It took Democrats and other progressives more than a century to create a strong, stable middle class in this country through labor unions, progressive taxation, tough regulation of business, a commitment to civil rights, legal rights, and human rights, and a comprehensive safety net.

It has taken Republicans less than half a century to destroy all those things, doubling down in recent years, using their massive dark money power to destroy public unions and labor rights, shred regulations, eliminate the progressive tax code in favor of an endless cornucopia of goodies for the super-rich as they transfer public money into private pockets, and now, finally---the little creep Paul Ryan's most cherished dream----a frontal assault on the safety net, including Social Security and Medicare.

Republican voters need to understand what they're voting for--that "Golden Past" when America was "great." There was no significant middle class in America before the reforms of the early 20th century. There was just a handful of rich people, and a whole wretched, scared, powerless lot of poor folks working their tails off for lousy wages and begging for crumbs. There was a lot of starvation, bank failures, and wretched, miserable, unrelieved poverty.

That's where the dark money Republicans plan to take us again---and will take us, if Americans don't stand up and fight back.