In this day of coronavirus, beware of Republican deceit and duality. Republican leaders never operate in pursuit of nurture for all, even in crisis. All recent evidence points to this fact. Only a few examples need suffice.
When Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, it became immediately clear that recovering from the Wall-Street-induced crisis was not number one on the GOP leadership’s hit parade. It was destroying a Democratic president. Right away, the stimulus bill to heal the tanking economy was weakened considerably by Republicans for fear of it spurring a too-rapid success for Obama.
By October 23, 2010, Republican, Moscow Mitch, majority leader in the Senate, made that clear when he declared, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Similar priorities continue.
All of these priorities have been made even more clear with Republican behavior since the 2016 presidential election. Keeping an unfit president in office has taken more priority than the interests of our country. Republicans have enabled a lawless, illegitimate president to endanger the security of our country and to steal taxpayer money for his own benefit. Trump’s performance regarding the coronavirus has made that absolutely clear.
So, the point is that we cannot and should not trust the actions and the motivations of any Republican leader at whatever level of government, whether it’s voting at the state level or legislation to ease the suffering of all Americans, and not just corporate interests during the coronavirus crisis.
Nationally, Donald Trump, by word, deed, and misdeed has proven his gross incompetence in dealing with the coronavirus, which is a matter of life and death. Therefore, we cannot trust him to perform any of his executive duties. Alliances are already being formed on a regional basis, state governors banding together to plan for the pandemic we are in the midst of.
Republican state governors like Mike DeWine in Ohio is declaring a statewide health emergency in order to postpone today’s primary election due to the coronavirus, overriding a judge’s ruling. He is delaying the election until June 2nd.
But considering Republican efforts to restrict voting in normal times, one must be assured that voting is fully open to all with a mail-in effort for that June 2nd election. Disenfranchisement by state Republican leaders in many forms has been permitted by newly-constructed right-wing courts and by national Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell who squashes any voting rights bills in the Senate.
Mitch McConnell has to be monitored and watched closely to assure he is quickly looking after the vital interests of all Americans who are struck physically and financially by shutdowns and threats due to the coronavirus. So far, he has failed this test. He took last weekend off when the House was drafting an emergency response to the virus threat and at this juncture has not taken up the bill or investigated its provisions. Only after the critical response to a plan for a week-long recess did Moscow Mitch relent and just take the weekend off.
Republicans already have committed to only 20% of Americans being paid sick leave and Democrats, for sake of expediency, went along. This means, for example, that the employees processing your fast food may be forced to work sick and thus potentially spread the virus unknowingly to each other and to customers. Republicans never consider the risks they impose on the general population. Their self-interest disguised as ideology won’t permit looking beyond their own interests.
Of course, Donald Trump is a special case. All his life he has spent stiffing all working associates, exploiting the legal and political system to always win. He is the perfect economic predator who leeches off of everyone else less powerful. Therefore, he is a presidential misfit whose endeavors center on scamming everyone, including the taxpayers for all he can get. There is absolutely no room for the people in his narrow focus.
Republicans actually set the table for his arrival. Nothing is more important than achieving their mission of first getting elected utilizing the vast resources of crony capitalists. When elected, their time is consumed by staying in office, using any underhanded means and making sure they keep the favor of their financial supporters. In effect, the people be damned.
To make sure the people of their constituency keep re-electing them, they support the media structure that keeps their constituents misinformed, coordinating with outlets like Fox News and supporting them with lies, misinformation, and social polarization, talking points and support supplied by their political party structure. If the lawlessness and near-treasonous behavior of Donald Trump keeps punching their re-election tickets, so be it.
Part of this whole game is demonizing government, the main means to bring equality to the people, throwing more money to the rich to finance the whole anti-democracy scheme, and keeping the majority poor, insecure, poorly educated and misinformed.
The current need for good government tends to unmask Trump’s hollowing out of government, including firing the pandemic readiness team, speaking to not just his gross incompetence but his total lack of principle. It’s difficult for Republicans to continue their usual demonization of government, something so necessary in this crisis.
So, in addition, to fending for yourself, hopefully through democratic leaders in your own state, watch Republicans at the federal level to make sure they are not subsidizing their corporate friends, as they are used to doing, at the expense of the vast majority of Americans who, with the proper help, can keep this economy from absolutely tanking during this crisis and survive it themselves.
And make sure Dems stay on the right track and the election continues. We have got to kick out Trump and the Republican supporters of his crime family.
