The problems Of America have been building for 40 years. This is not an accident. This increasingly horrific tragedy of America – past, present, maybe future, has been deliberately driven by false ideologies, authoritarianism, and cruel greed. The problems affecting ordinary Americans have been both created by the dominate governing group since 1980, and also swept under the rug with bogus excuses and condescending platitudes in one of the world’s greatest sales con jobs.
In her latest book, “No Is Not Enough,” award-winning investigative journalist Naomi Klein related the story of how the suffering people of Argentina resisted austerity plans and saved themselves from “years of economic bloodletting>” Tens of thousands of people filled Buenos Aires’ central square, Plaza de Mayo, “many banging pots and pans with spoons and forks…found its voice, and a single rebellious cry arose…”Que se vayan todos!” [“everyone must go”]” People stayed in the streets. People died in the streets. That is the message Americans must deliver in November – 20l8, 2020, 2022, 2024……-the perpetrators of your suffering and stress from 1980 forward: “everyone must go.” Make no mistake, the trial balloons for American austerity plans are already being tried out – the most visible is that “there will HAVE to be cuts in Social Security and Medicare.”
And just who are the perpetrators and enablers of 40 years of misrule? They are the current and past 1980-2018 politicians of the Republican Party.
How can we say this? Why can we say this? Consider the following words and actions. The challenge to those who doubt this is simple: find the relevant documentation, in context, unspun. Go to official, unspun, I.R.S., G.A.O., C.B.O. data. Review the trends and events over the last 40 years. Observe the patterns. Discover who has benefitted most from these 40 years. Discover who has been hurt. Compare the words and actions of the 1854-1960 Republican Party with the words and actions of the 1960-2018 Republican Party. These are not identical in any way. Compare the likes of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Eisenhower with Reagan, Bush II, and Trump. Then, please read accounts of l968-20l8 Republicans by Republicans who were there and saw it happen: John Dean, Nixon’s Watergate lawyer who wrote “Broken Government, How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches;” and Mike Lofgren, a 28 year top Republican Congressional aide, who wrote ‘The Party Is Over, How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.” Dean and Lofgren document, in excruciating detail, things being said here. They are not alone in doing so.
So…when you vote, Remember WHO……
1] Has been the dominate governing party during the rapidly escalating “income inequality” crisis running people out of the middle class. People can’t afford to have children, delay marriage, have trouble buying the home they want; have difficulty paying off their college debts. People making $100,000 – $150,000 are having trouble paying all their bills – especially rent/mortgage, child care, and health insurance. The party’s “answer” for these problems is tax cuts {for the rich}, “deregulation,” “privatization,” and “market-based” solutions – 40 years of same – How’s this working out for you?
2]Has denied global warming/climate change. Has obstructed policies that might have mitigated what is now occurring, and what WILL occur. Has sentenced your children and grandchildren to what all, increasingly horrifying, science-based information shows could literally be “hell on earth.” Plants, trees, animals are changing – so are the oceans. Damage to the oceans alone could be the end. Diseases once confined to the tropics could soon impact America. Refugees are being driven by global warming.
3] The only forces that can save humanity from climate disaster are governments. BUT – WHO has spent the last 40 years destroying the ability of government to act positively? In their own, repeated, words, who has denigrated government and called ‘the problem?” Who has vowed to “drown government in a bathtub?” Who has deliberately appointed incompetent and ideologically hostile people to run key government agencies? Who has sought to “defund” government, so it couldn’t work?
4] Has deliberately run up the U.S. national debt? It was less than $1 trillion for all of American history in 1980, now over $21 trillion. Who cut taxes on the rich – which led directly to this crisis? Who ignored the C.B.O.’s January, 2001, assessment that if the new party in charge followed the ongoing Clinton plan, the U.S. national debt would be $0 in 2006??? Who has recklessly created new programs without paying for them? Who, in December, 2017, passed a further rich-corporate tax cut that everyone knew would add over $1 trillion to the national debt – then, incredibly, called this a “win????”
5] Has indicated it wants to use the national debt crisis as an excuse to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits? Who, in 2005, tried to “privatize” Social Security benefits [guess where Grandma would’ve been after his 2008 crash]? Which party, since 1935, has voiced opposition to Social Security? Who has said, because “we can’t afford it,” “entitlement reforms” [thus perverting the word ‘reform’ itself] must be made? All this while cynically insisting that their tax cuts for the obscene rich must be kept [the 1980-2018 version of Marie Antoinette’s “let them eat cake”].
6] Has done nothing positive about America’s #37 world “health care rating {there are only 22 “rich” nations]? Has changed from supporting Romneycare [itself a conservative idea from the Heritage Foundation!] upon which “Obamacare” was modeled? Has done nothing to help Americans from enduring medical bill bankruptcy? Has done nothing to restrain drug costs, like giving Medicare the right to negotiate drug prices [which the V.A. is allowed to do!]? Has fought attempts to allow Americans to buy cheaper drugs in Canada? Has done nothing to restrain skyrocketing medical costs of all kinds? And now, the cynical ploy of claiming they really care about your medical costs in the 2018 election? What bigger point of their contempt for you do you need?
