It’s
not just Trump that is a problem in today’s politics. Those Republicans caught in the various bubbles
of conservative dogma are the ones doing great damage to the country and the
world. Trump is the peacock - the
Republicans are the wolves.
For
example – health care. The “Freedom Caucus”
in the House of Representatives and their dogmatic compatriots in the Senate
are promoting the repeal of Obamacare, but the impact of that obsession is to
make it impossible for about 20 million people or more to be able to afford
health insurance. This is not something
that provides freedom for people. It is
something that enslaves them to untreated health problems, robs them of the
freedom of a healthy body that access to medical care gives them. The “Freedom Caucus” might best be renamed
the “Trap the Citizens in a Spiral of Poverty Caucus”.
For
example – the environment. The Republicans
have been so blinded by the dogma of Reaganomics (in this case the deregulation
part of Reaganomics) that they are stripping the country of the protections put
in place to fight against the corporate polluters. Those captured by this piece of dogma think
they taking the restraints off of business and creating jobs, but what is
really happening is that they are going back to the “good old days” of filthy
air and water. I find this disgusting.
For
example – tax breaks for the wealthy.
Here is the second part of the obsolete and damaging dogma of
Reaganomics – tax cuts for the wealthy.
I understand the idea that reducing taxes on the "job creators" is supposed to stimulate the
economy. I thought that myself up until the financial crash of 2008. But I now understand that it doesn’t work. What stimulates the economy is to empower the
middle class, not to give more money to the wealthy. As I have written often, Reagan lowered taxes
and the economy grew, Clinton raised taxes and the economy grew more, Bush
lowered taxes and the economy stagnated.
Tax rates for the wealthy do not have much of any effect on the growth of
the economy. Yet, this is a dogmatic
belief of the Republican Party.
For example
– restrict immigration and kick out immigrants.
This is especially dumb, it seems to me.
Less educated immigrants have always been a spur to the American
economy. Plus, highly educated
immigrants are key to the tech industry.
This is little more than bigotry.
For example
– talking tough. Good grief! We now have a president that thinks the way
to deal with the paranoid man-child running North Korea is to threaten him with
nuclear holocaust. And there is a
portion of the Republicans who are glad that we finally have a president with Balls. Idiotic. What you do is de-escalate, not escalate the
rhetoric. Trump is very “brave” –
putting the lives of South Koreans, Japanese, Guamanians, and Chinese at risk
in order to strut his childish bravado.
I’m
not sure when the Republican Party lost its ability to think, probably about the
time talk radio and Fox News became vehicles for the Oligarchy propaganda
machine.
I
realize that there is much to criticize about those lost in left wing dogmatic
bubbles as well – the ridiculous extremities of identity politics, the unaffordable
notion of Medicare for everybody, the dumbing down of a college education if
college becomes a free entitlement, etc.
But the left wing is in the margins and the right wing is running the
country off the cliff.
