Mid Term Thinking...
As we move towards the midterm elections later this year, it is important for Americans to take stock of just how far outside the mainstream of political thought the majority of MAGA Republicans in this country are.
Let me cite three examples.
The leader of the National Republican Senatorial Committee is Rick Scott of Florida. His job as leader is to raise money and promote GOP candidates for senate. He is not up for reelection himself this year, but his ideas, because of his leadership role and the candidates he is promoting are. Here is something from his 11 Point Plan to Rescue America:
“All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”
Read that one more time.
All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. Sunsets, in congressional speak, means, ends. Period. And yes, that includes, according to numerous interviews with Senator Scott himself, again the leader of the GOP Senatorial Election Committee, Social Security and Medicare.
Senator Scott wants to be the Majority Leader of the Senate. Former President Trump supports him for that position, as do many in MAGA world. With the exception of Senator Mitch McConnell, who if Scott gets his wish, will no longer be Majority Leader, no GOP Senator or member of Congress is on record speaking publicly against Senator Scott’s plan. That means the great majority of GOP Senate members and election hopefuls support the Scott plan.
The Scott plan is to eliminate Social Security and Medicare funding in 5 years. Then subject it, a wildly popular program into which millions and millions of Americans have placed their faith and finances for over 75 years, to ongoing Congressional approval.
But that’s only one example.
All across the United States, local GOP leaders, and some at the federal level, are moving to further restrict access to safe, legal abortions. In state after state, since the fall of Roe, GOP leaders have started to criminalize participation in abortions, some as soon as conception, others at arbitrary times within the pregnancy timeline.
Additionally many GOP candidates at state levels are advocating positions that would effectively prohibit abortions for victims of rape and incest. Stating that every life is important and the unborn have no advocates, these GOP leaders, almost all white men, are striving to eliminate any exceptions to the increasing number of anti-abortion laws being enacted.
Many GOP leaders are also strong proponents of the fetal personhood movement, another way to eliminate abortions. This movement has already introduced laws in 8 states making abortions illegal as soon as conception, even before a woman, or girl knows she is pregnant. Arizona has already enacted such a law.
Finally, allow me one more example.
Congress has worked for years to pass bills limiting the costs of prescription drugs for Americans. This includes life saving drugs such as insulin for type 1 diabetics. In the current Congressional session, not one GOP Senator voted for these bills.
Even in an election year, the Democratic Party was unable to find a single GOP Senator who felt limiting prices for prescriptions and life saving medications was a worthy cause.
Not one.
Now stop and take a breath and consider just these three positions of the Republican Party.
They favor removing the guaranteed status of Social Security and Medicare and subjecting those two programs, into which we ourselves contribute every paycheck, to the everyday politicking of government.
They believe girls as young as 10 years old, should be forced to carry pregnancies to full term, even if that little girl has been raped or is a victim of incest.
Further, they do not believe congress, or government should work to lower the price of prescriptions and life saving drugs, guaranteeing affordability for millions of Americans.
Is the current MAGA Republican dominated party out of step with the mainstream of American thought? Is it, and the policies it supports a danger to America and our citizenry?
Was President Joe Biden wrong when he said MAGA Republicans threaten our nation in his recent speech from Philadelphia?
Absent strong denunciations of many of the policies and legislative goals GOP leadership is proposing at a federal level and in statehouses across the land, what other conclusion can we draw?
37 comments:
You forgot that the GOP wants to push grandma off a cliff in her wheelchair, end food stamps and let people starve if they are brown or black.
Anon... I could add lots of other example. However, all the examples I've cited, are easily found by even a Google neophyte. That said, let me add a little more... all from Senator Ron Johnson. a guy who promised to not run for a third term, who of course in no reneging on the that vow.
1. In May, Johnson was part of a group of senators who blocked legislation to help restaurants facing permanent closure due to the pandemic. When asked why his response was that he’s “not that fond of restaurants.”
2. Johnson was part of the group of GOP Senators who helped defeat an amendment that would have capped the cost of insulin at $35 per month.
