Margie Robben

My first experience with the United States Oligarchy of America was February 7, 1992. It was the first day of a week-long American Toy Fair in New York City and the costumed toy characters arrived and were joyously singing and dancing in front of 200 Fifth Avenue.

As toy buyers from all over the world arrived by taxis, they made their way through the performing characters. They also had to go through a group of protesters holding signs and chanting: “Boycott toys made in China” and “Wal-Mart’s way is not the American way”. The protesters were agitated by a letter sent out the previous November from David Glass, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Wal-Mart notifying the toy industry that independent sales representatives would no longer be welcome to call on Wal-Mart if they represented more than one manufacturer.

During that time I was working on the annual publication of The Toy Center Directory, a list of the companies participating in the New York City Toy Fair. I came from a family of independent sales representatives since the 1940s and the Wal-Mart message was a big concern to us. We represented more than three manufacturers of toys. Selling toys was how our family survived.

In 1954 our family was responsible for calling on 700 individual toy retailers; 50 of them were large retailers.  We represented and sold for manufacturing factories in Ohio, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. There were many manufacturers making Toys in America and independent sales representatives were the experts spending time criss-crossing the United States, and getting toys to the entire country.

Since then, only a few independent sales representatives have survived. Today they sell mainly to three major retailers: Toys R Us, Target, and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is seen as being responsible for shutting down thousands of stores of all sizes, from Mom and Pop ones including Caldors, Zayre, Hills, Bradlees, etc. Most independent sales representatives are gone. Most American-made toy manufacturers are gone. Most toy industry jobs are gone. Toys are presently imported from other countries, they lack creativity, are cheaply made, break easily, boxed seductively, and may contain harmful materials.

Wal-Mart succeeded in convincing Americans they were doing something good and positive for them.  In the beginning they promoted their products as being USA-made and low prices every day.  Those ideas didn’t last long. The Wall Street Journal of February 22, 2011 says Wal-Mart is going through troubling times. Target is eating into Wal-Mart’s sales. Target says they give customers low prices every day while Wal-Mart gives low prices on things they advertise while shifting to higher prices on other products.

Wal-Mart is presently in a major struggle to open a retail store in New York City. The people of New York say they don’t want a Wal-Mart in the City. The New York people saw the destruction of retail businesses across the country when Wal-Mart moved in and they want to preserve the culture of their City as it is.

The ancient Greeks described Oligarchy as “a form of power structure in which the power effectively rests with a small number of people”. Further, they say that some oligarchies are “tyrannical and rely on public servitude to exist” We can certainly use this description of oligarchy for how Wal-Mart successfully managed to destroy independent sales representatives, independent toy manufacturers, shut down factories, and destroy jobs.

Oligarchy in American politics is big too. The State of Wisconsin is involved in a bitter battle with their Governor and their State Congress who they recently elected. It appears the Wisconsin government, who has a Republican majority have enough votes to cancel the collective bargaining rights of all Public State workers. The workers are furious.

Collective bargaining to Wisconsin public workers is a source of  personal dignity, respect and pride. The workers use the unions to represent them in negotiations so that they will be able to sustain themselves and their families. Many years ago they fought long and hard for the right of collective bargaining.  The union workers will not allow their newly elected government to take these rights away.

The union workers of Wisconsin do not believe the reasons the Governor uses for eliminating their right of collective bargaining. They do not believe it has anything to do with the Wisconsin debt. What they do believe is that the Governor is paying back big contributors for their financial help in getting him elected. “We elected you Governor, now destroy the Unions.”

The giant corporate billionaires, Koch brothers, gave millions of dollars to the Wisconsin Governor’s campaign. Now it’s payback time. 

Both corporations and unions contribute money to our 2-party system. Corporations contribute mainly to Republicans and unions contribute mainly to Democrats.  If corporations, like the Koch boys could knock off the unions and prevent money from the unions going into the Presidential campaign, then President Obama and other Democrats would be more vulnerable in 2012.

In order for an evil Oligarchy system to work you need rich, deceptive, and tyrannical people on the top rung and the uninformed or misinformed people on the bottom rung. Once people get educated and begin to understand what is happening, they stand up and rebel.

