Of The Wealthy, By the Wealthy, For The Wealthy

Amid all the highfalutin language, the “all men are created equal” and “inalienable rights” verbiage, it’s difficult to keep sight of what the Founders actually were trying to achieve by creating a new nation.

When they said “all men” they really meant “MEN,” and not “all” by any stretch. There were a few idealists, no doubt, but mostly they were wealthy land owners or, like Ben Franklin, highly successful entrepreneurs. Only such men had the right to vote. Equality of ALL men? Never crossed their minds. At the time, most men were uneducated farmers and tradesmen, not considered capable of making the “right” choices. Likewise women, along with people of color and non-Christians, had essentially no power. Voting “rights” applied to rich White guys voting for what was good for rich White guys.

Our Bill of Rights did not differ greatly from English law that already applied to the citizens of the Colonies. We already had most of the same rights. What we didn’t have as colonies was the right to keep the profits of the rich on our own side of the ocean. No matter what we were taught in school, that is the main reason those guys fomented a revolution. As it had been since time immemorial, the rich wanted to get richer, keeping their dough rather than handing it over in taxes that flowed into the King’s coffers. That part of the story gets short shrift. It was camouflaged in a national mythology of a vision of a benevolent democratic state fostering the welfare of all.

After the revolution, the rich guys had it great. There was no income tax or corporate tax to speak of until the 20th century. Most taxes were on goods everyone purchased, rich and poor alike. The common folk would always pay taxes whether to the king or to the rich former colonists. Since they’d get little in return either way, really, how much did they care who they paid them to?

At that time no one conceived of a social safety net. People were mostly expected to build their own homes, grow their own food and make their own tools and clothing. There were specialists, skilled tradesmen of course, but largely, people could expect any help they required to come from neighbors and their churches. There was no organized health care nor was there public education, social security or any of the programs created very recently in our history for the benefit of the rabble. The rich guys certainly had no more a desire to have their money taken from them for the benefit of their fellow citizens than for the benefit of King George—and they still have none.

It’s unsurprising that it was a woman, the first female Cabinet member, Frances Perkins, who induced Franklin Roosevelt to push through social welfare programs as they exist today.

Conservatives, representing the interests of the moneyed class, have always tried to block and roll back such progressive social measures, and the Founders, no doubt would see them as the guardians of their original vision.

Today, they are victorious, and what’s to become of us, the rabble? They have already put the wheels in motion to discard and defund government agencies and programs that benefited the average person, ensured their voting rights and protected them from the health and safety risks engendered by industries free of oversight. Ironically, many of those who need these protections and benefits the most voted against their own interests. Too bad. Now it’s Devil take the hindmost. Trump and company are laughing all the way to the bank at the suckers who elected them.

And what of the ghosts of the Founding Fathers? I have little doubt they are smiling down on the MAGA takeover, and why not? It is dedicated to restoring and sustaining the unequal state of affairs those all too human men whom we have been taught to revere had envisioned all along.