3. Johnson voted against the bi-partisan gun safety bill that President Biden recently signed.
4. Johnson is a key senator advocating that Social Security and Medicare be discretionary programs, rather than mandatory ones.
I cite these examples because Johnson, while on the radar for Covid-19 craziness, his stance on other issues rarely gets noticed. Johnson, evidenced by the above facts, is part of the MAGA Republican Party. He doesn't stand out for his views, because his views, like those in my post, are central to GOP brand these days.
Again, we are forced into agreeing with the GOP view after 9/11 that if you don't denounce the followers of Islam who support and encourage terrorism, you are a supporter.
Except now that belief they birthed into our political discourse, is pointed at them.
If a Republican cannot, or will not denounce the extreme views of the party, we must assume they are in agreement with and support those views.
Now let's add another layer onto the grid of MAGA Republican extremism.
We are just a few states away from the GOP triggering, under Article V of the Constitution, a Constitutional Convention.
Can anyone here imagine the changes that could come from that as a group of people work to protect us from imaginary voter fraud, imaginary immigrant invasions, non existent pre WWII style socialism and fear of the "Great Replacement"?
This is just another example of the depths to which the once proud GOP has sunk.
Posting on a liberal site? Who are you writing this for? To reinforce those who already know this, or to change the minds who don't understand?
Anonymous, You don't get to read the comments I delete, otherwise you'd know that many Trumpers regularly visit this site and read it.
Also, why do you care what I post on MY blog? It harms you NOT, and no one forces you to read it.
Man.
Today must be "Let The Scolds Comment Day!"
"MAGA Republicans threaten our nation" is an understatement.
Anon... I'd love to post this and other viewpoints on conservative sites. But the ones I read have never extended an invitation, or like some, refuse to even allow dissenting views in their comments.
But both you and Shaw are correct.
This is a progressive, or as you say, a liberal site. But she is correct in that many conservatives do visit and read the posts here. We know this through the unhinged and fact free comments they try to post here and the amount of material here that is copied and pasted on other blogs.
Let me add another example of craziness from the MAGA Republican base...
In Michigan a 1931 ban on abortion was set to go into effect after Roe fell. Abortion rights activists wanting to prevent this law from going into effect gathered over 750,000 legitimate signatures to put their proposed solution codifying abortion on the ballot. To let, as the SCOTUS said, the people weigh in and have their say.
So what did the state GOP do? Did they support the SCOTUS view to let the people have their say? Of course not. They tried to keep it off the ballot because of a spacing error in the text.
We're still waiting to hear how this is resolved.
In this case, the MAGA Republican base is so worried about the outcome, they are working to remove a ballot measure, brought by the people of Michigan, just as the SCOTUS suggested. Not because the people don't support it, but because that MAGA base will use anything, including violence, to thwart the will of people with whom they disagree.
Rev, You based this entire diatribe on one senator who is off the rails, not that he is the only one. Have you ever heard of omar who is for eliminating the cops, bush who is for eliminating the cops, aoc who is for the quote of the week and warren who is for rewarding the rich and eliminating banks. Or we could go with cruella who has never been to the border but believes it is secure and the problems there are a president who has been out of office for almost two years fault.
I hope all abortion rights go to a vote in every state so he people could be heard.
We're still waiting to hear how this is resolved.
Dave, the Michigan supreme court ruled the resolution can go forward.
I saw Geeeeez's 9/11 post. I don't think she even read the article she linked to. One nit pick to your comment in previous thread. You said, 2. It was updated in 2019. It was corrected, not updated. Here's the correction, Corrected: An earlier version of this article misidentified the school where Amy Sanders teaches. She teaches at Yarmouth High School in Yarmouth, Maine.
The relevant info is still 11 years old. I imagine a few more states have updated their standards since. It won't stop the mothershippers from being outraged, unless new standards include reference to Muslims as vermin.
Craig, you are right about "new standards." Here's my nitpik... Remember, that crowd refers to followers of Islam as 'moslem' vermin, not Muslim. And mixed race ppl somedays as mulattos.
Skud, my whole diatribe is off the rails? Untrue? False?
