Background
Sparked by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that legalized abortion nationwide, federal and state governments have enacted laws that allow health care professionals and institutions to refuse to provide services related to reproductive health without facing legal, financial or professional consequences.
A patchwork of federal laws explicitly allows many health care professionals and institutions to refuse to provide care related to abortion and sterilization services. Collectively, these laws prevent government agencies from forcing the provision of services or “discriminating” against individuals and institutions that refuse to provide them; they also prevent institutions receiving certain federal funds from taking action against health care personnel because of their participation or nonparticipation in beliefs about abortion or sterilization. Separate federal laws and regulations, notably Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, prohibit employers from discriminating against personnel based on religion, including religiously based objections to performing specific job functions; an employer must reasonably accommodate an employee’s religious practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer.
Almost every state has adopted similar policies related to abortion, and, in many instances, policies […]
Class Warfare
The American people have been in a state of class warfare ever since our nation was founded. The elites of America set up the political system to favor themselves. Maintaining the elite control of the political system was and still is their agenda. Some of the Founding Fathers, Madison, Jay and Hamilton in their Federalist Papers set up the Electoral College, appointment of Senators by the state legislatures and stated there was no need for a separate Bill Of Rights. They added the 3/5 rule so that wealthy slave owning states received an unfair advantage in the House of Representatives to to maintain their oppression of African human beings. To assure that none of this would change, the federal judiciary would be appointed by the elite (president) and confirmed by the elites (Senate). All this to keep their power while pretending to give the common man the power of the vote to control their own destiny. Women, people of color and indigenous peoples be damned.
Our nation has gone through over 30 economic depressions and recessions from its founding until the Great Depression. Each time the common man suffered greatly. Most suffered in silence because of the rural makeup of the nation.
As the country urbanized the Great Depression happened. Many people were dependent on jobs that the economic system could not provide. President Roosevelt created The New Deal to provide what capitalism could not. It was a patch work of ideas that worked for a while. How many millions of people died from starvation, lack of shelter, no access to healthcare and suicide is anyone’s guess.
Huey Long broke with Roosevelt’s New Deal because it did nothing to redistribute the wealth of the country, which he viewed as the fundamental problem. Huey Long knew that something more radical was needed so he proposed his “Share The Wealth” program. Long advocated for free higher education and vocational training, pensions for the elderly, veterans benefits and health care, and a yearly stipend for all families earning less than one-third the national average income – enough for a home, an automobile, a radio, and the ordinary conveniences. But all this ended with his assassination in 1935.
America slowly recovered from the great depression until the Great Recession of 1937 happened. Again, Roosevelt was forced to change his economic policies to respond to the crisis. The economy did not fully recover until late 1941 as we geared up for war.
President Roosevelt, having seen the devastation cause by the economy, proposed a Second Economic Bill of Rights in his 1944 State of the Union Address:
“Among these are:
• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being. America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.”
The Original Bill Of Rights and President Roosevelt’s Second Economic Bill Of Rights were then used by the United Nations as the framework for The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. That measure passed with 48 of the 58 nations voting for it with no votes against it. The American government voted for this declaration, but no action was taken.
The years from the end of World War II into the 1970s were ones of substantial economic growth and broadly shared prosperity. It began to end with the 1973-1975 recession. Since 1980 the income inequality between the elites and the rest of the population has become greater in America than any other industrialized country in the world. The fact is that Bezos, Gates and Buffett have more money than the bottom half of the country’s population combined is shameful and criminal.
Class Warfare needs to be addressed now. The good paying jobs with benefits are for the most part gone forever. A.I. will become more and more the replacement for workers. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates the nation’s infrastructure at a D plus. There evaluation included roads and bridges, water and sewer systems, electrical grid, dams and levees, school and treatment of hazardous materials and other public systems. We are one major catastrophe from becoming a third world country. Additionally, the issue of Climate Change will affect the poor and middle class disproportionately. The Democrats and Republicans have fooled the citizens for the last time. Unless the next president and Congress embraces Huey Long’s “Share The Wealth”, President Roosevelt “Second Economic Bill of Rights”, corrects the mistakes of the Federalist Papers and responds to the environmental needs of the county, America is doomed to crumble like all the other great nations the world has known. This is America’s last chance to get it right.
Class Warfare needs to be addressed now. The good paying jobs with benefits are for the most part gone forever. A.I. will become more and more the replacement for workers. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates the nation’s infrastructure at a D plus. There evaluation included roads and bridges, water and sewer systems, electrical grid, dams and levees, school and treatment of hazardous materials and other public systems. We are one major catastrophe from becoming a third world country. Additionally, the issue of Climate Change will affect the poor and middle class disproportionately. The Democrats and Republicans have fooled the citizens for the last time. Unless the next president and Congress embraces Huey Long’s “Share The Wealth”, President Roosevelt “Second Economic Bill of Rights”, corrects the mistakes of the Federalist Papers and responds to the environmental needs of the county, America is doomed to crumble like all the other great nations the world has known. This is America’s last chance to get it right.