227 Protecting the Aristocracy

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Citizens of a nation really only have three things to give, the same three things that, not coincidentally, they expect to get: help, laws, and defense. Defense is the one thing that everyone absolutely, positively has to have because humans are predators & we don't live in peace naturally. Rich people have the most to lose, of course, and there aren't very many of them so they depend on everyone else to protect them, but that should be our choice, not theirs. The Rich don't like it that way, being beholden to the rest of us, so they use their undue influence to dominate a political Party, the Republicans, to do their bidding by manipulating the concepts of courage, patriotism, and duty, to cajole everyone into protecting their privileged position, but without a comparable relative sacrifice. The general public really should be demanding more from The Rich.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">If your children's children are destined to only serve at the behest of the 0.01% then that is not democracy & freedom, that is tyranny. Why should your lineage defend & support their aristocracy? That's why when Conservatives demand that everyone risk their lives to protect the vast wealth of the tiny few, they are taking away one of the only things the rest of us have to barter with. Similarly, when The Many pool their resources to produce infrastructure, an economy & a society, the Aristocracy get all those benefits that they never could have completed themselves yet contribute only a relative pittance. We Americans were raised to reject an inherited aristocracy because, naturally, The Many become the servants of the few, which is the antithesis of liberty.</p>