Guess again amigo.
Nothing I've written is based on the behavior of one senator. Senator is the titular head of the GOP reelection effort. As such, his policies are the policies the entire group of GOP Senators running must defend.
If they are unwilling to disavow those policies, then they can be legitimately seen as favoring those policies.
Multiple GOP Senators have not jusr remained silent, but like Senators Scott and Graham, have voiced a desire to make Social Security and Medicare private. This is the default position of the GOP. And it is extremist and will be bad for America.
As it regards abortion, the farce right now is strong within the GOP not just to limit access to abortion, but also to eliminate a person's ability to cross state lines to get medical care. And even though you say, as do many in the GOP, that they believe those "rights [should] go to a vote in every state so the people could be heard.", that statement is a lie.
You and few of your conservatives friends do not believe that or all of you would not remain silent while the GOP in Michigan moves to prevent a vote of the people on the basis of typed spaces in a document.
As for medicines, again, the great majority of the party does not favor giving the government the ability to negotiate better prices for Medicare clients. Why? Are they trying to make people angry with the program? Or are they favoring donors within the big pharma lobby?
So you see, none of this is from one Senator. It is the entire bunch. Sadly, I don't think President Biden was accurate. Because he is trying to leave a door open for future negotiations.
They are all MAGA Republicans. At least until they show us otherwise.
And before you try and drag the Dems into this, let's remember, the overwhelming majority of national politicians of all Dem stripes condemned the BLM violence, disavowed "defund the police". They would love to make a border deal of the type the GOP tried to support in another age, but could not get it done because the MAGA crowd didn't want it.
I know it hurts your brain, but the inability we have to move forward is squarely in the hands of the MAGA dominated GOP.
"Ron DeSantis
@GovRonDeSantis
$1,000 bonus checks are in the mail for Florida's first responders. These checks are a token of our appreciation for all they do to keep our communities safe and secure.
This makes two years in a row that we have delivered for our fire rescue and law enforcement communities."
I put this here in the comments because skud often accuses Biden and other Dems of "buying votes."
Here's the governor of Florida doing just that under the guise of "appreciating first responders". Do we think skud will accuse DeSantis of "buying votes?"
Nah.
Great piece, Dave.
If most voters had the interest to examine issues, platforms, and agendas rationally, we would be a successful democratic republic.
Opposing the rational voters are the emotionally reactive, misinformed people who've been taken in by the massive propaganda machinery of the Right.
Instead of policy, it's tribal culture wars that are amplified by propagandists to instill the resentment, scapegoating and anger the Right needs for votes.
They don't want to talk about the problems, because it's so much easier to blame the rational people for them.
Absent strong denunciations of many of the policies and legislative goals GOP leadership is proposing at a federal level and in statehouses across the land, what other conclusion can we draw?
None. Except to stop fighting stupidity and ignorance and consider moving permanently to another country were freedom still rings.
Rev I never said your diatribe was off the rails but johnson is off the rails. I'm sure you knew what I said and you were just trying to embarrass me but it didn't work. You believe the republicans are corrupt and the democrats are competent. I believe both of them are corrupt and incompetent. I support mccaskill idea of having a total redo and get some younger people in office with new thinking and ideas. Their positions of all about party is doing nothing for the country.
Ms. Shaw, I do support rewarding first responders because they do something to help others. I do not support giving money to rich privileged kids because they can't take care of them selves.
I'm reading Lord of the Flies. Again. It's a good read. Especially during these times of national unrest and conservative dishonesty. As the fascist cancer in America's Trumpublican party continues to metastasizes we may very well see the kind of social unrest and violence that is so well known in third world countries.
It is fair to say the Trumpublicans are bent on destroying the most effective democratic republic the world has ever witnessed. And replacing it with a government the fascist governments of Europe would be proud of.
Thanks for posting this Dave. Well researched the article is spot on and absolutely representative of the Trumpublican party. The once respected party of Lincoln is now the value free party of Trump. Whose motto could be Growing ignorance and greed across the fruited plains of Amerika
Sorry, don't want to get in the way of you saving democracy for the country. How many readers do you have?
