And under the thumb of what regime have we been struggling for that length of time?

The poverty rate has been rising for three straight years - and is now at an 18-year high.  Median income is falling.

I think about the MEC at his soup-kitchen photo op on September 11 (that whole we-should-commemorate-that-horrific-act-of-war-by-engaging-in-service meme) and I'm reminded of some television drama I saw years ago.  It was set in England in, I think, the 1500s.  There was a scene depicting a family living the highway robber/ beggar life on the outskirts of London. The parents had purposely spilled acid on a daughter's arm to create a ghastly sore that they could show to passersby who might be sufficiently compelled by pity to shell out a few farthings.  She would outstretch her ruined limb and say "Keeps me awake at night, it does."  It seems to me that the MEC, who is orchestrating America's decline, undrtakes activities like the soup kitchen in the same spirit.  He is damaging our nation in order to gin up pity and motivate those who still have some money as well as a soft spot for those "who have not done so well in life's lottery" to pony up for his Alinskyite scheme.

It's as obscene as anything I've ever witnessed.