Republicans
are driving a very bad bargain: "we are in the
process of destroying a
great many things which are real — air, soil, water, energy, resources,
other species, our health — for the sake of something that exists
chiefly in our imagination: money." from DeclineOfTheEmpire.com
* In
the face of massive unemployment, Republicans decided, against advice
of our best economists,
that austerity should
be at the top of the
agenda. In many states this resulted in massive public sector layoffs,
degradation of services, and more unemployment. Since
unemployment was certain to go up
with their policy, many
of us think they intend to crash the
economy to win election.
History
shows austerity
doesn't counter recession. Ask the Europeans. Paul Krugman, winner of
the Nobel Prize in Economics, elaborates this in his book: End
This Depression Now!
* To insure that the economy will crash, Republicans have been
engaging in brinksmanship.
They don't care very much if the US
loses financial stability or if the world economy crashes, what they
want is to cut programs that actually benefit people: like Social
Security, Medicare, headstart, etc. It is extortion.
* Although US infrastructure is in poor condition, many
jobs might have been created by upgrading it, interest rates are low,
and it would have been a
good investment, Republicans opposed all real job creation efforts.
Their single-minded goal was not about good government, it was about
removing Obama. Now it is about stopping him from doing anything.
*
Republicans oppose efforts to assist the middle class. They
oppose raising the minimum wage, which would be an economic stimulus.
They would
cut
social programs, have no credible answers for health
care issues, and
have a stealth program to privatize education. Cuts to higher education
pushed tuition higher and graduating students now face heavy debt
(which they cannot escape with bankruptcy), but Republicans would not
stop student interest rates from doubling. While protecting tax
breaks for millionaires, they oppose relief for working Americans. They
bust unions, oppose consumer
protection
agencies, and don’t even
protect school children from fast-food
companies. The Ryan Budget
reflects the mean
spirited, regressive Republican approach. See this video
of Elizabeth Warren.
* Given Republicans effort to make voting more difficult, we
should have substantial election reform.
The Republican primary was an ugly, negative campaign by
remarkably undistinguished candidates trying to sell bad policy.
They call themselves 'conservatives',
but they are anything but.
*
Republicans are corporatists so they
represent the interests of the
already wealthy. They want regressive tax cuts, suppression of labor
unions, and
religion that subjugates people.
Deregulation, like privatization,
is a strategy that
removes corporate oversight, transparency, accountability, and it is a
major cause of the latest market crash.
Taxpayers had to bail out the banks again because Republicans have not
learned the lessons of the great depression and continue to fight for
less financial regulation.
* Corporations
are not people,
and they
should not be allowed
to pour cash into politics. It is corrupting. Cash is not speech.
Profit is not the highest goal. Citizens United will assure
government by corporations, not people. Rule by
corporations is, by definition, fascism.
* The Supreme
Court, packed with right-wing ideologues,
is reliably supporting Republican
policy. It has accomplished a coup: we now have a corrupt government by
the corporations instead of government
by the people. We have, as Lawrence Lessig has documented so
well, lost
our Republic.
Government run by corporations is, by definition, fascist.
See this video.
(Lawrence Lessig)
* We have media
that Congress allowed to become dangerously concentrated. Rupert
Murdoch, found unfit to run a major corporation in Britain, owns
the Republican party
and is
actively spreading misinformation. Since he has not been held
accountable, toxic politics will continue in the US.
He can be credited
with incitement to right-wing terrorism: the assasination of abortion
doctors, death
threats on high-profile liberals, and other civil
disorder. See this video. (Robert McChesney)
* Concentrated wealth
leads to oligarchy,
economic instability, toxic media,
political
corruption, fascism, and other social pathology.
It can be damped down with stiff graduated taxes, but Republicans think
a flat tax is a good
idea. Since they are the
party of oligarchs, R's
are anxious to abolish the estate tax also. Such policies DO
redistribute wealth...upward. It is no wonder that
Republicans are the party of the very wealthy. Income inequality
is a problem that Republicans do not recognize,
but it can propel most people into debt servitude and crash the
economy. See this video (Joseph
Stiglitz)
* Republicans often proclaim religious
zeal. They are trying to break down the wall between church and state.
Notice that the
most religious countries (or states) are also the most backward.
Our most highly
educated communities are also the most liberal. Republicans frequently
deny climate change,
evolution, and many
of them say higher education
is
indoctrination or snobbery. It appears that they are waging a war on
science and, using large money incentives, are politicizing higher
education and ideology driven 'think
tanks'.
* Republicans claim to favor small, unintrusive government,
but they have no problem mandating invasive procedures
for women.
Women were not allowed to testify about this.
Further, this was used as
an excuse to allow employers to tailor their health
insurance coverage any way they want. It appears that
the hidden hand of the health insurance industry and
the Catholic church
are
motivating these policies. They have opposed equal pay for
women (the Lily Ledbetter Act). They are doubling down on the war
on women.
*
Republicans, in states that they control, after gerrymandering
Congressional districts, have attacked public sector unions, laid off massive numbers of employees
(further depressing the
economy ) and are engaging in a
campaign of voter
suppression. They are driving the massive downward mobility of the
US middle class.
* Illegal
immigration is, of course a stealth Republican wedge
issue, a continuation of the Republican war on the underclass.
It also benefits for-profit prisons.
* Except for Ron Paul, Republican candidates agreed that waterboarding is
effective. Although they strongly defend the second amendment (they are
well funded
by the gun industry), they stood by
silently as the rest of the bill of rights
has been eviscerated.
* The US Congress is thorougly
corrupted by money. (See this video of Larry Lessig.)
