A CENTURY OF PROGRESS?

The banksters and the billionaires and the colossal multinationals who have been miraculously turned into "persons" by the Supremes, are sure upset about some of things being said about them and their inhaling of the nation's middle class wealth:

"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short or an easy task, but it can be done."

"The right to regulate the use of wealth in the public interest is universally admitted."

"Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of ensuring the safety and continuance of the nation."

"The Constitution guarantees the protection to property and must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation."

Though you may think those statements were from President Obama's "make or break moment for the middle class" speech at Osawatomie, KS on December 6th, they actually belong to Republican Teddy Roosevelt one hundred years earlier at the same Osawatomie, KS venue. That's why there will be no mention of TR as a great Republican forebear at the 2012 GOP convention. Should he be able to step down from his perch on Mt. Rushmore and try to gain entry at Tampa August 27, he'd be branded a wild eyed American hating socialist and tossed out faster than you could say "I feel fit as a Bull Moose".

Originally published in the Aurora Beacon News, December 27, 2011