As the pandemic ravishes America and the world, workers struggle to provide food, shelter, and clothing for their loved ones. Workers are forced to labor under unsafe conditions in manufacturing and other “essential” jobs. They are dying due to a virus that does not care whether they are essential workers or not. Meanwhile, the 1 percent live comfortably in their mansions with access to the best food and medical attention that money can buy.
Today, the average annual income of a 1percenter is $1.7 million. About 1.4 million people in America are part of this category. The 1percent earns about 20 percent of the country’s total income yearly. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of Americans think income inequality has gone too far.
As Joe Biden takes over the presidency, we must not forget how the Trump era was used by the 1 percent to advance its agenda to further expand fascist ideas and ensure control of America and its wealth. An alliance unseen before was forged between the 1 percent, and the fascist “Nazis” represented by Trump and other like-minded politicians.
Trump launched the fascist mob into public view as the hope that can save America. When the fascists committed acts of violence, Trump called them “very fine people.” This evil alliance is now part of America and a force to contend with in our battle for democracy.
For four years, Trump provided cover to the fascists in the police, military, and those in positions of power resulted in open violence against those considered inferior or different. The military attacked those marching for civil liberties. And these forces were used to police black and brown citizens and those marching to stop the killing.
As the electronic revolution continues, automation and other so-called innovative processes will continue to eliminate jobs, leaving people without alternative means to earn a living and without hope. In America, we elect our public servants to represent us and they rule us by our consent. As living standards diminish, the American people will elect public servants to office with the aim of ending of inequality and ensuring their survival.
As we make our demands, the 1 percent will aggressively respond to protect its wealth. It will attack our democracy and try to use violence, voter suppression and scare tactics against the American people.
The events of January 6 serve as the perfect example of this aggressive and violent behavior of this alliance between the 1 percent and the fascists in this country. But “we the people” will continue marching in the streets for food, shelter, free health care, education, immigration reform, the end of police brutality and for the protection of the environment until we have the America that can be.
