When Will America Wake Up to the Evil that has Seized the Republican Party?
By Thom Hartmann A...
We've seen it around the world and throughout history: when a political party or government exists solely to serve the very wealthy, and begins to lose power, they inevitably turn to authoritarianism and police violence.We saw this in Florida when Gov. Ron DeSantis sent State police with guns drawn to intimidate the family of whistleblower Rebekah Jones, who he'd earlier fired for refusing to lie about Florida coronavirus statistics and is now publishing a daily "Florida coronavirus dashboard."
We see it with Donald Trump committing a felony for which you or I would immediately go to prison, trying to tamper with the outcome of a legitimate election by threats, intimidation, and offering bribes to government officials.
We see it in Michigan where the Macomb County GOP seems to share an address with the group that showed up, armed, to threaten and intimidate the Secretary of State and her four-year-old son as they were preparing to watch "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.â€
We saw it when armed Republicans with swastikas and Confederate flags invaded the Michigan capitol, and then tried to kidnap and assassinate Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
We see it with Lindsey Graham threatening Georgia Republicans that if they don't support Trump's brutal authoritarianism, crimes, and coup attempt they won't get Republican votes. Violence and the threat of violence are the new currency in the GOP realm.
Because the Republican party only serves great wealth, when the Fed intervened in late spring to create $7 trillion out of thin air and use it to buy corporate stocks and bonds, reinflating the stock market, Republicans lost all interest in any kind of Covid assistance.
As long as the stock market stays high, wealthy people are good and the GOP doesn't care what happens to average people – unless they speak out to expose Republicans like we saw in Florida. Then they bring in the police, guns drawn.
Now that Mitch McConnell's power in the Senate hangs in the balance in an election in Georgia, he's suddenly willing to pass a tiny amount of relief for average working people, but the price he demands is to make it illegal for workers to sue their wealthy employers.
Meanwhile, the Republican Trump administration just quietly took an action to cut eligibility for Social Security Disability. They don't give a rat's ass about average people in pain; they only care about the rich. And most wealthy people right now are very, very happy with the GOP.
For Republicans, it's all about money and the political power which gets them that money and helps them avoid paying taxes on it. When their power begins to slip, they roll out the threats, armed goons, and the police, all while chanting "law and order!"
The Republican Party neither represents law or order. Since Reagan's election, they've exclusively represented the interests of giant corporations and billionaires, while using racism, regionalism and misogyny to manipulate working class voters.
The question our republic now faces is, "When will the people wake up?"
-Thom
Comments
#2
The two parties have a structurally supported duopoly on power. In most states, this is locked into the election laws that provide streamlined pathways for major "party" candidates to the ballot, guarantee seats on various boards and commissions (including reapportionment commissions), and, of course, closed primaries. There are many other levers for staying in power, including the English legacy of a narrative that there can only be two parties. Owning the media helps as well.
Unless and until there is a structural reform, elections will continue in the D/R ping pong. If something like Germany's two-vote system with seats for any party with 5% or more of the party or "second" vote were to arise, the duopoly could break down. In almost 70 years of the FRG, no party has had a majority, which requires coalition building.
Ideas are not lacking. A pathway to reform is hard to see.
#3
Wow Thom! No sooner than you posted your latest blog,”Will America Wake Up…?” “Dreamsinger” answered that question for you. And the answer was a resounding NO! Apparently there is only one human being that can save the world. “BERNIE!!!”
Then there’s the fact that 74 million Americans voted for the most transparently, overtly corrupt, incompetent, deranged, delusional possible candidate that is imaginable does not bode well. About half of the American voters think of Trump like he is their son in a Little League ballgame and no matter how inept he is, no matter how many times he strikes out, no matter how many errors he makes, no matter how much he cheats; it’s always the referees fault.
The fact that anyone sees the two parties as one and the same, defies any notion of rational thinking.
To wake up, they have to grow up.
#4
Exactly.
Claiming status as a "lifelong liberal" and then equating the Democratic Party with the Republican Party is the shallowest and most transparent of all troll tricks. Dumb people think other people are as willfully ignorant as themselves.
