The election of Donald Trump and Republican behavior during Roy Moore's Senate race proved, beyond any doubt, that the Republican claim to be the party of morality is utterly empty.
The passage of the Republican tax heist and the attendant spectacle of Republican lawmakers' teabagging the *President's balls have shown that the concept of public service has left the Republican Party completely. What the Republican Party is about today is simply the gaining and retention of power.
Friday, December 22, 2017
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Are any of the Trump voters awake out there?
Some Trump voters are still sticking their fingers in their ears and saying, "La la la la, I can't hear you!" when confronted with the miseries his administration has caused in his first year. They still claim that Trump has "fulfilled all of his campaign promises," but I'll bet that some of you have started to suspect that you have been screwed. It's dawned on you that Trump made many promises to "the little guy," but that nothing has as yet materialized.
In his inauguration speech, Trump vowed,
Trump seemed to be on your side, but he apparently is not. How did he fool you?
He built upon a campaign of propaganda that the Republican Party has been pushing for a long, long time. He knew you felt cheated, and he played on your fears, placing blame where it didn't belong.
First, Trump and the Republicans have convinced you over the years that government is a machine that takes away your money and gives it to brown people. I know that you probably don't accept the label of racist, but you suspect that you have been cheated, and the Republicans have pointed to convenient scapegoats: immigrants and people of color. They have told you that your money has gone to give them disproportionate benefits. But if you think you've been cheated, I guarantee that your suffering has not benefited these groups. You don't have much? They don't have much. Your suffering is not their fault.
Who is taking your money then? Look at the Republican tax bill. It is written by rich people, for rich people. Republican legislators are so beholden to people like the Koch brothers that they have forsaken the very people in their own districts. Republican policies today are outright hostile to the people who voted for them.
Still believe in trickle-down economics? That giving more tax breaks to corporations and their owners will make them pay workers more, and hire more people? Even many of these captains of industry have admitted that they will just be putting that money away for themselves, and sharing some with their shareholders. The only thing that causes factory expansion and more hiring is more demand. If the little guy is not getting a job at a fair wage, he's got no money to buy things. Yet, the Republicans are fighting tooth and nail against a higher minimum wage. They are making you pay more for medical care, and then taking away your medical tax deductions on top of that!
Trickle-down economics should be renamed "evaporate-up."
Second, Republicans have preached that the free market is sacred, ordained by God, and should be touched by human hands as little as possible--that any regulations to it are detrimental. In reality, the market is a human invention, and humans make mistakes. Some humans are exceedingly greedy. Some humans have power and advantages you don't have. If you try to get them to treat you fairly, they have the power to crush you. Laws and regulations have got to be in place to protect you. Maybe you think that Democrats just like to regulate things for no reason. But there's always a reason. Somebody is getting hurt. Somebody is being cheated. Regulations are there to prevent or remedy these hurts.
Third, Republicans, in a very clever effort to distract attention from themselves, have invented the idea of "liberal elites." Now, let's consider just who are the true elites. The true elites are people with many times more money than you or I have. These are people who look at the little guy and see an employee or a servant. That's what you are to them. You're either working for them or waiting on them.
And who are these liberal elitists they talk about? The liberal elite is a class of people who are educated and who know what the Republican game is, and have the conscience to try to do something about it. They are people who understand how government and the economy work, and who really do try to look out for you. For us.
In his inauguration speech, Trump vowed,
[T]oday we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.Then he proceeded to staff his cabinet with Wall Street fat cats. And now, the Republican House of Representatives and Senate are forcing through a tax bill that redistributes wealth upward, from the little guy to the already super wealthy.
Trump seemed to be on your side, but he apparently is not. How did he fool you?
He built upon a campaign of propaganda that the Republican Party has been pushing for a long, long time. He knew you felt cheated, and he played on your fears, placing blame where it didn't belong.
First, Trump and the Republicans have convinced you over the years that government is a machine that takes away your money and gives it to brown people. I know that you probably don't accept the label of racist, but you suspect that you have been cheated, and the Republicans have pointed to convenient scapegoats: immigrants and people of color. They have told you that your money has gone to give them disproportionate benefits. But if you think you've been cheated, I guarantee that your suffering has not benefited these groups. You don't have much? They don't have much. Your suffering is not their fault.
Who is taking your money then? Look at the Republican tax bill. It is written by rich people, for rich people. Republican legislators are so beholden to people like the Koch brothers that they have forsaken the very people in their own districts. Republican policies today are outright hostile to the people who voted for them.
Still believe in trickle-down economics? That giving more tax breaks to corporations and their owners will make them pay workers more, and hire more people? Even many of these captains of industry have admitted that they will just be putting that money away for themselves, and sharing some with their shareholders. The only thing that causes factory expansion and more hiring is more demand. If the little guy is not getting a job at a fair wage, he's got no money to buy things. Yet, the Republicans are fighting tooth and nail against a higher minimum wage. They are making you pay more for medical care, and then taking away your medical tax deductions on top of that!
