Who Rules America?

In civic classes that I took long ago, I was taught that the United States was predicated on the principle that  promised, "freedom" and "justice" to all. Today,there are folks who were never oppressed by American slavery laws or "run off their land" by American settlers who are questioning the soventry of the American promise.

“What we need is a political revolution in which grassroots America  come together to make everybody understand that we are the majority of the American people and not the Koch brothers and not Sheldon Adelson, and not the other billionaires today who have huge influence over the economic and political life of the nation" says Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.He continues, " I happen to believe that we are living in a moment in history where the problems facing this country are more severe than at any time since the Great Depression. These are times in which the middle class in this country is disappearing and we have more people living in poverty than any time in the history of this country, when despite the huge increases in technology and productivity, the median family income is down by $5,000 since 1999 when 95% of the new income generated goes to the top 1% of the population. In terms of wealth, we have the obscenity of the top 1% owning 38% of the wealth, while the bottom 60% owns all of 2.3%."

I only heard of Senator Sanders recently, but I am very much in agreement with his beliefs. Somehow the "uncle Sam" image of the United States is tarnished. Nothing is fashioned for "the people" anymore. So the gap between the very, very, very rich and everybody else is growing much wider and millions of children face the prospect of having a significantly lower standard of living than their parents. Billionaires now exert a type of political power that has never been seen in the history of this country. We need to wage a political revolution.