Is Paul Ryan Racist?

I call it tribalism. Humans society evolved as smaller packs of hunter/gatherers, and we still carry those instincts today, IMHO. The bickering between Republicans and Democrats, Protestants and Catholics, Xbox and Playstation nerds, Star Trek and Star Wars geeks, etc. . . these are examples of our instinctual tribalism being repurposed into modern society. For Paul Ryan, his tribe is affluent, white, protestant asshats. Everyone else is a threat to his tribe and its success.

The problem is the pure audacity of the political position on the conservative right. As an analogy, it's like your child telling you that he hasn't been in the cookie jar while everyone can see cookie crumbs all over his face, hands, and shirt front.Conservatives have completely rigged the system so that it is much more difficult to crawl out of poverty than ever before. Robert Reich's film "Inequality for All" (available on Netflix) goes into a lot of it. For example, college tuition continues to increase at rates much higher than inflation: Why is that? Conservatives have made it their goal to cut back on "spending" that just so happens to include education. As the government share of tuition goes down, guess who has to make that up? Students. As tuition rates skyrocket, guess who is left in the dust? The poor. At one time, university was within the financial reach of everyone, from poorest to richest. Not anymore. This is just one tiny example of many.The tragedy is that so many poor people buy into the conservative rhetoric, mainly because the conservatives use religion as a red herring to cover up their pro-rich, anti-poor campaign.Edited by Taq, : No reason given.

The Warren Buffet rule would be a beginning, where people making over a 500k have to pay a minimum tax that is in line with what the middle class pays. Increasing the tax for capital gains would be a big first step.We also need to reinvest in education, strengthen unions, increase the minimum wage, and make other regulations that would reduce income inequality.

"Right to Work" legislation that broke up unions, rules that allow billionaires to pay 15% income tax, reduction of spending on education resulting in sky rocketing tuition costs, and continued obstruction of single payer health insurance, to name a few.Edited by Taq, : No reason given.

The current budget is a good example. Sequestration for spending on education, and yet they found room to spend billions on subsidies for Exxon and corporate farms.

Sigh, I thought you realized that the budget is legislation.Sigh, I thought you realized that "right to work" legislation is . . . well . . . legislation.Right-to-work law - WikipediaTake a look at the states that are "right to work". They pretty much follow the electoral map from the last election.Right-to-work law - WikipediaEdited by Taq, : No reason given.Edited by Taq, : No reason given.Edited by Taq, : No reason given.

They were dictated by what the Republicans were willing to open the government for, which happened to be just a skosh above the Ryan Budget that was used for the last Presidential campaign. The current budget is what the Republicans campaigned on, not what the Democrats proposed.

I do. As unions have lost power, middle class income has followed. This is the issue I am pointing to. That legislation is state and federal budgets.