Banana Republicans

Stranded Wind's Banana Republicans at Daily Kos tells how he was raised by his parents, who had had a hard life through the Depression years, finished a hundred college credits at a very good engineering school, completed "a couple of network equipment vendor certifications," and did very well working independently -- until he got sick and lost everything.

If it weren't for the protections afforded average Americans by the efforts of unions and in particular the New Deal our country today would look worse than it did in the depths of the Great Depression in 1935, the year my mother was born.

Now he's struggling to survive in a very unequal world.

We all live here amongst the wreckage of our empire, gutted by a generation of fantasies fueled by Ayn Rand’s hatred of the working class and a decade of Bush’s unfunded adventures. I can’t see a doctor without paying out of pocket, I fantasize about being able to afford dental work, and hedge fund managers make as much in an hour as I’ll make in my entire life.