The so-called Reclaiming Freedom Super PAC recently came out
in favor of U.S. Senate hopeful, George Allen.[1]
Formed earlier in 2012, the PAC was put together by Republican “political
operatives” seeking to take over the U.S. Senate for the GOP.[2]
According to a release by Reclaiming Freedom[3],
Allen’s political record is touted and in particular his abolition of parole
and welfare reforms, his support of the Bush tax cuts, and his continued
support for a balanced budget amendment (a politically practical pipe dream but
an apparent political must for conservative politicians on the national stage).
At the moment, Allen’s latest Super PAC backer has no total
expenditure data available to identify who the donors for the PAC are[4]
and whether or not it will draw from some of the same donors as other
conservative PACs such as Crossroads GPS.
What’s clear from the name of the PAC is that it conceives
of its mission as “reclaiming freedom,” a freedom which has apparently been
lost under Democratic leadership. If this group and others like it mean the
freedom of the wealthy to do as they please (i.e. to make risky investments
that throw the U.S. economy onto the edge of financial collapse), then I would
like to think they’re absolutely right.
With a shrinking middle class and a growing number of
individuals in the economic extremes of prosperity and poverty[5],
the freedom that groups like Reclaiming Freedom have in mind may only
exasperate this income gap as prosperous groups and individuals use their
political and economic influence to accrue more of both at the expense of the
middle and lower classes of the U.S.
As the sociologist William Julius Wilson from Harvard
argued, “rising inequality is beginning to produce a two-tiered society in
America in which the more affluent citizens live lives fundamentally different
from the middle- and lower-income groups.”[6]
Clearly, the “affluent citizens” have found their champion
in former Virginia governor George Allen. So if you’re not part of that “1%”
and you cast your vote for George Allen, you’re voting against your own
political and economic interests.
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