Opinion: Living in red America can be life-threatening
It should come as no surprise that the highest rates for covid-19 deaths and murders are found mainly in red states. A political mind-set that prioritizes racial resentment, anti-science zealotry and manufactured cultural wedge issues is not likely to be conducive to long, healthy lives. Indeed, antagonism toward “elites” (e.g., experts) often impedes common-sense measures that save lives.
Steven H. Woolf, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, writes in the Journal of American Medicine: “Disparities in health across the 50 states are growing, a trend that began in the 1990s. For example, in 1990, life expectancy in New York was lower than in Oklahoma, but the trajectories separated sharply in the 1990s and, by 2016, New York ranked third in life expectancy, whereas Oklahoma ranked 45th.” Moreover, “the widening gap cannot be explained by changes in the racial and ethnic composition of states, because the same trend occurred within racial and ethnic groups.”
Instead, Woolf says the politics of red states is killing their residents. “Conservative governors increasingly use preemption, the authority to override local governments, to block liberal health policies (e.g., indoor smoking bans),” he notes. “States have preempted local regulations on nutrition (e.g., menu labeling, food deserts) and, as of 2013, 45 states had enacted statutes to limit local firearm regulations.”
This is also true of public health measures to address covid-19, making residents in red states more likely to die of the disease than others:
Some elected officials made a political issue out of challenging scientific evidence, embracing dubious theories, and labeling public health safeguards as infringements on personal freedom. Conservative governors used preemption to reverse efforts by mayors and school districts to control local transmission rates.
These policy choices may have been associated with increased COVID-19–related morbidity and mortality. States that rushed to curtail lockdowns in the spring of 2020 experienced more protracted surges in infections and disruptions to their economies. In 2021, excess deaths were disproportionately concentrated in states where resistance to COVID-19 vaccination was prevalent. For example, excess death rates in Florida and Georgia (more than 200 deaths per 100 000) were much higher than in states with largely vaccinated populations such as New York (112 per 100 000), New Jersey (73 deaths per 100 000), and Massachusetts (50 per 100 000). States that resisted public health protections experienced higher numbers of excess deaths during the Delta variant surge in the fall of 2021. Between August and December 2021, Florida experienced more than triple the number of excess deaths (29 252) as New York (8786), despite both states having similar population counts (21.7 million and 19.3 million, respectively).
Eight of the 10 states with the highest covid death rates adjusted for age have Republican governors: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana. (Nevada and Kentucky are the exceptions, coming in 6th and 10th, respectively.) Similarly, nine of the 10 states with the worst vaccination rates — Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, West Virginia and North Dakota — have GOP governors. Of these, only Louisiana is led by a Democrat, and all of them voted for defeated former president Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
The same divergence between red and blue states exists with respect to murder rates, as well. The center-left think tank Third Way reports: “In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.” Even more dramatically, “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”
The right-wing media racket would have you believe this is a problem of blue cities, but, as Third Way reports: “Beyond the top 10, we looked at the 2020 murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump and compared it with the murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden. The 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents rate in Trump states was 40% higher than the 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents in Biden states.”
Opinion: Living in red America can be life-threatening
It should come as no surprise that the highest rates for covid-19 deaths and murders are found mainly in red states. A political mind-set that prioritizes racial resentment, anti-science zealotry and manufactured cultural wedge issues is not likely to be conducive to long, healthy lives. Indeed, antagonism toward “elites” (e.g., experts) often impedes common-sense measures that save lives.
Steven H. Woolf, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, writes in the Journal of American Medicine: “Disparities in health across the 50 states are growing, a trend that began in the 1990s. For example, in 1990, life expectancy in New York was lower than in Oklahoma, but the trajectories separated sharply in the 1990s and, by 2016, New York ranked third in life expectancy, whereas Oklahoma ranked 45th.” Moreover, “the widening gap cannot be explained by changes in the racial and ethnic composition of states, because the same trend occurred within racial and ethnic groups.”
Instead, Woolf says the politics of red states is killing their residents. “Conservative governors increasingly use preemption, the authority to override local governments, to block liberal health policies (e.g., indoor smoking bans),” he notes. “States have preempted local regulations on nutrition (e.g., menu labeling, food deserts) and, as of 2013, 45 states had enacted statutes to limit local firearm regulations.”
This is also true of public health measures to address covid-19, making residents in red states more likely to die of the disease than others:
Some elected officials made a political issue out of challenging scientific evidence, embracing dubious theories, and labeling public health safeguards as infringements on personal freedom. Conservative governors used preemption to reverse efforts by mayors and school districts to control local transmission rates.
These policy choices may have been associated with increased COVID-19–related morbidity and mortality. States that rushed to curtail lockdowns in the spring of 2020 experienced more protracted surges in infections and disruptions to their economies. In 2021, excess deaths were disproportionately concentrated in states where resistance to COVID-19 vaccination was prevalent. For example, excess death rates in Florida and Georgia (more than 200 deaths per 100 000) were much higher than in states with largely vaccinated populations such as New York (112 per 100 000), New Jersey (73 deaths per 100 000), and Massachusetts (50 per 100 000). States that resisted public health protections experienced higher numbers of excess deaths during the Delta variant surge in the fall of 2021. Between August and December 2021, Florida experienced more than triple the number of excess deaths (29 252) as New York (8786), despite both states having similar population counts (21.7 million and 19.3 million, respectively).
