Oct 01, 2008  
Show me the trickle!
 
...with the economy going to hell in a handbasket...vote for candidates who will best represent your interests…your economic interests...

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Who’re you gonna vote for?

May I suggest, what with the economy going to hell in a handbasket, that you vote for candidates who will best represent your interests…your economic interests?

So often we, who vote, get sidetracked by personality issues – a smile, the clothing, charisma. These might be more relevant in a presidential or a gubernatorial election, where we may want someone to represent us to OTHERS, and so, we may want to put our ‘best face’ forward. But for legislators who simply vote for laws that affect our everyday lives…laws that, at the end of the legislative day, decide – especially decide – how much MONEY we and our families have access to, then it should be incumbent on us to elect THAT person who will ‘show us the money’.

The color of trickle…
What we are really talking about here is “livelihood.” Our livelihood, as opposed – and I do mean opposed – to their livelihood. Business-types try to convince us that top-down economics – especially if it is unregulated – is good for all of us. They call it the “trickle-down” effect. It is supposed to work this way: they get all the economic breaks, because they are investors, and somehow their “investments” will trickle down on the rest of us hardworking, lowly paid wage earners; meanwhile, we must remain quiet and wait for their trickle. And it is a trickle, IF it works. Problem is, they rarely allow it to work. You see, it works AGAINST their interests to share their trickle.

OOPS! There goes the American dream…
Our interests are more modest. Most of us would just like to get by, maybe make it to the middle class. Ah! The middle class. In its heyday – in the ‘50s – you could actually get there, if you qualified for a GI loan, or belonged to a union. With the decimation of both the GI bill and unions, the middle class shrunk, and the American dream became more and more unattainable. These days it takes two adults working two full-time jobs to keep afloat from paycheck to paycheck, hoping to pay all their bills, trying to keep the credit card companies from finding new ways to make them pay yet more. We try to live the American dream by going deeper into debt.

So vote for yourself…
Look for legislative candidates to vote for, who will look after your interests as a member of the working class. Stop voting for candidates who put unregulated corporate interests over you and your family’s economic interests.

On November 4th, let’s vote for OUR economic interests. May I recommend:
• Jeff Morris for U.S. House of Representatives – Calif. 2nd Congressional District
• Mickey Harrington for California State Assembly – 3rd District
• Andy Holcombe for Chico City Council
• Ann Schwab for Chico City Council
• Jim Walker for Chico City Council
• Ali Sarsour for Chico City Council