wars program.

Then, along came Clinton and he balanced the budget and had a surplus that would have paid off the deficit in 10 years.

Where did all this money come from? Clinton ended “Welfare as we know it.” In other words, he stole it from the poor. He also raised taxes on the wealthy a couple percentage points.

Then, Bush added almost five trillion dollars to the deficit and the republican voted seven times to raise the debt ceiling.

Where did all that money go? Tax breaks for the rich and two illegal wars.

Then the economy crashed, as it always does when you lower taxes on the rich, and Bush pushed through another trillion dollars to the banker crooks.

Now, Obama wants to add a small fraction to the debt, less than 8%, and the Republicans are threatening to bring the entire country down unless we take more money from the poor.

Do you see any sort of pattern here? The republicans ran up almost all of the 10 trillion dollar debt and they don’t want to pay for it. They want the poor and the weak and the elderly and the sick to pay for their big party.

The republicans and the rich have been living large for the past 30 years at our expense and now they want you and me to pay for the bill.

What would you say about a political party that does this? What would you say about a party that is willing to crash our economy if they don’t get their way on everything? We’re in this mess because of the tax breaks to the rich and the republicans are saying they will destroy the country if we don’t give more tax breaks to the rich.

What party does big business own?

Here is a graph of Nevada’s Revenue stream. Check it out. While looking at it, remember that Nevada comes in dead last in almost every area that matters, from health to intelligence to poverty.

Take a look at the slice of the pie that is the largest – sales tax. Sales tax is one of the most regressive types of tax because it affects the poor and middle class the most.

So, in Nevada, we see an example of what it’s like when the rich are not expected to pay their fair share. Do you see any income tax on the wealthy? Any taxes on billion dollar bankers? Any taxes on billion dollar mines? No? Me neither.

So the rich get a free ride and the poor and middle class are saddled with everything.

Well, Nevada, how is that working for you? Does it attract business having no income tax? No, I guess not.

When will you ever learn, Nevada?

But the bigger question is what on earth are we doing trying to bring the rest of the country down to Nevada’s level by following their tax structure and giving the billionaires a free ride while expecting the poor and middle class to work for less and carry a greater portion of the cost?

When will America ever learn? It’s time to throw out the failed Republican policies. We’ve been here before, America, it was called the Great Depression and it didn’t work so well back then.

Just got this in my email. This is from the Tea Party. It’s quite disgusting to see so many Americans intent on attacking America’s president and the workers and middle class. Just read this.

Dear Friends,

We’re engaged on many fronts in the political battle with Barack Obama and his union allies in Wisconsin and many other states across America.  As you heard today, an activist judge played the role Obama wanted and blocked Gov. Walker’s new collective bargaining law.

And a new poll finds Gov. Walker’s opponents trying to mobilize the public against him.  So we need you to help in 2 important ways:

1. Vote for Gov. Walker in this new Journal Times Poll – CLICK HERE TO VOTE

2. Help us fight back against the mob tactics of the Obama campaign team and organized labor unions – and make the most generous contribution you can afford to the Tea Party Express.

If you can afford a larger contribution of $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more, then please – do your part to show the Left that their efforts will only embolden us even more!

You can contribute any amount up to the maximum allowed limit of $5,000.  And since we’re in a new election cycle, those of you who had previously “maxed out” are once again able to contribute as much as you’d like – all the way up to that $5,000 maximum.

To contribute, just click the button below:

As always, if you prefer, you may also make a contribution via U.S. mail, by sending a check to:

Tea Party Express

That’s right, word for word how it was sent. Let me repeat, “We’re engaged on many fronts in the political battle with Barack Obama…”

These people are in a battle with the representative of the majority of America. What does that make them? Well, beyond the obvious such as ignorant, naive, confused, there is the very real aspect of being against everything America stands for. These people are plain and simple, anti-American.

They want to stop the “mob tactics”. Really? You mean like Democracy? These people are being asked to donate money to fight against workers in Wisconsin. Now that’s pretty darned disgusting.

We have a very sick cult in America being blinded and led by billionaires who are out to destroy our democracy and steal what’s left of our American Dream.

We’ve discussed supply side economics many times on this blog and there are countless websites that compare the two economic models, Keynes vs Friedman. But this time I’m going to add a bit of history to the discussion. After all, if we can’t learn from our mistakes, we’re doomed to repeat them, and repeating them we are.

Supply Side Economics

Probably the best way to describe Supply Side Economics is Voodoo economics. This is the idea that if you give money to the rich, they will hire people and pay a good wage and the heavens will open and the angles will sing and leprechauns will dance. It’s also referred to as trickle-down economics.