Today the people are listening carefully to what has happened to the middle class and understanding how the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer and they are beginning to protest and rebel around the World. New York City is rebelling against Wal-Mart! Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio are rebelling against their Governors and State Congress! Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya are rebelling against their leaders. People have awakened like sleeping giants.

It is becoming clear that when wealthy and powerful people who are at the top, want more and more, and they take advantage of their status and disrespect the people who work for them; if you remove previous privileges from the people you have been elected to govern; if you disregard the middle class and less powerful, if you lie to these people and if you think you know what is best for those you govern despite their protests, you will eventually lose.

Last year on August 13, 2009 I wrote a political essay suggesting that the violent anti-government; anti-Obama mob movement had a three tier structure.  The top were the “rich and powerful” the middle, the “communicators”, and the bottom, the “action heroes”.  Holding fast to the imagery of my theory, I am reporting a SUDDEN CHANGE in the mob’s tactics.  From a fear-hateful and lying rhetoric, there is a switch to words of honor, morality, and love, espousing the values and sentiments of our great leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus.

The “communicators”, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, who are on the Rupert Murdoch political Fox TV enterprises payroll, stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. yesterday, with prayers, speeches and religious music, showing reasonableness, love, compassion, and faith in the words and deeds of holy men. How can anyone fault that? But……. is the sudden change of heart a change of mob sinners repenting or is it the calculated politics of polling, knowing evil will not succeed in getting votes in November?

Holy is good. Holy is very good. But when Beck and Palin turn from fear mongering and lying rhetoric to “holy”, one is suspect. After saying Obama is a Muslim, he is an illegal President, not born in America; that his health care program sets up “death panels”, Obama is a racist, he hates white Americans, “don’t retreat, reload”, I am not convinced of a change to holiness.

Are the polls showing the American people don’t want a politics of violence, negativity and “just saying no” to everything?  Has the mob decided to change their message from one of evil to one of holy? I dare say “yes”. I dare say “dangerous”. I dare say “manipulation”. Manipulation of “holy” may get the mob in big trouble.

A new addition to my theory comes from the good work of historian Kim Phillips-Fein who discovered the identity of the tycoons who are funneling money into the mob’s pockets to pay for the communicating and the resulting demonstrating by the action heroes in the streets.

Another addition is Jane Mayer of The New Yorker who published an article last week pointing to the unknown side of the Koch Brothers. The philanthropists and boys of culture were discovered to be the founders of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation who have closely worked from the beginning of the Tea Party.  One of the Foundations award-winning bloggers called President Obama the “cokehead in chief.” These guys give money to cancer foundations while at the same time they lobby Congress to keep cancer causing substances in the environment so that they can make more money.

Frank Rich of The New York Times also got on board today with more discovery (8/29/10) in pointing out that Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, a promoter of events at Tea Party rallies received $12 million from Koch family foundations. The list goes on and on.

The producers of the Tea Party Lincoln Memorial event of yesterday said Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin wanted to “reclaim the civil rights movement” yet Glenn Beck said it was a coincidence that he chose August 28, 2010 to stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial – the very same day Mr. King stood on to make his famous “dream” speech. Did civil rights also have to be reclaimed?

I believe America never lost its HONOR and America never lost its civil rights.  Why regain these things when you never lost them in the first place? It’s like searching for your lost baby when you were holding him in your arms all the time you were looking.

I believe individual people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin may lose their honor or believe they are losing their civil rights. Maybe yesterday’s display was very personal for them. Glenn Beck looked teary about four times during his speech. But it was when Mr. Beck talked about the necessity of “tithing” and how happy he was that so many people contributed money to HIS day that he reminded me a little of the fraudulent, self-promoting recipient of great wealth through tithing, Reverend Jimmy Swaggart when he made his notorious, cry- baby TV speech before he was defrocked by the Assembly of God and sent to jail. But let’s not go there.

Let’s hope there will be a true change of heart and not a change in strategy in the mob’s rich and powerful, communicators, and action heroes. It will not be good for America if the change is just another attempt to manipulate America’s emotions to get their vote in November.

(written August 29, 2010)