"Tax The Rich"

A couple of days ago the local news showed students marching in protest of “budget cuts that would result in higher tuition costs.” The loudest and most frequent chant that could be heard was, “Tax the rich, tax the rich.”

And you wonder why Obama has not solved this country's problems?

Those problems will not be solved as long as the people of this nation expect the government to provide them with what they want, to provide the programs and services that benefit them personally, and that someone else will pay for those benefits. “Tax the rich.”

The problems that this nation faces will not be solved so long as the people of this nation blame “corrupt politicians” for passing laws which favor the rich and do not accept the responsibility for having elected those legislators to begin with, and for reelecting them after they passed laws which were against the interests of the electors.

The problems that this nation faces will not be solved so long as the people of this nation blame corporations for spending money in advertising to influence elections and allow themselves to be influenced by that advertising, making their decisions and casting their votes based on a barrage of thirty-second sound bite advertisements or on the letter that follows the name on the ballot, and not on the actual policies and actions of the candidates in the race.

This nation is engaged in a Civil War today, one which pits not North against South, but which pits 50 states against each other and every individual against all the rest. Every bill that hits the floor in Congress is a mishmash of clauses and riders catering to the greedy interests of fifty individual states without regard to the wellbeing of the nation as a whole. Every person in this nation regards national budgeting as a process of defunding the programs and services that benefit other people, funding the programs and services than benefit me and taxing someone else to pay for them. “Tax the rich,” defining “rich” as someone who makes far more money than I do. The “majority” is defined as “what I want.”

That’s the road that brought us here, and it leads only one place.

The problems that face this country were not caused by Republicans or Democrats, they are the result of the people of this nation failing to accept the responsibility of citizenship and vote in all elections for which they are eligible, and to vote knowledgeably and responsibly; to vote for national legislators not based on what they promise for the individual or locality, but based on what they promise for the nation as a whole.

I need to be willing to pay taxes and require services from my governments based on the needs of the nation and the community, not based on the wants of my lifestyle. The Senator from California does not represent the "interests of the people of California," and given the opportunity to do so I would vote against any candidate who claimed that they did. The Senator from California is a United States Senator, and should represent the interests of the people of the United States as a whole, being guided by the principles held by the people of California.