When the wealth of a few jeopardizes the security of the many...

The President is making his State of the union address tonight. We have been told to look forward to a speech dominated by issue of "income inequality".   A divisive issue - most certainly, but timely and long overdue as the centerpiece of  domestic policy.

In a recent column in the New York Times (The Inequality Problem)  David Brooks  indicated that targeting the obscene wealth of the top 1% might be a moot point since the wealth at the top, though massively higher than it was in the past, is not making the rest of the world poorer.  To that assumption, the most polite thing I can think to say is "horse hockey!"

Six years into the great recession and…"We are not OK…."

Income inequality, the wealth gap, call it what you will, the problem is very real and is literally shredding the fabric of the  middle and working classes.  Progressives have coined the phrase "income inequality" to describe this destructive force.

Without trying to parse words too much, I think "wealth inequality would be a more comprehensive  definition of what is actually happening.  Either way neither description has that sound-bite "pop" that would capture the essence of this national tragedy.   Neither can come close to "class warfare"  which the republicans and tea baggers had the audacity to latch onto. Admittedly it was a brilliant stroke of political spin. They brazenly managed to take ownership of "class warfare" while they were launching  full scale nuclear Armageddon on the middle and working classes.