NOVEMBER 25, 2008 --

For quite some time, LPR has been trying to call attention to the predatory free enterprise that is tearing the middle class to shreds. LPR recalls being told about half a year ago, that the middle class is actually doing well. The source was not a businessman.

Looking in the archives at past LPR pieces, one story popped up – about trouble at Fannie Mae. LPR was commenting on a report that Fannie Mae was $9 billion in debt, but that its head, Franklin Raines, was raking in well over $100,000 a month. This goes back two years.

Has anyone asked why Congress and the media did not focus on the Fannie Mae story when its debt was merely $9 billion?

Corporate executives are finally getting some criticism for self-service practices that give them great benefits at the expense of the shareholders, workers, and consumers.

(Now, will someone agree that Madison’s warning about people who seek the “sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of the few” remains relevant, more than two centuries after Madison put this observation in Federalist Paper No. 57?)

Was much attention given to Mr. Raines and his quite handsome wages? If so, LPR does not recall.

LPR was interested to hear Rush Limbaugh acknowledge that $4 gas has hurt our economy. Perhaps this is in error, but LPR thinks that until now Mr. Limbaugh chided people or complaining about high gas prices – until now. LPR kept mentioning high gas prices. It seems that only the reaction of motorists, using less fuel,, got the price down, somewhat.

Caveat Emptor: This image first appeared in LPR, March 2006. It shows the gas price at that time at a Mobil station in Connecticut. General reaction, then, probably regarded this price as too high., With gas prices presently in the range of, or below, gas prices of 30 months ago, they are still too high.

But consider the impact of the gas spike. Might it not have had something to do with the travail in the auto industry, with reduced employment, indeed, with loss of confidence?

If the oil producers would raise gas prices sky-high without fear of response by Washington, doesn’t this indicate lack of respect for the U.S. government?

Dow Jones average on the day after the election. Stocks have continued in free fall. Borrowing from a limbo song: how low can they go?

And if our people sense this lack of respect, is that not a reason to lose confidence? And, don’t public opinion polls indicate that the popularity of Congress, is even lower than the popularity of the president?

Republicans seem to be running to meetings (in favorable winter climes) in search of the missing answer. (The question being, where did we go wrong?)

Turn on the radio and listen to the commercials. In the old days we heard commercials fon radio for soap, toothpaste, cereal, coffee, Ovaltine and so forth – that is to say, for a variety of basic household items.

A considerable number of today’s radio commercials offer individuals relief against “greedy” credit card companies. How did the credit card companies become so greedy?

How did they get the power to charge 30% interest rates as penalty, in addition to late fees and, perhaps, other charges?

Where were our state and federal officials when this happened? Who in Congress denounced 30% interest rates, daring to call them usurious?

LPR has no clear idea what Republicans are discussing at their various post-elections gatherings, meetings, conferences. Perhaps Gov.Sarah Palin was a subject of discussion. Perhaps ideas were exchanged on how to raise more money and “communicate” with the people. But what do Republicans have to say to the people?

LPR doubts that the credit card squeeze on consumers was discussed, let alone denounced, at the post-election Republican meetings. Behold the GOP: silent during the gas spike, silent as the credit card crunch continues – and Republicans wonder what they should do to persuade citizens to vote for them?

LPR is confident no Republican has read from the first half of Federalist 57 and told his colleagues that Madison provides all the counsel the GOP needs to be the party of the people. Republicans, following the path of the Democrats, believe, in LPR’s view, that money is the key to political success – and ways and means must be developed to increase fundraising, substantially.

In such case, why should citizens cast ballots for Republicans? The country already has a political party that, as the saying goes, knows the cost of everything, and the value of nothing.