Seriously, has anyone figured out what the Republicans have ever done to help the average American Family? you know, the rest of us? At least within the last 40 years?
We now have Mitt Romney, who is giving Mormons a bad name, saying that we should respect him because he is wealthy. Sure sounds like Calvinism -- the belief that God rewards the righteous by giving them lots of money! He is wealthy and lives in the lap of luxury -- and on top of this we should respect him for his wealth?
I do not think that this is the kind of thing that an avowedly spiritual person should be saying. That because he is rich, among other things, by bending the rules of taxation (Baine Capital hired lobbyists to ensure their taxes wouldn't go up), we should respect him. Really? Someone who made a lot of money by lying to the government and misrepresenting the actions of Baine Capital? (At least at one point, the government was forced to pay millions to pick up the costs of pension funds, pick up other costs as well.) Someone who won't release his taxes for the last ten years? And he wants to run the country? That is just laughable.
But to dig into the question more, what exactly have Republicans done in the last 40 years that has benefited the average person? Seriously? I mean, we had Ike with the National Highway Project and Nixon with OSHA, and several other programs -- including environmental protection, but since then, it's been money and greed for them all the way. And the poor and needy take the hindmost! "I'm okay, Jack! I've got mine -- the heck with you!"
So perhaps I'm exaggerating here, but please correct me -- what law has made it through the House of Representatives, the Senate, sponsored by Republicans that has helped the average person?
And today we hear from Romney that a rapacious, greedy person, who has worked to enrich himself, herself, etc., is worth more than the average teacher, firefighter, parent? Who has less money but who is playing by the rules and who is helping those around them?
What kind of metric is this? And what voters really are likely to believe this?
Certainly over the last 30 years people are increasingly conditioned to believe that they might just "strike it rich"--with the lottery winning or some sort of incredibly low probability event. Thom talks about how our view of wealth has shifted over the years, from the Honeymooners with their one room flat to the fabulous mantions of Dallas, with millionaires giving orders to others.
But this kind of "casino wealth" (let me name it that) is certainly nothing that can help bring the average person up, that can help pay for average families in average cities, that can make this country great again. People who believe that are simply out of touch with the real world, with their neighbors (unless their neighbors are multimillionaires too), or perhaps they know that average people can too easily be taken advantage of, and they are more than willing to do the shearing.
So seriously, has anyone figured out what the Republicans have done over the last 30 years to help the average person?
Let's restate -- they want to raise the costs for kids going to school, eliminate health programs, send our jobs overseas, cut corporate taxes, not worry about the environment, raise taxes on the poorest citizens, cut food stamps, etc., etc.
I do think that they believe that the more miserable they make the rest of us feel, they more successful they will be in the elections and elsewhere. They believe that if we are truly miserable, we will not go to the polls to vote for our values. So they think they can ramp up the misery, increase our fear and hatred of the very circumstances they have helped bring about through record filibusters, voter suppression efforts, saber rattling with Iran, etc.
Or am I wrong?
No comments:
Post a Comment