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At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I believe we are today in a war for the American soul, and economic justice lies at the heart of the battle.

Further, I believe that wittingly or unwittingly the Republican Party is promoting economic injustice.

The three quotes below will explain why I say that.

Joseph Stigliz, a Noble Laureate in Economics, recently wrote: “It used to be thought that America’s greatest strength was not its military power, but an economic system that was the envy of the world. But why would others seek to emulate an economic model by which a large proportion — even a majority — of the population has seen their income stagnate while incomes at the top have soared? In the U.S., upward mobility is more myth than reality, whereas downward mobility and vulnerability is a widely shared experience.”

After spending a year traveling America, former NY Times columnist Bob Herbert told Bill Moyers in a recent interview: “[W]e’ve established a power structure in which the great corporations and the big banks have allied themselves with the national government and, in many cases, local government to pursue corporate interests and financial interests as opposed to those things that would be in the best interests of ordinary working people… Once you do that, you lose the dynamic that America is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be an egalitarian society, a society of rising standards of living, a society of a vast and thriving middle class. And we are getting farther and farther away from that ideal.”

And President Franklin Roosevelt told the nation in his first Inaugural Address in 1933: “The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.”

The Republican Party does not agree with any of these statements.

Instead, it believes economic inequality is the price America has to pay for capitalism.

It believes our economy should be controlled by a free market with no government regulations.

It believes corporations are persons who look out for the best interests of their workers and customers.

It believes the social and economic playing field is level for everyone and that all Americans have an equal chance to succeed financially and socially if they are willing to work hard enough.

It believes social programs for the working poor breed dependency and a sense of entitlement.

It believes Obamacare should be repealed and a broken healthcare system that was the primary cause of middle class bankruptcies should be restored.

And over the last several years Republicans have succeeded pretty well in controlling an economy that embodies these beliefs.

The result is that, by all reliable measures, there is now more economic inequality, more economic injustice, than we have had since the Great Depression.

In short, the Republican philosophy of government has succeeded in bringing us back to economic conditions that paved the way for the worst financial disaster our nation has ever experienced, and may yet again. It came very close six years ago.

All of this, all of this, on top of trying to rig elections.

These are not small matters, for the battle we are in will not only determine the course of our future, but whether justice will have a place in it.

I say again. Not all politicians are alike. And I would now add, neither are political parties, bad as all of them may be.