Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

A groundbreaking work that identifies the real culprit behind one of the great economic crimes of our time— the growing inequality of incomes between the vast majority of Americans and the richest of the rich. We all know that the very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades while most Americans haven’t. In fact, the exorbitantly paid have continued to thrive during the current economic crisis, even as the rest of Americans have continued to fall behind. Why do the “haveit- alls” have so much more? And how have they managed to restructure the economy to reap the lion’s share of the gains and shift the costs of their new economic playground downward, tearing new holes in the safety net and saddling all of us with increased debt and risk? Lots of so-called experts claim to have solved this great mystery, but no one has really gotten to the bottom of it—until now. In their lively and provocative Winner-Take-All Politics, renowned political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate convincingly that the usual suspects—foreign trade and financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, increased education at the top—are largely innocent of the charges against them. Instead, they indict an unlikely suspect and take us on an entertaining tour of the mountain of evidence against the culprit. The guilty party is American politics. Runaway inequality and the present economic crisis reflect what government has done to aid the rich and what it has not done to safeguard the interests of the middle class. The winner-take-all economy is primarily a result of winner-take-all politics. In an innovative historical departure, Hacker and Pierson trace the rise of the winner-take-all economy back to the late 1970s when, under a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress, a major transformation of American politics occurred. With big business and conservative ideologues organizing themselves to undo the regulations and progressive tax policies that had helped ensure a fair distribution of economic rewards, deregulation got under way, taxes were cut for the wealthiest, and business decisively defeated labor in Washington. And this transformation continued under Reagan and the Bushes as well as under Clinton, with both parties catering to the interests of those at the very top. Hacker and Pierson’s gripping narration of the epic battles waged during President Obama’s first two years in office reveals an unpleasant but catalyzing truth: winner-take-all politics, while under challenge, is still very much with us. Winner-Take-All Politics—part revelatory history, part political analysis, part intellectual journey— shows how a political system that traditionally has been responsive to the interests of the middle class has been hijacked by the superrich. In doing so, it not only changes how we think about American politics, but also points the way to rebuilding a democracy that serves the interests of the many rather than just those of the wealthy few.

FRACKVILLE – The cause for the canonization of Father Walter J. Ciszek is now being helped by a historical commission headed by a local pastor

The Rev. J. Michael Beers, Ph.D., SSL, has been involved in efforts for Ciszek’s canonization since the early 1990s, when the cause was transferred from the Ruthenian Byzantine Diocese of Passaic to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown. At the time, Beers was appointed by then-Bishop Thomas J. Welsh to be one of the theologians who reviewed the materials to be submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. The congregation oversees the process of reviewing candidates for sainthood through their writings and the testimonies of people who knew the candidate. The process determines if the candidate lived a life of “heroic virtue” that can be emulated by Catholics.

Currently, Ciszek has the title “Servant of God,” since his life and works are being investigated by the congregation in the process that could lead to – but is not guaranteed – his being named “Venerable,” then “Blessed,” and then “Saint.”

Born in Shenandoah, Nov. 4, 1904, Walter Joseph Ciszek entered the seminary and became the first American Byzantine Rite Jesuit priest in order to do missionary work in the Soviet Union. Shortly after entering the Soviet Union from Poland under an assumed name in 1940, he was arrested and accused of being a spy.

After spending five years in the infamous Lubianka Gulag in Moscow, he was sent to Siberia for hard labor. Throughout the ordeal, however, he continued to celebrate Mass and hear confessions at considerable personal risk. Overall, he spent 23 years in the Soviet Union.

When he was finally released in 1963 in a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Soviet Union, he returned to his native parish, St. Casimir in Shenandoah, to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving. Ciszek spent the last 21 years of his life working with families and religious communities through counseling and retreat work.

He died Dec. 8, 1984, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and is buried at the Jesuit Novitiate in Wernersville.

“When Bishop Welsh started the commission to study the case of Father Ciszek for possible beatification and canonization, he asked Monsignor Jim Mulligan and me to serve as theologians for the cause,” Beers said. “I was teaching at Mount St. Mary Seminary (in Maryland) at the time. I had to read all of (Ciszek’s) works in English and German. I don’t read Russian, so those works were left to another person.”

About eight years ago, the materials by and about Ciszek were sent to Rome for study. After being appointed pastor of St. Joseph Church in Frackville in 2008, Beers began visiting the Father Walter J. Ciszek Center in Shenandoah, which is operated by the Father Walter Ciszek Prayer League. The league was formed to promote the cause for Ciszek’s canonization at the local level.

Beers began his new role with the cause after a visit to Rome by the Most Rev. John O. Barres, who became bishop of the Allentown Diocese in July 2009.

“When Bishop Barres went to Rome for one of his early visits, he had met with several people at the Jesuit Generalate and they were saying that the cause had met with a bit of a snag,” Beers said. “Most of the materials that we had put together on Father Ciszek came from Father Ciszek, from his books and writings. They really felt that they needed something more in the way of getting more testimony from outsiders who knew him.”

The search for people who knew Ciszek can range from locally to around the world.

“In the area, we have people like Wally Baran, who had known Father and who has helped gather the material from those who had known Father as a boy through adulthood,” Beers said. “That’s where we are right now.”

In order to get the work done, Barres formed the Historical Commission for the Cause of the Servant of God, Father Walter Ciszek, S.J., in November 2010.

“There are three of us on the commission,” Beers said. “One of the other two members of the commission is a Dutch Jesuit, the Rev. Marc Lindeijer, S.J., who is at the Jesuit Generalate in Rome. He’ll be representing a lot of our efforts with Rome. The third member of the commission is a Russian priest whose father was in one of the camps with Father Ciszek. It’s fascinating. His name is Father Victor Bilotas.”

Bilotas is from the Diocese of Novosibirsk, but is serving in Rome and working closely with Lindeijer. Beers keeps in touch regularly to discuss the progress.

“It’s the three of us who are trying to assemble the material that will supplement what had been done already – and done very well – but incomplete with regard to the testimony we need,” Beers said.

In addition to his commission work, Beers takes on the pastorate of St. Ann and Annunciation BVM churches in Frackville. He is making adjustments to work with his new parishes, particularly in the pastoral duties with Mass and other schedules. He will continue to live at the St. Joseph Church rectory and the office at Annunciation parish will also remain open.