So what's their answer, their endgame? That the perfect is the enemy of the good? That some mythical third party will magically arise, somehow creating political paradise? That dividing the Democratic vote will not massively advantage Republicans?
The reality on the ground is what it is; unfortunately, it's not what we wish it to be. To change things for the better takes time and a lot of hard work, especially when almost half the electorate is hopelessly brainwashed.
Any perfunctory reading of modern political history proves the two salient facts of American politics: Republicans are the party of the rich, the powerful, and the privileged; Democrats are the party of everyday workers, their families, and the disadvantaged. Is there room for improvement and structural reform? You bet -- lots of room. But you don't burn down the house to remodel it.
First, get money out of politics, since Wall Street's "masters of the universe" are the corrupting influence, not the party -- just as Bernie says (who, please notice, always caucuses with Democrats, not Republicans).
Politics is war by another means. And you don't want to share a foxhole with a goddamn fool who doesn't know which side the bad guys are on.
#5
This situation will never get better, Thom. We need to make truce among ourselves, the socialists in the truest sense of it's meaning. We are all Bernie supporters, and we need to level with reality, that we need a new nation, with a real constitution of real rights. They screwed us all and we will never get back any meaningful system with the US Constitution, or government. They stole it from us. We must face this cold hard reality, and start the hardest revolution with a strategy they can't fight, with new system they can't understand, because it will be beyond their comprehension, as they are all barbarians, but we are civilized. Think hard about this Thom. Yes I'm talking about the 7C System at bit. ly/7C-GOV We need each other, we need Indivisible, Bernie, The 7C Constitution, the Socialists, and everyone of the progressive mindset. We must seriously level with this, or we will never survive. Our great recononing is here and now. I will never give up, and I will never leave you Thom, even if I get angry at you sometimes, I always come back, so please merge with me and my radical ways. I want us all to win a real spiritual, rational, mental freedom. We can do this, it must be done. the whole system is done in, and we must make a new one.
#6
The United States of America is a constitutionally limited, representative, democratic republic.
Like it or not, that is the system under which we all must labor. Good luck creating a new one from scratch. But is there enough time left for that to happen before climate destruction does us in?
#7
Ташкентский правительственный экономический университет
(Узбекистан) и университет Сайтама (Япония) подписали
Меморандум о взаимопонимании. Сообразно соглашению, обе
стороны будут обмениваться учителями. Особое уезд в
государственной политике, проводимой в области развития
экономики, занимает порядок образования. Чтобы выбора
оптимальных решений проблемы интеграции образования.
какие экзамены сдают в педагогическом институт
https://jspi.uz/ru/faoliyat/xalqaro/
медицинский институт учащиеся
https://adti.uz/ordinatura/
Ташкентский государственный экономический университет
http://tsue.uz/?page_id=348&lang=ru
#8
Ташкентский правительственный экономический университет
(Узбекистан) и университет Сайтама (Япония) подписали
Меморандум о взаимопонимании. Сообразно соглашению, обе
стороны будут обмениваться учителями. Особое уезд в
государственной политике, проводимой в области развития
экономики, занимает порядок образования. Чтобы выбора
оптимальных решений проблемы интеграции образования.
какие экзамены сдают в педагогическом институт
https://jspi.uz/ru/faoliyat/xalqaro/
медицинский институт учащиеся
https://adti.uz/ordinatura/
Ташкентский государственный экономический университет
http://tsue.uz/?page_id=348&lang=ru
#9
As deepspace has noted, getting money out of politics is crucial, but we're trapped in a Catch 22, because the factions (especially the oligarchs that do things adverse to our citizens' rights and our communities interests) control both parties and their decision-making. The really big factions will never willingly give up their power over our elected and appointed officials, hence any efforts to curtail their bribery/coercion schemes will fail. At least it will fail until we can unite a critical mass of citizens to compel our elected officials to meet their Constitutional purpose as laid out in the Preamble, and that will take our progressive thought leaders to unite, inform, and inspire our citizens with best practice-based solutions. With contemporary knowledge and technology, this shouldn't be hard to do.
#10
Web магазин, который сегодня всерьез Комфортен.
Компания готова предложить значительный набор высокопрочных автозапчастей по конкурентноустойчивым ценам, и все данные автомобильные запчасти немедленно доступны для покупки online.
