[] “…we have a group of people who think that people are really rich. The assumption is that most Americans are rolling in dough so that any tax increase on the wealthy is an attack on all Americans.” []
[] “Benefiting the majority of Americans used to be how you got to ‘home base.’ But now, it’s like, ‘No, you can’t tax Americans; we are Taxed Enough Already!’” []
]“The way this ‘obvious truth’ is phrased now...no way to get around it, it’s a flat out lie...goes,‘You can’t tax the very rich, cause that’s’...& they’ll just say it right out...‘that’s gonna affect all Americans, that’s taxing everybody.’”[
[] “Pre-Roosevelt turn-of-the-century initiatives so common & familiar now, such as the Food & Drug Administration, are the kinds of things Democrats brought in that added to government.” []
[] “The Democrats are the ones who brought in the FDA, worker’s rights, workman’s compensation. They’re the ones who put in Medicare. They’re the ones who put in Social Security.” []
[] “Republicans are the ones who did it again with Ronald Reagan, who tripled & nearly quadrupled the National Debt under the twelve years of Reagan-Bush, then more than doubled it under George W. That’s a lot of goddamn money.” []
[] “…how could we forget that [the Republicans] just took the money & did whatever they wanted with it? They paid off debts to other rich friends; they went overseas & invested in other countries.” []
[] “…we have this idea of tax-and-spend Democrats. It’s been repeated, going back many decades. It basically goes back to Roosevelt who ended the Depression & benefited virtually all Americans. & now that’s somehow a bad thing,..” []
[]“…brought up to get you mad about the tax-and-spend Democrat. & they’ve got all Americans convinced that if you vote for a Democrat, they’re going to take your money, they’re going to tax it,& they’re going to spend it on somebody else.”[]
[] “Clinton created jobs & prosperity, balanced the budget, reduced the National Debt, & created a surplus that could have gone into creating a better America for all Americans.” []
[] “…it wasn’t about the truth anymore. & it wasn’t about benefiting society at large. At this point, it was solely about how you made it to home base, how rich folks got money for themselves.” []
[] “& it didn’t matter anymore if you just skipped all the bases, & you started at home & went to home...if you just took the money. I mean, after a while the Republicans could just do that;” []
[] “tax breaks for the wealthy just because they were wealthy. Because, after a while, after all those years of repeating it: They could get away with, ‘If you tax the wealthy, you’re taxing all Americans.’” []
[] “The wealthy were scrambling; they had so much money they were fighting over art objects. & the art objects—paintings & so on, famous paintings—were making headlines in being sold for so much.” []
[] “You simply cannot throw money at folks or ventures & expect to get as much, let alone more, return or reward later when the person is less ‘hungry’ or the project less ‘starved’ for funds.” []
[] “Whereas, you give a fraction of that money to a poor person, a tiny amount of that to a poor or moderate income person & what will they do? You have any idea how somebody who is poor will make a little bit of money go a long long way?” []
[] “They would really love to be millionaires; they would risk their very lives for that. They would work their asses off. But those folks aren’t the people who are already billionaires.” []
[] “…you’ve got these inanities thrown out there. They’re being said over & over again... ‘Rich people create the jobs; they’re society’s creative sector.’ These obvious untruths are not being countered by journalists & pundits.” []
[] “…we have this increasing deterioration of our prosperity, of our standard of living, of our joy of life. Life becomes more & more of a struggle, & who benefits?” []
[] “…our rights & our freedoms have changed. Because of their successes in the Culture War/ Class War, because of Reagan & Bush, the Patriot Act, the neo-con takeover, Trump, & everything,..”
[] “…our rights to speak out & to live without harassment have been diluted. Out of all the civilized countries in the world we have the greatest percentage of our people in jails.” []
[] “I can say I feel fortunate to have lived many years in an America quite different from what most people in the U.S. being younger than me have been growing up with.” []
[] “How did the wealthy Controllers, the Filthy Rich, manage to convince so many people that their problems, rich folks’ problems, are actually a burden on poorer folks?” []
[] “What accounts for [Filthy Rich folks] being able to convince people of such nonsense, such stupidity...it starts with making folks ripe for the picking.” []
“[People being ripe for such nonsense, such stupidity as the Filthy Rich put out] begins with people being herded like pigs for the slaughter. & that involves taking over their minds.” []
[*Quotes/highlights:*] “It’s just natural that if you don’t hear anything to counter something, you’re going to believe that the only thing being said is the truth.
“& that certainly has increased over time...through the years.” []
“[*Chapter 16 text begins:*] In the last sixty years, Americans have experienced unprecedented changes in their lives, their lifestyles, in what it means to be alive & human in America in these times.”
“Rarely have societies experienced this kind of change. What is even more astounding is the way the changes send us shooting dramatically in one way & then in the other direction.”
“[*Chapter 15 text begins:*] “The Rise & Fall of ‘Obvious Truths’” discusses the history of the American Republicans’ incredibly disciplined, relentlessly persistent, & amazingly cohesive, seemingly coordinated fifty-year campaign…”
“We delve more deeply into the Class War that has been behind the Culture War as laid out in Parts 1, 2, & 3. We see the 50-year invisible “family” revealed—the “community” that surrounded all Americans & affected every aspect of their lives..”
[*Quotes/highlights:*] “…what happened to our country? We were supposed to be a country that valued human life, for example, but is now valuing contract law over that.” []
“[*Chapter 13 text begins:*] With these factors in mind, what have we experienced in the last two decades, as the Sixties Generation finally got its turn at the wheel?”