Anonymous asked "How many readers do you have?"
According to my stat bar:
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Not everyone who comes here comments.
Skud... to quote a politician past, "There you go again."
You stated... " I'm sure you knew what I said and you were just trying to embarrass me but it didn't work."
I'd say I read it wrong. Plain and simple.
So I offer my mea culpa.
However, my point still stands... The GOP is for ending the guarantee of Social Security and Medicare and subjecting it to being private. Ask those pilots and employees at DELTA how ending their defined pensions and retirement systems ended up.
Every single issue I've mentioned we find a majority of the GOP leaders on the wrong side of average Americans. And in most cases, on the wrong side of a majority of their general election voters.
And because of that, Washington is at a standstill until the Trump Fever breaks.
Good news today with the biden reducing inflation bill. Government spending and raising taxes was a good plan and going from 8.1% to 8.3% inflation seems to be working. Make all those middle class and poor people pay through their nose after all he is attending a fundraiser for millionaires so why should he care.
RN, I know you walk the leftist line but even you have to admit that all politicians are in it for them corrupt and inept.
Rev, Never thought I would see the day when republicans represented the working class and the democrats represented the rich but here we are.
So far obama was right in his statement that biden can make anything a mess and the general who said he is on the wrong side of every issue.
Pulling out of Afghanistan without a plan was just the start. Inflation is temporary, the border is secure while hundreds are dying and millions cross. Our number one enemy is the republicans as millions die from illegal drugs smuggled in. Energy independence is not a big deal as he begs SA for oil and electric vehicles are the way to go as California says don't charge them. Anointing his VP as border czar and not expecting her to go there.
Gotta hand it to obama in his knowledge of his VP.
skudrunner: "Rev, Never thought I would see the day when republicans represented the working class and the democrats represented the rich but here we are."
The Democrats want universal health care (like every advanced country in the world has). The GOP opposes it. Insufficient funds for health care is the leading cause of bankruptcy for working families.
The Democrats pushed for the increase in minimum wage to help the working families. The GOP opposed it.
The Build Back Better framework will provide monthly payments to the parents of nearly 90 percent of American children for 2022 – $300 per month per child under six and $250 per month per child ages 6 to 17. That helps lift children and families out of poverty. The GOP opposed it.
President Biden wanted to negotiate drug prices and cap insulin, a huge help for struggling families with diabetes. The GOP opposed it.
Trump, the Republican POTUS gave PERMANENT tax cuts to the 1% richest of the richy rich, and made the tax cuts for the middle class IMPERMANENT. A Yuuuuge gift to the richest Americans!
When you make statement about the GOP being for the working class and the Dems for the rich, you are NOT dealing in facts. You're utterly wrong.
I didn't say the republicans were smart but your examples actually hurt the middle class because you are asking the working person to pay for the rich kids education. The BBB (build back broke) takes money from the working middle class and gives it to the poor. The rich get richer, the poor stay poor and the middle class pays for all of it. Good plan.
I feel really good about the inflation reduction act so the working person can help a rich person buy an electric car which the working person cannot afford. The ironic thing is you cannot charge the electric car because there is not enough electricity because this is another plan without thought. Wait until mayor pete implements a mileage tax on electric vehicles to pay for roads which gas taxes do currently.
Skud, I'll give you, as I have a bunch of other folks that Biden has lost some steps.
He's not the pres I wanted, but he's the guy we got. And a lot better than what we had in Trump. I hope he doesn't run again in 2024, but we'll see.
However, good or bad, he's not an existential threat the the American way of government, to democracy. He's not an extremist, is not pushing a lie of massive voter fraud in the US, stolen elections and denying the violence against the police and the Capitol on Jan 6.
He just is not.
But the MAGA GOP is.
Along with their fever dreams to make Social Security and Medicare private, enshrine a national ban on abortion and keep prices for prescriptions and insulin out of reach of many people in the middle class, how can any sensible person support that group?