* Having been paid off by UPS and Fedex, they have made the Post
Office a casualty of their privatization efforts. Next , with
Rupert Murdoch and Jeb Bush leading, will be privatization of schools.
* Republicans, in opposing any
sensible regulation of firearms,
have brought an epidemic of gun violence upon
us. They are funded by
the NRA, and apparently only pro-life for
the unborn. They are not too concerned about the 137,000 deaths that
result from Americans who have no health insurance
covrerage. deaths resulting from widespread famine in other
countries, or deaths from domestic gun violence. Although the
Republican House talked a lot about jobs,
what
they spent time on was abortion. Their
policy on population is, long-run, self destructive. See this
for example.
* The right-wing government of Israel
has contributed
millions of dollars to the GOP, so the one thing the
Republican candidates agree on is that they will support Israel in all
circumstances. Israel is
seriously considering military action against Iran.
All Republican Presidential candidates favored war with Iran.
*
History shows that every democracy
is
short lived. Republicans economic policy is always regressive. As
wealth becomes concentrated,
people in general lose their voices, an oligopoly then
governs, financial volatility increases, an empire
ensues, and finally it is
all destroyed. The US is
well along this path. When most people do not agree with the opinions
of the affluent, studies show that the wealthy
prevail.
Republican initiatives have created a strong-man
head of state, ripped off the middle class, crashed the economy, downsized our civil
liberties, and are putting the next generation into debt servitude.
The Constitution
is
designed to protect us from concentrated
power, but Republicans are not paying attention to that part. What they
have accomplished is treasonous:
*
Republicans are the party of the military-industrial complex, so
although they would cut programs that actually benefit people, they
refuse to cut the military budget. With the
exception of Ron Paul, they are always ready to arm themselves to go to war.
They have funded expensive, provocative weapons programs like 'star
wars' that cannot and will not work. This benefits corporate war
profiteers, and robs people of necessities like health care as well as
efficient infrastructure like high-speed rail. Because the US is now an
empire, the US military, now the largest in the world is
dispersed to over a hundred
countries. It is the reason we are facing financial ruin, opposition
abroad, loss of our civil
liberties,
deterioriating services, and a militarized country. See this
video. (Chalmers Johnson.)
The Republican government in waiting, selected by Mitt Romney, was staffed by the
same warmongers
who lied to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and are determined to build a world-dominating empire. Republicans have not been held accountable for criminal acts including wire taps, torture, renditions, and lying to go to war and that means the felons will be back if they can win elections.
A large part of the US 'defense'
budget is secret because it is used to fund
state terrorism world wide.
(See, for example, SOAW.org)
If Republicans had the moral superiority that they claim, they
would want peace. They would have some respect
for international law, join the
International Criminal Court, and pay their dues to the UN. Instead they oppose efforts to reduce numbers of
nuclear weapons and support the provocative star
wars boondoggle. But war is profitable, and world-dominating empire
is their goal, so they are warmongers. Like fascists in history,
they are not concerned with the well-being of actual people. Only
corporations.
* Republicans, representing corporate oligarchs, have
been the force behind climate change
denial, ignoring scientists with actual evidence. This, alone, is
sufficient reason not to vote for them.
* In 1972 the club of
Rome computer models showed that growth cannot be unlimited and
recent
studies show their forecast is on track. Republican's ideas about population, resource
use, and market
fundamentalism assure that as we
reach resource limits, the results will be catastrophic.
See this video. (Bill McKibbon)
"In
the past fifty years we've doubled our irrigated cropland and tripled
our water consumption to meet global food demand. In the next fifty, we
must double food production again. Is there really enough water to pull
that off ? In his book When the
Rivers Run Dry environmental journalist
Fred Pearce describes in vivid, firsthand detail the stark reality of
impending water crises in more than thirty countries around the globe.
We now withdraw so much water that many of our mightiest and most
historic rivers - like the Nile, the Colorado, the Yellow, the Indus -
have barely a trickle left to meet the sea." (From the World in 2050: Laurence C Smith)
* We live on a planet that is unique as far
as telescopes can see. Republicans
refuse to acknowledge that the climate is rapidly
deteriorating
and see no need to stop profligate
burning of fossil fuels,
slow population
growth, or even to take care
in harvesting resources.
If Republicans get their way, our shredded social safety net
will be cut further. the
economy will sink as a result of austerity, poverty
will continue to
soar, the wealthy will continue to
receive benefits from the government
that they have bought, the wall between church and state will be
smashed, and we will go to war with
Iran. People will
suffer because Republicans impoverish the poor to benefit the already wealthy.
It could have been worse. The Republican government in
waiting is a group that includes Neocon
war mongers (see Iraq or Iran), misogynists,
bigots, racists, theocrats,
homophobes , facists, gun
lovers, and other
right-wing nuts. They have brought on us a
corporate empowering Supreme Court that
selected W and his wrecking
crew, and has all but destroyed the republic with Citizens United.
This
Republican Congress is the most
obstructionist, dysfunctiional and unproductive in our history.
Their misguided agenda will put the
majority in debt servitude to profit the oligarchs
that own the party. But they are primarily tax-dodgers
unwilling to pay for services required by an advanced country.
They are the party of ideas...only bad ones.
With Republican policy of disaster
capitalism, humanity is doomed to
an inhospitable planet if not
extinction. That is their legacy for their
grandchildren. They are like Jim Jones on
a planet-wide scale. Here's the forecast.
More at http://www.seconnecticut.com/republicans.htm
Water for Elephant
or see What's Wrong With
Republicans ?
Consider also Republican History,