There's no valid excuse for what happened yesterday. But I want to give a word of context. Why are some people so ready to fall for the crazy? America has for a long time been about money. You either have it or you want it. Benefits are looked down on.

This is, unfortunately, becoming true in Britain as well. You're a bad person, lazy, taking advantage of working people if you receive benefits. You're a cheater, obviously. No one could need and deserve any help. Yeah, if you've ever needed help, you know how false that is.

There are people in America who grew up poor and never took benefits. In fact, for older generations, there were no benefits. They either made it or they didn't. On their own. So they expect this of everyone.

Part of the way America maintains its grasp on workng people is to tell them that if they work harder, they too can be rich. In spite of evidence to the contrary that says if you're poor at 20, you will always be poor. The possibility of being rich is held out as the reason why

America is "the greatest country on earth." Every time I tweet about free college tuition, I get heckled by people saying I have to work for my own fortune. The truth is that having a society divided by things like the ability to get a higher education is destroying democracy.

Being told you have to "work" to achieve your place in society, that you're not allowed to have help, when the minimum wage is (what is it now?) $7.25 an hour, minus tax of course, no matter how you do what you're told, you will never break free of poverty.

But how on earth do you keep people believing this myth? Well, you don't let them get an education, first of all. Second of all, you lie to them. The more they figure out the propaganda, the harder you lie. And part of those lies are that "the other guys" are "socialists."

And "socialist" means not, they want to make sure everyone has their basic needs met so they can live their best life and make their best contribution to society (which is what it means to me) but they want to stop you from becoming rich.They want to give your money to the poor.

It means "you will be poorer, because as we all know, these people are lazy so you will be supporting them." This lie perfuses the mindset of working class America, fomenting hatred and division. It disrupts any reasonable discussion of making working Americans' lives better.

We must confront the lack of jobs for people without qualifications. High school dropouts, and graduates will continue to struggle to find work that can lift them out of poverty. Race will continue to be a stumbling block and something to divide us until we face this truth.

There's so much more to say, but I'll leave you with: If we had true democracy, we would have an educated populace who could make informed decisions that would help the majority (who are working class) have better lives. Lotto dreams are nice, but they're just dreams.