Republicans keep people Down For ProfitWhy Poverty Persists in America by Matthew Desmond...as the incomes of middle- and working-class people flatlined, Republicans pooh-poohed rising economic inequality and insecurity , economic insecurity does correlate with greater religiosity, and for white Americans, greater religiosity does correlate with voting Republican. For Republican politicians and their rich-getting-richer donors, that’s a virtuous circle, not a vicious one. Fantasyland, How America Went Haywire, Kurt Anderson. ...the fundamental truth about the right is that it has always wanted one and only one thing: to keep down those who are already down. This is what unites Edmund Burke and Sarah Palin. (From a review by Mark Lilla of the Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin by Corey Robin. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history... There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things, Among them are H.L.Hunt ..., a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid. Dwight Eisenhower I’ve just recently come to the realization that Republicans keep people down for profit. Here’s why I think so.Republicans (Rs) never liked the New Deal. If they are not allowed to sunset Social Security and Medicare are threatening government default on the debt. Not only would that crash the economy, but would be a bonanza for banks and other financial interests, because there would be a shower of taxpayer money for bail outs. That’s very profitable, happens when R’s are in office. markets would be chaotic. It would be a disaster but R’s are quite ready to do it. Rs have become even more racist in their messaging, which demonizes people of color and other minorities, especially immigrants, so that they remain in working poor jobs and neighborhoods, vigorously policed. Their propaganda makes targets of ‘welfare queens’ so that poverty programs are fair game for cuts. They chant ‘build the wall’. Real democracy requires inclusiveness. Privatization opens the economy to deregulated corporations to plunder the environment without restraint, roll up into monopolies without competition so prices can soar, buy off media and oversight, and spend lavishly on lobbying and election propaganda. Corporations moved jobs off shore stripping the US of factories and jobs. Private equity buys up healthy businesses, puts them in debt, downsizes, removes assets, bankrupts them. Capitalism needs regulation, especially for its largest entities that have little or no competition. This played out in US healthcare making it expensive, complicated, bureaucratic, profitable, with mediocre outcomes, covering only people who can pay, and bankrupting the sick. R’s vigorously oppose minimum wage and union organizing. Not surprisingly that removes a traditional funding source for Democrats. It also removes democracy from the workplace. Germany requires workers on corporate boards. It is possible that many corporations might have not moved off-shore if workers had a voice. What we got was a landscape of empty factories, and manufacturing that migrated to more favorable countries with lower wages, less environmental protection, lower taxes, and often more authoritarian. It is easier to bribe a dictator.
R’s most effective strategy, though, was tax cuts which removed progressivity and mostly benefited their wealthy donors. It also starves the beast so that it will not provide solid social programs. Lawrence Lessig commented politicians “always lean to the green, but they are not environmentalists.” There’s not much news coverage of politicians who quickly become wealthy while in office. That’s corruption. Rs removed progressivity from the tax code, a proven way to keep down wealth disparities. After WWII the highest marginal tax was over 90%, the GI Bill proved a good investment. We had a thriving middle class. Built big things like the national highway network and the Marshall Plan. Trickle down, Voodoo economics was always a scam. Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winning economist, wrote a book: Arguing With Zombies, Economics, Politics, and the Fight For A Better Future, describes how and why Rs mishandle the economy. Republican States are poorer, more polluted, have stricter voting rights, looser gun laws, harsher abortion regulation, poorer healthcare, worse virus response, lower education levels, higher religiosity, shorter life expectancy, altogether worse right-wing government, poor social programs, less women's rights, less union rights, school indoctrination, restricted higher education, library, book bans, harsh policing, all are worse. By allowing voter suppression, gerrymandering, big dark money in elections, and corporate supremacy, the Supreme Court has been a co-conspirator with the GOP. R’s obstruct the possibility of civilized social programs compared to other developed countries. According to a UN report from 2014 surveying 185 countries and territories, only two did not guarantee any paid maternity leave; Papua New Guinea and the United States. The United States is also one of only a handful of countries that don”t guarantee their workers any paid time off for illness – others include Angola, India and Liberia. Rs policy brought us to extreme wealth inequality, which is not compatible with democracy. Nordic countries have free markets, strong unions, but also taxpayer funded healthcare, free higher education, and more. They think they get good value from their high taxes, they trust their government, and they are the happiest countries in the world. Because of the flawed US Constitution, government institutions do not represent the popular vote, which is how we get unpopular Presidents, a radical Supreme Court, a Senate that obstructs every needed change, and elections that are for sale. Donald Trump, leader of the Rs, has a history of failed businesses, bankruptcies, grifting, lying, making bad decisions, and enriching himself, looked a lot like a mob boss running a protection racket, wanted NATO countries to pay more for their protection, wanted Ukraine to come up with dirt on his political opponent for arms assistance (benefited Putin who he admired a lot.) As President, he couldn’t be indicted, could pardon his cronies, stack the Courts and DOJ with loyalists, …, He admires authoritarians like Putin and mused that he would like to be dictator for life. Evangelicals call him the ‘chosen one’. It is right wing tribalism: class, race, religion and nation, that assures forever war. All those heroic empire builders in history were the heads of authoritarian, right wing government. Victor Orban, Jair Bolsonaro, Narenda Modi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or Donald Trump all blame an ethnic minority as a threat and promise to stand up to them. Russia, right now invading Ukraine, is a prime example. So was Hitler's Germany. Don't let it happen in the U.S. Republicans don’t like government. They are self-serving, aka corrupt. Like other far-right government, they are dangerous, which is why they shouldn’t be in it. Most of our challenges are trans-national: climate, inflation, wealth inequality, pandemic, immigration, war. Rs don’t respond to them. R’s favor dictatorship, not democracy, have brought us to the brink of fascism. If they win another election, we’ll probably get there. They are armed and many are violent. If humanity does not reject right wing government, it will likely go extinct sooner than later. In time, unrestrained fossil fuel use will probably do us in. How is the Republican Party Like Jim Jones ?
(See also Fox News and Tea Parties.)Bibliography
Republicans Declare War on Themselves (12/31/2013)The
Republican Autopsy Report Revisited: 5 Ways The GOP Got Worse In 2013
(12/30/2013)
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