written 19 June 2022
for 26 June 2022
The Republican party is selecting increasingly radical candidates, each vying to be more extreme. From a party of real values, how did we get here? The following assessment is excerpted from Thom Hartmann, Daily Kos 26May22.
"The seeds of today’s crisis began with a blueprint for the morbidly rich and big corporations to take over the weakened remnants of Nixon’s Republican Party. Implemented with the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, we’ve now had 42 years of the so-called Reagan Revolution. It hasn’t worked."
"Republicans said if we cut the top tax rate on the morbidly rich from the 74 percent to 27 percent, it would “trickle down” to everybody else. Instead, we ended up with the greatest wealth and income inequality in the world, with over $50 trillion transferred from the bottom 90 percent to the top 1 percent."
"Republicans said if we deregulated guns it would clean up our crime problem. “An armed society is a polite society” was the bumper sticker during Reagan’s time. Instead, we ended up with school shootings and a daily rate of gun carnage unmatched anywhere in the world."
"Republicans said if we ended sex education in our schools and outlawed abortion, we’d return to “the good old days” when every child was wanted and every marriage was happy. Instead, we ended up with epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and now a return to deadly back-alley abortions."
"Republicans said if we killed off Civics and History classes in our schools, we’d “liberate” our young people to focus instead on science and math. Instead, we’ve raised two generations of Americans that can’t even name the three branches of government, and still lag in science and math."
"Republicans said if we cut state and federal aid to higher education students would have “skin in the game,” taking their studies more seriously. Instead, our nation is groaning under a $2 trillion dollar student debt burden, preventing young people from buying homes, starting businesses, or beginning families. While banksters who donate to Republican politicians are making billions."
"Republicans said if we stopped enforcing the anti-monopoly and anti-trust laws, there would be an explosion of innovation and opportunity. Instead, every industry in America became consolidated, competition died, price gouging and profiteering reign, and it’s impossible to start or find small family-owned businesses anymore."
"Republicans said if we changed the laws to let corporations pay their senior executives with stock they’d be “more invested” in the company. Instead, corporate stock buyback programs put billions of dollars into the pockets of the main shareholders and executives, while workers and society suffer the loss."
"Republicans said if we let a handful of individual companies and billionaires buy most of our media, we’d have the most diverse media landscape in the world. Now a small group owns our major media/internet companies, radio and TV stations, as well as local newspapers across the country."
"Republicans said we should hand our healthcare decisions to bureaucratic insurance industry middlemen to “lower costs and increase choice.” Instead, all the medical bankruptcies on the planet are American."
"Republicans said if we got rid of our unions, the companies would give us better pay, more benefits, and real job security. They lied."
"Republicans said if we went with NAFTA, the trade agreement of GHW Bush, and then the WTO, that we’d see an explosion of jobs. Instead, 60,000 American factories were torn down and their products moved overseas, along with 10 million good-paying jobs."
"Republicans still say global warming is a hoax, a lie that the fossil fuel industry spent hundreds of millions to pull off, delaying action by at least three decades while producing trillions in profits. The climate crisis is killing millions and threatens all life on Earth."
"And then, of course, there’s the biggest GOP lie of them all: “Money is the same thing as Free Speech.” Five Republicans on the Supreme Court threw out 1000 anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws so politicians could take unaccountable billions. American political discourse hasn’t been this filled with conflict and violence since the Civil War; the influence of dark money."
"The bottom line is the nation has now had the full Republican experience. We know what it is. We’re no longer listening. A new America is being birthed from the ashes of the Reagan Revolution and you can’t stop it much longer."
