There’s been quite a transformation in the USA since the scorched earth policies of Newt Gingrich and the “nuclear” tactics the GOP has employed since then. While Democrats talked about having the government help people by providing access to healthcare, by mandating a living wage, and many other things that would make Americans’ lives better, Republicans, for years, for decades, have decried “government” as the problem itself and crowed about “free market solutions” to problems that Americans face rather than government intervention, even when there is no capitalistic reason for the free market to be involved (i.e., there is no profit to be extracted from it). But because of conservative purity tests and “getting primaried from the right,” the tables have turned — the Republicans now deny or ignore problems or suggest “solutions” to immigration like shooting immigrants in the legs if they cross the border, while Democrats propose free market solutions. Let me make that clear: Democrats are now running to the right of where Republicans were 20 years ago, leaving the GOP with precious little ground on the extreme right to back up into. But it’s clear what the ground they are backing into is: it’s authoritarianism and suppression or destruction of democracy, and they’ve burned through all their credibility to get there. For example, when Texas Senator Ted Cruz was asked about deficits only being a problem under a Democratic president, he agreed. So he confirms there’s no principle underlying the Republican opposition to deficits and debt, as we’ve all seen for decades. When the President claimed that the country was “turning the corner” on Covid-19 on the DAY that the USA set a new record for daily reported infections, he mocks his voter’s intelligence. In fact, it’s clear he doesn’t even like his supporters, after whining about having to campaign in the last days of the campaign, showing that Republicans don’t even care about their own voters except to the extent where it gives them political power and that power aligns with their voters’ grievances. And just yesterday, a prominent conservative commentator’s claim that “authentic, damning” evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden’s son had been lost by a “large national carrier” just strains credulity even more. So “the dog ate” the most important smoking gun information that could have a direct impact on Trump’s re-election chances? Nobody thought to make a copy? This shows exactly who the Republicans are — in the most charitable view, they are completely incompetent, and in the more realistic view, they are completely mendacious. Either quality should disqualify a TV commentator from their job, and even more so, it should disqualify Republicans from serving in positions of power until they can start telling the truth again (or miraculously become competent), and that includes the current leader of their party.
Categories