The point of political parties is to win elections by satisfying the policy desires of a sufficient number of people. But within that there is also a need to lead. After all the original governments back when we were all tribes were the religious leaders who told us how to live a community oriented life in a healthy righteous manner. And they organized society.
So when the GOP followed Grover Norquist into the abyss of all we stand for is cutting taxes and letting people live their lives however they want to, they drove the moderate voters, who used to be Rockefeller Republicans or even Reagan/George Bush I Republicans into the Democratic party. These people were called RINO's because they believed that women deserve the right to control their bodies, that all people are deserving of respect and legal protection, that the government plays a role in keeping society safe from financial misdeeds and that government should play a role in helping people have access to health care and a funded retirement. It goes without saying that people of all persuasions want a strong national defense used intelligently to protect us.
Without the RINO's, what is left in the GOP had a big fault line covered over by the GOP Congressional pandering to the Tea Party, Religious Right, and the racist tinged Obama is a Kenyan Muslim movement. Donald Trump was a vocal member of that latter group for reasons that I cannot figure out. And when Mitt Romney accepted Donald Trump's endorsement in 2012, he was implicitly offering his approval of that type of untrue slander in the mainstream political process. So too when the GOP Congressional leaders did not punish the S.C. Congressman who yelled out "You Lie" at the President during a State of the Union speech. So too when Congressman and Senators run around the country spouting untruth statement's about the President's policies and don't disavow the slander on GOP talk radio and Fox News. They accepted all that to gain the votes of the people who listen to it.
Well a lot of those people are unhinged racists who don't like anybody who isn't white and Protestant. And they are anti-government except when it comes to their social benefits: the V.A., Medicare and Social Security. So they are going to support someone who says he is there guy. These people don't make a lot of money. They need their government benefits. I think the reason Donald Trump knew to tap into these people is that they are his customers in his casinos.
And that is the fault line in the GOP today. This Presidential Primary has brought out the fact that a substantial percentage of the GOP bases likes government benefits and wants a strong government program to validate their racist beliefs. And they are fearful of the foreign and want the government to protect them from the foreign.
The establishment wing of the GOP drove out the RINO's, who would be supporting John Kasich or Jeb Bush today, only to find out that they need those RINO's to beat back the people who wanted to keep Jim Crow in place 60 years ago. Remember, Obama Care was a GOP think tank design to keep the market involved in health insurance and avoid a Single Payer Plan. That is why RINO's support Obamacare.
And one should remember that both Kansas and Louisiana, which implemented Grover Norquist's preferred policies now have state budgets that are in crisis with services being cut and GOP people upset by those cuts in services. These services must be paid for, but in Kansas at least, people who own business don't pay any state income tax on their earnings now in the belief that these people will reinvest their money in their business and hire people who will pay taxes, but instead many save the taxes for retirement and have not hired anybody additional.
Link to Tom Egan column, "The Beast is Us"
No comments:
Post a Comment