Intolerance
Recent Posts
Gunfire Deaths in Children vs Pro-Life: A Political Double Standard
When it comes to the issue of protecting ‘children’, conservative politicians treat the gun lobby and the Pro-Life movement as legislative opposites.
Sacrificing Our Children in the Name of the Second Amendment
The US experiences a grossly disproportionate rate of firearm-related deaths in minors as compared to peer countries, and firearm deaths amongst the young account for more than 25% of the decreased life expectancy gap in America. The firearms industry, that is experiencing a long-term decline in American gun ownership, provides substantial financial support to the NRA and has had ties to that organization’s Board of Directors. The NRA has become a powerful lobbying force at both federal and state levels with a record of opposing legislation that would negatively affect firearms sales and advocating for legislation that expands firearm sales. That our elected representatives continue to enact firearm market expansion policies, without implementing tougher regulatory restraints on gun sales to curb firearm deaths in minors, represents the worst of special interest-driven politics and is nothing short of a dereliction of duty in governance.
Our Unrepresentative Representation
The Occupy Wall Street movement has reason to protest. Special interest-driven deregulation policy was at the heart of the recent economic collapse. It has been the “99%” that has paid the price for this policy failure with lost employment, devalued housing prices, retirement accounts being cut in half, and increased levels of poverty while the wealthiest in America continued to do well. A valid question is why our elected representatives are not working together to put a stop to failed policy that has been so damaging to the majority of Americans. This article will examine the disproportionate number of the wealthy who hold elected office in Washington and the conflict of interest they face in setting policy versus their own financial interests as well as the special interests that finance their campaigns. And it will explore an incentive that politicians have to stay in office where they can act on non-public information to their own financial benefit. It examines the issue of whether our Congress has become ‘Our Unrepresentative Representation’.
Featured Article
Job Creation and Our Diminished Economic Engine: The Middle Class
Over the past 30 years the vast majority of income gains have gone to the wealthiest in our country. In an economy that is 70% personal consumption, we will continue to experience slow recovery and anemic job growth until we more broadly share prosperity and rebuild the purchasing power of our economic engine, the middle class