BY SHARON MARTIN

Racism runs roughshod over this year’s primaries. Unrest, hate, and the absence of truth mark most candidacies. There’s a real chance of boots-on-the-ground war if certain candidates make it to the White House.

What might be causing all this fear and loathing? Might it be the economy that serves too few of our citizens?

I’m an old woman and I’ve learned a few things over the years. What I’m about to say to you I didn’t get from a blog or newspaper or television show, liberal or otherwise. These facts are the outcome of personal experience.

1. The stock market performs better during Democratic administrations.

2. Artists, sign painters, and other bellwethers of the wellbeing of the middle class make more money during Democratic administrations.

3. When the stock market tanks, those with billions hang on and wait for the rebound. But they aren’t just waiting; they are buying the cheap stocks that the not-so-wealthy and not-so-savvy investors dump in the down times.

4. The mortgage crisis hurt the middle class. The wealthy could buy up houses in the depressed market to resell for a profit; the poor and middle class lost their homes and what savings they had in their homes.

5. Those who sold or repackaged the subprime loans legally robbed homeowners and investors.

6. What’s good for the wealthy is seldom good for the middle class and the poor.

7. Too many poor and middle class neighbors vote for candidates who mean them no good.

8. When the policies of these no-goodniks threaten the economy of those who vote for them, they trot out the propaganda that shifts the blame to workers, immigrants, the other party, anyone but those responsible.

9. The people who don’t understand the way this rigged system works likely won’t be reading this.

10. Those who are hurt the most by the self-serving politicians will believe the candidates who offer the most outlandish solutions to their problems [like building a wall so white people can have those desirable migrant farmworker jobs].

11. Until we get big money out of politics, nothing will change.

12. Until Congress addresses Citizens United, nothing will change.

13. Until workers unionize and let big employers know that their wealth depends on them, nothing will change.

14. Until journalism is free of corporate restraints, nothing will change.

15. It’s time to demand change.

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer