It’s All The Republican’s Fault

Next Tuesday, Vote Blue Up and Down the Ballot!

In last week’s piece A Last Word on the Election, I listed some of the major problems facing out country and our world. I just realized that every single one of those problems is the fault of the political right. Let’s take a look.

• The poor health of our democracy. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invented the “Filibuster Every Bill” strategy turning the Senate from a majority-rules body to a minority-blackballs body. Republicans gerrymandered districts so much they hurt themselves, unable to prevent radical extreme right-wingers from winning seats in Congress. The motto of Republican lawmakers seems to be, “Don’t compromise, demonize!” Republican president Donald Trump staged an insurrection to try to stay in office after losing the 2020 election.
• Voting reform needed. Two recent presidents, both Republicans, took office while having lost the popular vote (George W. Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016). A right-leaning Supreme Court awarded the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000, the only time in history that the Supreme court has meddled with a presidential election. (…so far. Holding my breath for next Tuesday and its aftermath.) Republicans have been, and are, purging voter roles, removing voting machines, passing lame-ass voter ID laws, and any other skullduggery they can think up to “pick their voters, instead of the voters picking them”.
• Wealth inequality. The right-wing opposed — and continue to oppose — unions, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid: all institutions that help the poorest people more than they help the most wealthy. The sainted Ronald Reagan started the current round of wealth disparity with his “trickle-down economics” that never actually trickle down. For decades, the only real Republican policies at a national level have been tax cuts for the rich, and deregulation so corporations can continue to loot the economy to provide windfall profits to executives and major shareholders.
• Systemic racism. The Republicans opposed Civil Rights in the 1960s so strongly, that they flipped the South from Democratic to Republican. They continue to oppose civil rights whenever possible, peaking (one hopes) with the current openly racist presidential campaign. Republicans are a big tent party — they hate Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Chinese, and just about any other non-Aryan people you care to name. Like, for example, Puerto Ricans (“garbage”) and Haitians (“pet-eaters”).
• Prison reform. Whose tough-on-crime policies and War on Drugs have stuffed our prisons to overflowing? Republicans, that’s who.
• Immigration. Need I even explain this one, since Trump has made it the centerpiece of his campaign? It should be said that immigration reform used to be a bipartisan issue — even the sainted Ronald Reagan was for it — but ever since Trump came down the golden escalator proclaiming that Mexico was sending rapists and murderers to our country, the Republicans have used immigration as a wedge issue to promote hate and division. And they oppose efforts to create a more humane immigration and asylum systems that respect immigrants’ humanity, acknowledge the United States’ responsibility (in part) for creating the conditions that drive immigrants to our country, provide paths to citizenship, and create practical solutions for much-needed immigrant labor. It’s gotten so bad that we’ve practically forgotten about the plight of the Dreamers.
• A rigged Supreme Court. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invented the “No Supreme Court Nominations in an Election Year” rule during the last year of the Obama’s presidency, and repealed said rule when Trump’s last year came around, thereby stacking the Supreme Court full of unqualified, radical right-wing lunatics chosen by the extreme right-wing Federalist Society. And then there was the rapist who likes beer, whom the FBI was prevented from investigating 4,500 tips about his bad behavior. And, much earlier, corrupt right-wing extremist Clarence “pubic-hair-on-the-Coke-can” Thomas was brought to us by Republican president George W. Bush.
• The climate catastrophe. Drill baby drill? That’s the Republicans. Democratic President Jimmie Carter put solar panels on the roof of the White House, and subsequent Republican President Ronald Reagan had them removed. While Democrats are in the pocket of Big Oil too, it is the Republicans who for so long denied climate change and the need for climate change action. And continue to do so.
• Pandemic readiness. Obama was ready. His administration contained bird flu, swine flu, Ebola, and zika virus outbreaks, all of which were potential pandemics. Trump threw Obama’s pandemic readiness plan out the window, and mishandled Covid so badly that experts believe he is responsible for 600,000 avoidable Covid-related deaths in the U.S. That is greater than the number of American soldiers who died in WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq combined. Trump has way more American blood on his tiny hands than any other president.
• The rising tide of war. While Democratic noses are far from clean here, Republicans are the party of the defense contractors and the war hawks. Democrats (Kennedy and LBJ) may have brought us the war in Vietnam, but Nixon escalated and prolonged it. Saint Ronald Reagan brought us into the dirty wars in South America. When Reagan’s veep George Bush Sr. moved up to the presidency, he invaded Panama on a pretext, and built a mighty international coalition for the first Gulf War. (It is doubtful that Saddam would have entered Kuwait in the first place if Bush had not given him the green light.) Democrat Bill Clinton may not have done a great job with the war in Bosnia, but at least it was over soon enough and no American soldiers lost their lives. George W. Bush brought war to Afghanistan and Iran, and The Forever War on Terror. Trump, if he gets a second bite at the apple, will probably bring us World War III. One fervently hopes that Kamala will be able to prevent it. (Prevent both a second Trump term and WW III.)

Would the country and the world be perfect if we had had left-leaning government for the last 150 years? Of course not. But we would be in a lot better shape if every citizen of our country would take a giant step to their left.

For heaven’s sake, people, vote blue!

Veliment be opeliveb, people!