Trickle-down economics should be renamed "evaporate-up."
Second, Republicans have preached that the free market is sacred, ordained by God, and should be touched by human hands as little as possible--that any regulations to it are detrimental. In reality, the market is a human invention, and humans make mistakes. Some humans are exceedingly greedy. Some humans have power and advantages you don't have. If you try to get them to treat you fairly, they have the power to crush you. Laws and regulations have got to be in place to protect you. Maybe you think that Democrats just like to regulate things for no reason. But there's always a reason. Somebody is getting hurt. Somebody is being cheated. Regulations are there to prevent or remedy these hurts.
Third, Republicans, in a very clever effort to distract attention from themselves, have invented the idea of "liberal elites." Now, let's consider just who are the true elites. The true elites are people with many times more money than you or I have. These are people who look at the little guy and see an employee or a servant. That's what you are to them. You're either working for them or waiting on them.
And who are these liberal elitists they talk about? The liberal elite is a class of people who are educated and who know what the Republican game is, and have the conscience to try to do something about it. They are people who understand how government and the economy work, and who really do try to look out for you. For us.
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Sex and (political) parties
Sex is a tricky thing. The possibility of having sex may cloud the mind and cause people to make bad decisions.
Rich and powerful men who want lots of women have plenty of opportunities, since money and power are attractive to some women. One would think that would be plenty for these men, but some of them are power abusers who use that power to extort women to have sex with them.
When Harvey Weinstein was finally brought down for such behavior, the floodgates were open, and many powerful men now have reason to be afraid of revelations of their misdeeds.
How the accused men handle these revelations varies. Politics has long been a major venue for sexual harassment, and several politicians have lately been found out. How they and their supporters react says a lot about them.
Congressman John Conyers and Senator Al Franken, Democrats, have both chosen to resign, and, although many Franken supporters have asserted that he should not resign, for the most part reactions among Democrats have been honorable.
Deposed judge Roy Moore of Alabama is a candidate for the United States Senate. He has several accusers who claim that he pursued them for relationships when they were juveniles, one of them when she was fourteen. Moore's proclivities apparently were known in his town and got him banned from a shopping mall he cruised.
Of course, the elephant in the sexual abuse room is our own *President, Donald J. Trump. Little needs to be said; he brags, and everybody knows.
In those last two cases, the named politicians are Republicans. Are fellow Republicans ashamed of them? Perhaps, but not enough to call for them to leave public office. Roy Moore's Alabama colleagues value the power of his potential Senate vote over the morality they promote incessantly; they would actually prefer to send a pedophile to Washington, rather than a Democrat. The party of family values talks the talk, but chooses political expediency over making the right moral choices time and again.
And then there is the ultimate hypocrite, Senator Mitch McConnell, who calls on Al Franken to resign, while protecting Roy Moore.
The Democratic sense of fair play may seem a poor strategy in the face of the Republican party's amoral version of hardball. Our politicians misbehave, then resign. Their politicians misbehave, then carry on to win elections.
I hope that the Democratic sense of right and wrong (which the Republican Party can no longer plausibly claim to possess) proves to be good for the party in the long run.
Rich and powerful men who want lots of women have plenty of opportunities, since money and power are attractive to some women. One would think that would be plenty for these men, but some of them are power abusers who use that power to extort women to have sex with them.
When Harvey Weinstein was finally brought down for such behavior, the floodgates were open, and many powerful men now have reason to be afraid of revelations of their misdeeds.
How the accused men handle these revelations varies. Politics has long been a major venue for sexual harassment, and several politicians have lately been found out. How they and their supporters react says a lot about them.
Congressman John Conyers and Senator Al Franken, Democrats, have both chosen to resign, and, although many Franken supporters have asserted that he should not resign, for the most part reactions among Democrats have been honorable.
Deposed judge Roy Moore of Alabama is a candidate for the United States Senate. He has several accusers who claim that he pursued them for relationships when they were juveniles, one of them when she was fourteen. Moore's proclivities apparently were known in his town and got him banned from a shopping mall he cruised.
Of course, the elephant in the sexual abuse room is our own *President, Donald J. Trump. Little needs to be said; he brags, and everybody knows.
In those last two cases, the named politicians are Republicans. Are fellow Republicans ashamed of them? Perhaps, but not enough to call for them to leave public office. Roy Moore's Alabama colleagues value the power of his potential Senate vote over the morality they promote incessantly; they would actually prefer to send a pedophile to Washington, rather than a Democrat. The party of family values talks the talk, but chooses political expediency over making the right moral choices time and again.
And then there is the ultimate hypocrite, Senator Mitch McConnell, who calls on Al Franken to resign, while protecting Roy Moore.
The Democratic sense of fair play may seem a poor strategy in the face of the Republican party's amoral version of hardball. Our politicians misbehave, then resign. Their politicians misbehave, then carry on to win elections.
I hope that the Democratic sense of right and wrong (which the Republican Party can no longer plausibly claim to possess) proves to be good for the party in the long run.
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