Do you? Do you really believe Social Security and Medicare should be private? Do you favor a national ban on abortion? Should our government have the freedom to negotiate drug prices for Medicare patients?
Help us out amigo... you seem like an old line regular conservative. Where do you stand on these issues?
Rev, You have to hand it to the GOP when graham proposes to make it federal law to not grant abortions after 15 weeks. This goes against the wishes of the American people who want abortions to be allowed until crowning. And to show how stupid he is he picks bidens big day of promoting his stop inflation day which was truly a success.
I don't believe anyone is serious about making medicare and SS private. Bush tried to promote turning SS a choice and was defeated by his own party so that is not going to happen. I never understood why insulin is so expensive since many companies make it. One of the problems is health insurance makes RX's more expensive along with healthcare in general but I doubt that will change because people like their no question healthcare, except those who don't have it.
And the merry-go-round the mulberry bush continues.
America's politics have actually become mundane as well as damaging to our democratic republic.
Dave and Skud
Can any of us point to ANY US president who didn't disappoint us one way or another? I can't.
Skud wishes there was another Reagan, but ignores me when I point out to him that Reagan had one of the MOST CORRUPT administrations in post-war history! That is a fact. And it was Reagan who put a tax on Social Security income. How did that help the middle class?
I agree that Joe Biden wasn't everyone's first choice, but he certainly is not the danger to our democratic republic that Trump and his minions are.
Right now, at this point in our country's history, we are facing a real threat to our democratic republic, and it's a threat coming from the Trumpublican Party and their corrupt leader.
Ms.Shaw, You give trump followers far to much credit. There are just not enough of them to threaten our democratic republic.
Even though members of the Reagan administration were corrupt he did help us survive jimmy. I guess we can say the next president will help us survive the joey administration because he is making carter look semi competent, who would have thought that would happened.
Among the more ignorant comments by skud the following were so boneheaded that I had to say something.
Exhibits A - D
A:This goes against the wishes of the American people who want abortions to be allowed until crowning.
A - your ignorant take on medical procedures has been noted before. Here you are just tripling down with your stupidity. If an abortion has to occur just before birth then something catastrophic has occurred with either the fetus or the pregnant person. Compassion is called for, something I've yet to see you exhibit for anyone outside your own tribe. That potential human was wanted, cared for, and you dismiss the parents suffering as oh, it's just a lib who wants to kill a kid. That's what you are saying, plain and simple skud, and it's vile.
Abortion is health care plain and simple.
B: I don't believe anyone is serious about making medicare and SS private
B - When someone tells you who they are, believe them. 'They' said that they weren't going to impose a national abortion ban either and yet, legislation is ready to do just that.
Anyone who lives as an other knows exactly how seriously to take the threats made by the Trumpies and Christian Nationalists. History is a harsh teacher.
C: I never understood why insulin is so expensive since many companies make it.
C - Greed. The person who invented insulin gave the patent away so that this life saving drug would be readily available for all who needed it. Robber Barons paired with Big Pharma and the rest, as they say, is history. Aren't you an old? Didn't you live through this - how are you ignorant of how this happened?
D: Ms.Shaw, You give trump followers far to much credit. There are just not enough of them to threaten our democratic republic.
D - You don't see the threat to our Democratic Republic? 140 injured law enforcement officials would like a word with you and whomever is filling your brain with spoiled haggis. Trumpies are in every facet of our government. This is a fact, not opinion.
I get the feeling you (not so) secretly believe living under Christian rule wouldn't be so bad for you and yours. And that may be true for a while but eventually all theocracies devolve into unending purity tests which always leads to unimaginable horror and death. There is a reason the founding fathers wrote the First Amendment the way they did. Did you learn nothing from the Spanish Inquisition?
skud - it is said it's impossible to persuade a human of facts when it is in their own best interest to feign ignorance. Ms Shaw has provided you with fact after fact only for you to ignore everything she says.
Is it because she's a she? Curious minds are curious.
