That's the Republican line. The promoters of the worthless, the corrupt, and the downright evil, market indifference. "Both sides". That's how we got sixteen trillion in optional debt, sixteen million residents without citizenship, and the Iraq War. Remember when you pretended to care about war? That's how we got the tax rates for the rich cut in half, a tax system shifted to retail sales and hourly wages and residential property no matter how small, and tax exemptions targeted to corporate interests. Remember when you pretended to care about taxes? That's Thomas Piketty's description of the common workings of capitalist economics, minus the irrelevance of "taxes and corruption would increase", and "politicians". He was working from data, facts, stuff like that, so he focused on the main issues. I've got no idea whether that makes the slightest sense as a description of Chinese history other than Piketty's economic angle, but it is bizarre nonsense applied to the US. We see, yet again, the phenomenal ability of those who have swallowed the Republican rewrite of American history to forget, ignore, or believe, damn near anything. Seriously: anything. Past, present, or incoming future. Such as this central, overwhelming, dominant fact of American history: America did not start off with a free peasantry. America started off with slavery and indentured servitude. It was by the growth of power in "the center" overcoming "local politicians" that the peasantry of this country gained freedom.
We've always had a standing army; the Constitution calls out for the creation of a military. It wasn't until World War II that we had a _large_ standing military, though, and after our experience with WWII (where we were caught somewhat off-guard by our sudden entry into the war) we made the decision to have more resources ready to go. Our first such engagement was in 1798 when our navy fought France because we refused to pay them back for their support during the Revolutionary War. Taxes started under George Washington, who proposed an excise tax on whiskey to pay for the Revolution. There were poll taxes, inheritance taxes, tariffs and estate taxes from Washington's time through the 1900's. Income taxes started in 1861, then came and went a few times before they became permanent in 1913 to pay for World War 1. (None of the above should be construed as "therefore taxes and a big military are A-OK" - just that all the things you mention are in no way new problems/issues.)
And now it begins, the media is asking Trump surrogates why Pence and Trump have diametrically opposite positions on issues of major importance. The Trump campaign is getting called for some of Pence's lies last evening. That's a good thing. That's a very good thing. It's good to see the press finally do its job.
