Who's Right About "freedom": Republicans or Americans?
By Thom Hartmann A...
A spokesman for Donald Trump's campaign said, on CNN this morning, that they don't require people to wear masks at Trump rallies and events because "freedom."Republicans have a bizarre notion of what that word means.
As President Franklin D. Roosevelt pointed out in 1933, "a necessitous men is not a free man."
If you're hooked up to a ventilator and can't breathe, you're not free.
If you're sick and can't afford to pay for healthcare, You're not free.
If you're hungry and can't buy food for your family, you're not free.
If your landlord has thrown you out in the street because you can't pay your rent, you're not free.
If you're afraid to hang out with your own family because you don't want to die from coronavirus and your government is refusing to do comprehensive testing and contact tracing, you're not free.
The majority of Americans, polls show, want to join the truly free advanced democracies of the world.
They want a national healthcare program so that nobody will ever go bankrupt because they got sick. They want free education through college and quality primary schools so every young person's full potential can be developed for the benefit of all. They want food and housing to be rights, not privileges, as Franklin Roosevelt proposed back in 1944.
Right wing billionaires have hijacked the word "freedom" over the last few decades.
They've told us that "freedom" means the right to die in debt, to remain uneducated, and to be hungry and homeless. They argue that "freedom" means the right of a small number of rich people to suck up all the assets and resources of society, leaving almost nothing for the working class. They say that the real meaning of "freedom" is more tax cuts for billionaires and more poison and pollution from industry.
It's time to take the word freedom back.
-Thom
Comments
#2
from my post:
https://englishcode.wordpress.com/2020/06/11/accountability/
Act Boldly Now While Protesters Are in the Streets!
If we act boldly while the people are in the streets for racial justice, we can get those same people to protest for financial justice and medical justice as well. It’s all the same anyway. American racism evolved from guilt over slavery, which was largely financial hardships imposed on a select group. Autocratic cronyism makes us all targets – all slaves on some levels. You get that.
But more have to understand that Trumpism seeks to enslave us all. BLM protesters can just add some new memes, speakers and banners at their rallies. We have what Trump wishes he had – a true populist movement. Shape it. Transform it. Mature it. Address it. Enroll it. They are our allies.
We are on the same page. Now, we need our reps to get on that page. Katyal said it today. Time to be disappointed not only in the Senate, but the House as well. I never got why Pelosi turned impeachment over to the corrupted Senate knowing it would disappear. Has she waited a month, it all would have ended differently.
We are out of time for mistakes. Play Hardball. We are 40 days away from 90 days out. And anything bold move then and Trump will cry fowl, even though it will be fine if he breaks that 90 day guideline.
Impeach Barr. Call Bolton. Get Trump's and Barr's taxes too! The ONLY way Barr sells out is for CASH in a foreign bank account. Pompeo and McConnell in on it too.
#3
yes they did. And Donny and the Grifters are happy to give what they ( my father included) fought and died for - all away - for profit. Traitors for sure.
#4
So are you free to not use your seatbelt in you car or on a commercial flight?
#5
Hey Thom, name us another country with a diverse population of say, over 200 million where all classes and races of people are treated better.
Is it the Republicans or "Americans" out tearing down statues of our country's history because they don't like them regardless of their ignorance as to why that historical statue or monument is displayed in the first place. ie: The Shaw Memorial in Boston created to honor the 54th Regiment Memorial, a flippin' memorial honoring black American soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
We have reached peak stupidity when a rope used to raise and lower a garage door draws national attention from the kneejerk loonies because they perceive it as a noose.
You are correct Thom, it may be time for a revolution, but not the kind you are dreaming about.
#6
Nobody is free to attack another human being, unprovoked. Infecting someone with a virus by refusing to use a proven, available means to avoid it is an unprovoked attack. If it causes a death, it is manslaughter, even if proof is unattainable. I would argue that even unproven (and unrefuted by a contemporary, documented negative COVID-19 test), refusal to wear a mask makes you an accesssory to "reckless disregard" for the harm or death caused to any person that can be shown to have been in your vicinity near the projected time of infection.
Besides, it's just being nasty.
#7
Yes, we've certainly reached "peak stupidity", considering the "leadership" of COVID 45..
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More about fascism I would say
Did men not die in 2 world wars to defeat it?