In other words, people will run out and buy just because the stores are full.

Keynesian Economics

This is the old model of economics where demand drives the economy. In other words, when people have money they will buy.

Now this is obviously just broad strokes and there is a whole lot more involved in each of these models of economics. You may find yourself interested enough to learn economics and get into the nuts and bolts of these, but this is as technical as I plan to get.

Alright, so here’s the little bit of history I promised you. Neither of these perspectives of economics is new. Since the beginning of economic times, the concept of supply and demand has been the fundamental core of the study of economics.

However, back in the early days of America, the concept of unfettered free trade was the approach the government took and this freed up the companies to be as greedy and they could. This allowed America to become quite wealthy, or at least our wealthy became wealthy.

Of all the leading countries, we were becoming the most wealthy. This seemed to convince many people that if a little free is good, oh my gosh, totally free trade must be the be-all end-all of wealthy. So, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, America decided to pull all the plugs and let the rich get as rich as they wanted.

So by the 1920s we saw the roaring 20s when the wealthy were insane with their greed and wealth. At lease back then, they were smart enough to protect our industries through tariffs.

Then, the big crash.

Following the Great Depression, many economist admitted that the whole idea of completely unregulated greed was bad for America. At this time, Keynes came back to the idea that maybe really, demand drives the economy. This wasn’t the first time economics thought of this, but it was back in vogue.

Then, about 50 years ago, Friedman brought back the greed and supply side economics.

So, fast-forward to today and we’re all the rage back into supply-side economics and unfettered free trade. Of course, we’re also seeing the return of the economics of the Great Depression.

When will we learn from history? When we start exposing the idiots who keep pushing failed economic policies on us. When we eject the same people who got us in the First Republican Great Depression. The Republicans.

Unfettered Free Trade doesn’t work. All it does is impoverish a nation and make a handful of greedy people insanely rich.

Free trade doesn’t work.

Supply Side Economics don’t work. It’s a myth.

Voodoo Economics always brings disaster. Read your history.

This table is a wonderful example of welfare for the rich.

Where are your taxes going? To the rich, of course.

It is very hard not to hear the voices of the billionaires behind every single tea party request.

The Tea Party Requests

• Fewer regulations on the oil companies
• Drill baby drill
• Lower taxes on the billionaires
• Welfare for Billionaires
• Lower benefits for the middle class
• Smaller government
• Kill the unions

… and on and on it goes.

Who Votes Against Their Best Interests?

It takes a real fool to be out there chanting against the middle class and against the workers and against regulating big business and against fair taxes on the rich, against their own best interests.

But, the Republican party if full of fools.

So, tea party, what, exactly, do you want, other than what the billionaires want?

You want smaller government? Tell me what small government country you want to be like. Somalia, maybe? Haiti? There isn’t a single one out there I want to be like. Tell me what big government country you don’t want to be like. The bigger the government, the bigger the benefits to the tax payers. Of course, we all want to clean out waste from our government but making it smaller isn’t the solution. It only helps the billionaires.

So, tea party followers, please, tell me, what do you want that the billionaires haven’t told you to want?

Who Fixed the Last Great Depression?

During the last Great Depression, America voted for progressives to fix the country and Germany voted for a conservative, Hitler. Who are you voting for? Since I know that you will refuse to admit it to yourself, I’ll help you out. You’re voting for the conservatives.

Egypt has been in the news a lot lately. Do you know what’s been missing from the news?

Many analysts say one of the driving causes is the tremendous disparity between the wealthy and the rest of the country. That has been the root of revolutions since the beginning of time.

Do you know what developed country has a greater disparity? America! Yes, we have let this country get more out of control than Egypt and we’re not even voting in great numbers yet. Will we take this country back from the greedy by vote or will we wait till our votes are worthless like Egypt’s before we revolt?

I hope we come to our senses soon and start voting because I would really hate to see revolution come to our country again.

So what were your thoughts on President Obama’s State of the Union Address tonight? Here are a few of my thoughts:

• High Speed Rail! It’s about time. This is a good goal. Of course those against America will oppose it.
• Investing in innovations like solar is a good step if you can make sure you’re stimulating OUR economy.
• Electric cars. Yeah!
• No messing with Social Security
• Make the rich pay their fair share
• No comment on bringing our jobs home. Just chatter about how if we’re better educated we’ll be better able to compete (with dollar a day Chinese slave labor?)
• No comment about busting up the too-big-to-fail banks or cleaning up our media or enforcing anti-trust regulations.

All in all, it was a motivating speech that was a little short on specifics, but full of lots of grand ideas.