Robt. Reich nails the disconnect between #OWS and government

Today former Labor Secretary Robert Reich nails the disconnect between the Occupy movement (#OWS) and lawmakers in our federal government. Reich points out:

The biggest question in America these days is how to revive the economy.

The biggest question among activists now occupying Wall Street and dozens of other cities is how to strike back against the nation's almost unprecedented concentration of income, wealth, and political power in the top 1 percent.

The two questions are related. With so much income and wealth concentrated at the top, the vast middle class no longer has the purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing. (People could pretend otherwise as long as they could treat their homes as ATMs, but those days are now gone.) The result is prolonged stagnation and high unemployment as far as the eye can see.

Until we reverse the trend toward inequality, the economy can't be revived.

The GOP is hopelessly lost in a quagmire of economic ideas that are old, proven ineffective (how many more times do we have to cut taxes for the wealthy to see that does not cause job creation?). These ideas are reasonable, but they have been proven to not only fail, but are even counter-productive to building (or rebuilding) a strong middle-class. 

Until we can end the nonsense of theories like "Trickle Down Economics" wherein all tax breaks go to the top wage earners and corporations, and back to more sensible economic policies and theories, a more progressive tax code with less (or no) loopholes, we will continue to see rising anger in the disenfranched, unemployed, and highly educated youth of our nation. 

How bad does it have to get before GOP leading thinkers notice and change course - becoming more progressive not more conservative? Because changing the course of GOP doctrine and dogma is the only choice - our nations large middle-class (the 99%) will no longer sit idly by and let these misguided lawmakers hammer the middle-class, pamper the elite,  and destroy the American dream. 

Will it take riots in the streets, and physical violence. Let's hope not, but know this - change must occur within the GOP or the current peaceful protests might get much less peaceful over time. That is something no one wants - and it's not necessary. But change is not optional for the GOP.