Blow the whole thing up; tear it apart and rebuild from scratch. These sentiments fuel a significant segment of voters for Trump and other Republican candidates. Conservative elites are playing working Americans for fools. Don’t let them. Workers confront legitimate challenges. Trump and Toomey are false solutions.
The Tea Party movement started in 2009 forcing the Republican Party far to the right with zero toleration for either good government or compromise. Any Republican incumbent who dared try was driven from office replaced by even more extreme candidates funded with vast quantities of conservative cash. The Republican Party began a long slide toward the fringe, dragging the party faithful along behind them.
The old ‘God, Guns and Gays’ no longer worked. Millennials drove real god and guns issues toward even more toleration. Smarter than their parents, millennials know the absurdity of big government coming for their guns. They also recognize the stupidity of opposing any checks on arming terrorists, extremists and the mentally ill. Further, the vast majority of Americans finally recognize that homosexuality is part and parcel of the American family. Red flags all gone.
Conservatives needed new red flags to wave at working class Americans to blind them to the actual causes of their challenges and societal changes. The rabid right’s new mantra became ‘anti-immigrant and anti-welfare’. False fears sold to a conservative base that ‘fears fear itself’. The conservative and tea party base is duped into supporting the very politicians that contribute to their problems. Don’t fall for it. Be smart.
Immigration
This issue dovetails nicely into the ‘takers in society’ meme developing over the years. Reality is that a Republican, anti-regulation congress refuses to address the immigration issue to this day. Prosecutions and penalties against companies hiring undocumented workers remained low. President Obama changed the government’s approach.
“…Gordon Quan, a Houston immigration attorney whose firm specializes in advising businesses on compliance with the law, said many companies have started taking a harder look at their hiring paperwork. “There is a lot of concern out there,” Quan said. “I think for a long time, people thought it was no big deal, the government wasn’t checking these things. Now I see more and more personnel people taking this very seriously.”…”
Workers, your enemy is not the immigrant but rather those hiring undocumented and ‘under-the-table’ workers both immigrant and native born. They are the guilty parties responsible for low wages and reduced job opportunities. These enemies of working people everywhere are the allies of your Republican Tea Party and ultra conservative members of congress. Lack of an immigration law empowers businesses to hire undocumented workers. When workers are weak, corporations are strong.
Welfare
The ‘takers’ are not the poor. Romney’s infamous remark concerning 47% of our population not paying taxes is well explained. Those takers are your mom and kids.
“…So 83 percent of those not paying federal income taxes are either working and paying payroll taxes or they’re elderly and Romney is promising to protect their benefits because they’ve earned them. The remainder, by and large, aren’t paying federal income or payroll taxes because they’re unemployed…”
When given the chance, the vast majority of Americans, in all their diversity, seek work. Many low income Americans are forced to work two jobs; many elderly are forced to work well into their ‘golden years’. It is not that we will not work; it is that republican policies will not allow us to work and to support our families.
Reagan’s ‘welfare queen’ never existed and a punishment used by grade school teachers and corporate giants is ‘sit in a corner and do nothing’. People want and need meaning in their lives. Very few desire doing nothing. Here is where Democratic policies have proven successful and conservative/Republican policies have proven massive failures.
Relentlessly, Kansas has followed conservative economic policies. The state is in recession with soaring deficits and disappearing jobs. Meanwhile, Minnesota has followed moderate economic policies (conservatives will say extreme liberal) and ranks near the top rank of states in job creation. Extremely large California has turned the economic corner which is why you no longer hear conservatives saying that state is near collapse. Republican politicians like Trump and Pennsylvania’s Toomey support Kansas policies killing jobs and creating deficits.
Democratic Successes and Republican Failures
The failed economic policies of Trump and Toomey only end in one place ― the worker as a low wage serf laboring in polluted and dangerous fields
No jobs? low wages? Thank the Republican congress. Results are in. Compare the economic performance of failing Kansas to thriving Minnesota. Pennsylvania Republican politicians are responsible for their state’s stagnation. Governor Corbett had a strongly Republican legislature and all we got were dramatically higher fuel taxes. Republicans equal failed policies and an inability to govern.
Democrats are not without flaws and failures. However, Democratic polices work in actual practice. Conservatives could offer much if they would seek pragmatic, rather than ideological, answers to challenges. One example is Salt Lake City’s homeless program. This program is a model of practicality yet saves taxpayers 30% on taxes.
Often, ‘beliefs’ block pragmatic answers. Republican politicians like Pat Toomey are playing hardworking people when they prevent higher pay and more jobs while they grow fat doing the lobbyists’ business.
Send a message to the Republican Party that this election is not about fear; it is about a fair break. Vote for Hillary, McGinty and all Democratic candidates for congress.