Grey One talks sass
Sadly, the far-right Trumpers and other Conservatives reduce the abortion issue to incendiary phrases like "baby killers," and this incredibly stupid remark made by one of the Mother Ship's regular commenters, a male, no less!:
"The polls are as easily manipulated as the mail-in vote counting. I can’t bring myself to believe that people are stupid enough to believe that SCotUS actually TOOK AWAY a RIGHT that was IN THE FRIGGIN CONSTITUTION giving women the freedom to slaughter their babies to avoid stretchmarks."
There it is in two sentences, a typical far-right ignorant statement on why girls and women want control over their bodies and life. There is so much misogyny in that wildly stupid comment that one doesn't know where to begin. But since the person who wrote that is so woefully uninformed, it doesn't mater what we say to counter his ignorance because when someone writes that rubbish, one knows that they're irredeemably lost in propaganda and hatred.
PS. I wonder if the sailor on the Mother Ship who wrote that would have the guts to repeat that monstrous lie to the 10-year-old child who was raped and whose state wanted to force this child to carry the pregnancy to term?
Grey, Personal attacks aside there is nothing I can can say about your ramble except wow.
Ms. Shaw makes sense from her side, I just happen to disagree with some of the ideas she has. The good thing is she is confident enough in her views to allow conflicting opinions, makes for a good discussion.
Complete ignorance (and hate) has found a willing home in the Trumpublican party. And just watch as it multiplies. Civil unrest in major proportions awaits. If ya thought J6 2021 was violent just wait. The worst is yet to come.
skud, I attacked your opinions, not you. Are you feeling defensive because you seem defensive.
There are no "alternative" facts skud. Facts, by their very definition are, well, facts. They are binary in their logic in that either they are true or not. There are no 'sides' when dealing with what is aka facts. Shaw is careful when writing to state what is opinion and what is fact. It's why I follow her blog.
If you had disagreed with her opinions I would have kept quiet. In this post you challenged facts with opinion. You are comparing oranges with bowling balls. Your logic is faulty.
An aside - if you don't want spoiled haggis in your brainpan perhaps you should broaden your viewing and reading horizons. For someone who has previously claimed to not watch Faux News you sure do have all their talking points on speed dial.
Grey
A, The leftists want abortions up until birth so what you say does not ring true. My not understanding medicine is truly laughable if you had a clue. Abortion is healthcare I agree with if there are restrictions. If a women can't decide in the first trimester if she want to keep it then she has other issues. If she has medical issues after that time she should be allowed but again that will be a states issue.
B, No one has a national abortion ban they just leave it to the state's to decide. I remember a presidential candidate say he was not for the green new deal then gets in office and is spending billions on promoting it. Of course he is the same one who said he will unite the country
C, You pick and easy answer instead of a factual one. What is the real answer in you opinion
D, It is convenient to blame trump for all things bad. Who are you blaming for 2 million illegals crossing the border. Who are you blaming for the multiple deaths of those crossing, who do you blame for the 300 deaths a day from illegal drugs. Who do you blame for the billions of dollars of damage and multiple deaths during the peaceful riots of 2020-21. I know it was trumps fault.
skudrunner: "A, The leftists want abortions up until birth so what you say does not ring true."
There is no such thing as a 9-month abortion. To repeat this lie and state that leftist "want abortions up until birth" is reprehensible. A 9-month abortion would be infanticide, and that is a crime. And that doesn't happen to a viable fetus.
The only late term abortions are those that are performed because the fetus has no hope of viability once born because of severe birth defects, such as spina bifida, or if the fetus has died in utero and continuing the carrying of a dead fetus would kill the mother. Only people with agendas to stir up controversy repeat this lie. A viable fetus is NOT EVER aborted at 9 months. That would mean the doctors would deliver the fetus and then kill it. Who believes that rot?
skud: "B, No one has a national abortion ban they just leave it to the state's to decide."
WRONG AGAIN! Sen. Graham will introduce legislation for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks.
The rest of your comment is just warmed-over FAUX NOOZ talking points.
The jargon (read agenda) or sound bites skud uses is the the same as the con extreme with a notable exception or two. Keep working at skud, by the age of 95 you might have broke the hold of the right. But not betting on it. :-)
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