Заказчик имеет возможность выбрать наиболее годный для вас порядок платы из большинства разновидностей.
Сейчас имеется затруднения? Специалисты нашей компании онлайн-службы поддержки всегда рады сориентировать.
Запчасти и все, что потребуется для систематичного технологического сервиса и наладки собственного авто, можно без проблем купить у нашей компании.
Наш магазин-это теперь систематичный рынок бывших в употреблении и новых машинных запасных частей с большой сетью предприятий.
Выбирать и совершить покупку авто запчасти в web магазине - сегодня это сделают легко!
Мы-дистрибьютер автозапчастей в России.
Инновационный поиск по наименованию и номеру позиции или номеру производителя предназначен для того, что бы вам быстро было отыскать машинные запчасти.
#11
Web магазин, который сегодня всерьез Комфортен.
Компания готова предложить значительный набор высокопрочных автозапчастей по конкурентноустойчивым ценам, и все данные автомобильные запчасти немедленно доступны для покупки online.
Заказчик имеет возможность выбрать наиболее годный для вас порядок платы из большинства разновидностей.
Сейчас имеется затруднения? Специалисты нашей компании онлайн-службы поддержки всегда рады сориентировать.
Запчасти и все, что потребуется для систематичного технологического сервиса и наладки собственного авто, можно без проблем купить у нашей компании.
Наш магазин-это теперь систематичный рынок бывших в употреблении и новых машинных запасных частей с большой сетью предприятий.
Выбирать и совершить покупку авто запчасти в web магазине - сегодня это сделают легко!
Мы-дистрибьютер автозапчастей в России.
Инновационный поиск по наименованию и номеру позиции или номеру производителя предназначен для того, что бы вам быстро было отыскать машинные запчасти.
#12
From the Republicans I've talked to, they seem to say all Republicans are doing a fine job. That is because they want the tax breaks, do not want any safety net programs, and don't care about anything else.
#13
The media shutdown Bernie because he is against money in politics. The media makes billions off of these elections. The media promoted Trump as the one that would bring more money into politics. They gave Bernie almost no air time and Trump thousands of free hours. Bernie made one statement that education had improved under Castro in Cuba. Fact is it did. Media blew it out of proportion as Socialist of the year. Media controls the country in many ways. Now fake media and Social media is really taking over.
#14
And when you follow the chain of dark money and hidden influence that fuels the most toxic lies and fantastical disinformation back to their true sources, from the corporate media outlets to the swamp-net to the email chains to the right-wing think tanks, it always leads back to the usual suspects of billionaires and their wannabe minions, who only care about deregulating their cash-cow monopolies, paying as little taxes as possible, and nothing else, as Riverplunge points out. They are diametrically opposed to the filthy masses and our pathetic little democracy -- always have been, always will be.
Indeed, "When will the people wake up?"
#15
Also, Old Dave's solution bears repeating:
"At least it will fail until we can unite a critical mass of citizens to compel our elected officials to meet their Constitutional purpose as laid out in the Preamble, and that will take our progressive thought leaders to unite, inform, and inspire our citizens with best practice-based solutions. With contemporary knowledge and technology, this shouldn't be hard to do."
#16
Thom, you have Steve Schmidt on, and ask him what his long term goals are. Ask him how to defund the Republican Party.
Also I feel the Republican Party has been evil for a long time. These are the same "let them die" Republicans who tried to block the New Deal legislation with the conservative Supreme Court. People were dying in the "Dust Bowl" from stravation and lung disease from the dust, that blackened the sky, and even New York had dust storms (to a lesser degree). No mater what evil, or illeagal act the republican party committed, they were not punished (convicted and imprisioned). Those that were convicted were pardoned.
We cannot let them off the hook again. When criminals go unpunished, they only keep committing more crimes.
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Since the wealthy own politicians on both sides of the aisle it seems that *both* mainstream parties serve them. As a lifelong liberal (I can't claim to be a Democrat since the party abandoned us), a two time Sanders delegate and gun owner since reaching adulthood, I have to wonder why you don't hold the Democratic establishment just as culpable as the GOP.