Powerful are preying on working people

To anyone struggling to understand our nation’s hyperpartisan political climate, I suggest they follow HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” a series based on the books by George R.R. Martin. In these episodes we see kings struggling to keep their kingdoms, knights who fight for them and courtiers who defend their masters. Those in favor wear jeweled robes and golden crowns. Everyone changes their allegiances at will. While those “at the top” feed their own lusts for power and riches, those without power — shopkeepers and peasant farmers among them — dress in rags while they see their homes and crops burned, their animals killed, and their families and neighbors murdered by rival factions.

How does this relate to today’s political atmosphere? Huge corporations have nearly destroyed our economy. Hardworking Americans have seen the values of their homes plummet and their investments disappear. Our nation’s social safety nets, Social Security and Medicare, have been paid for through deductions from every working American’s paycheck. Some in power now want these programs to be sacrificed so that the top 2 percent will be able to keep their tax cuts, and corporations with record profits will not have to pay taxes. Many of those in power fight among themselves while those with no power suffer the consequences. The only place where every American has equal power is the ballot box. That remedy was not available to those who suffered in “The Game of Thrones.” We must fight to make sure that the ballot box is available to all Americans without restriction and the results are honestly assessed. The wealthy and powerful must not be allowed to further their own agendas while destroying those with less power. America shouldn’t become a “Game of Thrones” for the powerful while the rest of us starve in their wake.

Karen Wagner

Rolling Meadows