7] Has politicized the Supreme Court and judiciary since 1968. John Dean – who was there, heard the conversations, watched it happen – wrote about this in his “Broken Government,” and also in his “The Rehnquist Choice.” No fact-based analyst, using the pattern of l969-2018 Supreme Court decisions, doubts that American law has been driven radically to the far right. What used to be ‘”fringe” ideas are steadily be used to twist the meaning of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. “Heller” overturned 5 Court decisions and a century of precedent; using one half of a sentence from the Bill of Rights to do so!!!!!! “Citizens United” is the “Dred Scott” decision of the 21st century, one that has unquestionably corrupted American politics and government. Judicial nominees for this party are vetted by extremist “conservative” groups, violating Article VI of the Constitution. If you had any doubt, the 2016-2018 Supreme Court unprecedented nomination mess should end it.
8] Has corrupted the First Amendment “speech” and “no established church” civil liberties? The Burger-Rehnquist-Roberts Supreme Courts have established a pattern of corrupting the First Amendment in decisions favoring select groups. They’ve said corporations are people, they’ve said corrupting elections with bribes is “free speech,” they’ve said that prejudice is protected by “religious rights,” they’ve created an alternative meaning for the word “no.”
9]Has driven up the cost of American government by “privatizing” it. People retire as government employees, return, doing the same job, as a “private contractor,” now making more, even double salary. Sensitive documents are privately composed. The President’s daily brief, the most sensitive document, is 70% privately composed. A professional Civil Service [what keeps government working] is being destroyed for ideological {and greed] reasons – and you pay for it!!!
10] Has tried to destroy the American public education system [one major piece in America’s rise to world power – educated workers and citizens]? Wants to replace public schools with church-run and private schools – and wants YOU to pay for this with your tax dollars? A former U.S. Education Secretary admitted the plan – he’d tried to sabotage the public schools. The current “Secretary” has no school experience; her “qualifications” are that she’s a very wealthy Party donor wanting to privatize American education. A major goal of one part of the Party’s voter base for over a century is obtaining YOUR tax dollars to subsidize its schools {one friendly Supreme Court ruling has already violated the First Amendment and 38 state laws].
11] Has tried to destroy any and all unions of any kind? World and American research shows weakening unions will automatically lower worker wages and benefits. Compare wages and benefits in anti-union “right to work” states with states supporting unions. The wage stagnation of 1973-2018 is directly tied to the loss of bargaining power of unions; in other words, ALL American workers lost out. Corporations have successfully destroyed unions by any means they could since the 1970’s. It is no accident that this Party’s governors have tried to do this when they got the power. Those of that are sports fans, check out the reasons why professional athletes became unionized {they obviously are overpaid now, but the boss-worker dynamics were greatly different before their unions formed].
The “WHO” to remember, the guilty party, for every point above is the current, post-1980 Republican Party. Continue to vote for these people, and things will not improve. Why? Because Republicans really don’t want to “govern” in the normal sense. Their announced goal, often repeated, is to destroy the ability of government to act against their favorite groups – the top 1% and multinational corporations [who fund them], and the fundamentalist churches and gun enthusiasts [who vote for them]. Un fortunately, this means destroying the ability of government to do much of anything. You have “gridlock” in Washington because that maintains what the favored groups have bought with “campaign contributions.” The “swamp” in Washington [and many state capitals] is the effect of “Dark Money” keeping the status quo [one former House Speaker passed out lobbyist checks on the House floor!!!! – others literally wrote legislation).
For those in doubt, don’t you find it at least somewhat strange that Republican “law and order” regimes have all engaged in criminal or highly questionable conduct? Nixon resigned before he was impeached. The Reagan Administration is #1 in criminal indictments {Iran-Contra scandal was an impeachable offense}. The Bush II regime, by international law, was guilty of war crimes – and so very much more. Before Trump took office, political ethicists warned of dangers. He is, and will be, investigated many times. In doubt about Mr. Trump? Read Pulitzer Prize-winning David Johnston”s “The Making of Donald Trump.” Pick a chapter, any chapter – Trump’s entire business career is full of criminality, bankruptcies, 4000 lawsuits, cruelty – and – the hiring of 200 undocumented foreign workers to demolish a 12 story NYC building, by hand {after which Trump tried to cheat them on wages!].
The two biggest financial crises in American and world history, 1929-1941 and 2008-20xx, were both begun with Republicans in the White House, after 8 years of Republican economic policy. The damage after the 1930’s included Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust. The damage after the 2008 Crash is still unfolding. Many Americans’ lives were devastated. This economic devastation has now spawned a revival of authoritarian rulers and outright dictatorships. Republicans fought against, and ultimately got, the corrective legislation designed to prevent another Crash repealed. 9 years later, thanks to reckless Wall Street gambling – we had the 2008 Crash! Republicans have already weakened the feeble post-2008 crash legislation. It is now almost consensus – there will be another 1929 or 2008 Crash – and like the first two, you can thank the Republicans for the third one.
America needs a reformed Republican Party. The American system was not designed for a 1980-2018 Republican Party. It was designed on the basis of rational discussion and compromise – not a party on some “holy” mission to force radical views into law by any means. The Founding Fathers feared a president like Donald Trump; one reason why there are so many checks and balances. America was designed to be a government of-by-FOR the people; deliberately designed as a middle class state – not for the top 1%. For positive changes to occur, it is necessary for the current Republican Party to begin losing election after election. America cannot survive continuing the poisonous atmosphere of 2016-2018. We deserve better than this. You can help make this happen on November 6, 2018.
With Justice For All 