Eight of the 10 states with the highest covid death rates adjusted for age have Republican governors: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana. (Nevada and Kentucky are the exceptions, coming in 6th and 10th, respectively.) Similarly, nine of the 10 states with the worst vaccination rates — Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, West Virginia and North Dakota — have GOP governors. Of these, only Louisiana is led by a Democrat, and all of them voted for defeated former president Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
The same divergence between red and blue states exists with respect to murder rates, as well. The center-left think tank Third Way reports: “In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.” Even more dramatically, “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”
The right-wing media racket would have you believe this is a problem of blue cities, but, as Third Way reports: “Beyond the top 10, we looked at the 2020 murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump and compared it with the murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden. The 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents rate in Trump states was 40% higher than the 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents in Biden states.”
Opinion: Living in red America can be life-threatening
It should come as no surprise that the highest rates for covid-19 deaths and murders are found mainly in red states. A political mind-set that prioritizes racial resentment, anti-science zealotry and manufactured cultural wedge issues is not likely to be conducive to long, healthy lives. Indeed, antagonism toward “elites” (e.g., experts) often impedes common-sense measures that save lives.
Steven H. Woolf, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, writes in the Journal of American Medicine: “Disparities in health across the 50 states are growing, a trend that began in the 1990s. For example, in 1990, life expectancy in New York was lower than in Oklahoma, but the trajectories separated sharply in the 1990s and, by 2016, New York ranked third in life expectancy, whereas Oklahoma ranked 45th.” Moreover, “the widening gap cannot be explained by changes in the racial and ethnic composition of states, because the same trend occurred within racial and ethnic groups.”
Instead, Woolf says the politics of red states is killing their residents. “Conservative governors increasingly use preemption, the authority to override local governments, to block liberal health policies (e.g., indoor smoking bans),” he notes. “States have preempted local regulations on nutrition (e.g., menu labeling, food deserts) and, as of 2013, 45 states had enacted statutes to limit local firearm regulations.”
This is also true of public health measures to address covid-19, making residents in red states more likely to die of the disease than others:
Some elected officials made a political issue out of challenging scientific evidence, embracing dubious theories, and labeling public health safeguards as infringements on personal freedom. Conservative governors used preemption to reverse efforts by mayors and school districts to control local transmission rates.
These policy choices may have been associated with increased COVID-19–related morbidity and mortality. States that rushed to curtail lockdowns in the spring of 2020 experienced more protracted surges in infections and disruptions to their economies. In 2021, excess deaths were disproportionately concentrated in states where resistance to COVID-19 vaccination was prevalent. For example, excess death rates in Florida and Georgia (more than 200 deaths per 100 000) were much higher than in states with largely vaccinated populations such as New York (112 per 100 000), New Jersey (73 deaths per 100 000), and Massachusetts (50 per 100 000). States that resisted public health protections experienced higher numbers of excess deaths during the Delta variant surge in the fall of 2021. Between August and December 2021, Florida experienced more than triple the number of excess deaths (29 252) as New York (8786), despite both states having similar population counts (21.7 million and 19.3 million, respectively).
Eight of the 10 states with the highest covid death rates adjusted for age have Republican governors: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana. (Nevada and Kentucky are the exceptions, coming in 6th and 10th, respectively.) Similarly, nine of the 10 states with the worst vaccination rates — Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, West Virginia and North Dakota — have GOP governors. Of these, only Louisiana is led by a Democrat, and all of them voted for defeated former president Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
The same divergence between red and blue states exists with respect to murder rates, as well. The center-left think tank Third Way reports: “In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.” Even more dramatically, “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”
The right-wing media racket would have you believe this is a problem of blue cities, but, as Third Way reports: “Beyond the top 10, we looked at the 2020 murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump and compared it with the murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden. The 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents rate in Trump states was 40% higher than the 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents in Biden states.”
Does anyone in this party remember Stormin’ Norman? Anyone remember Colin Powell? How’s about Eisenhower? Maybe General MacArthur? You know, Commander and Chief and General Corporal? Or was it Corporal General? Maybe Sargent Private? Captain General? Corporal General, Five Star? Yo? Anyone?
You know what’s funny? Commander and Chief Bone Spurs went to military school and the CIC went to college.
Opinion: Living in red America can be life-threatening
It should come as no surprise that the highest rates for covid-19 deaths and murders are found mainly in red states. A political mind-set that prioritizes racial resentment, anti-science zealotry and manufactured cultural wedge issues is not likely to be conducive to long, healthy lives. Indeed, antagonism toward “elites” (e.g., experts) often impedes common-sense measures that save lives.
Steven H. Woolf, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, writes in the Journal of American Medicine: “Disparities in health across the 50 states are growing, a trend that began in the 1990s. For example, in 1990, life expectancy in New York was lower than in Oklahoma, but the trajectories separated sharply in the 1990s and, by 2016, New York ranked third in life expectancy, whereas Oklahoma ranked 45th.” Moreover, “the widening gap cannot be explained by changes in the racial and ethnic composition of states, because the same trend occurred within racial and ethnic groups.”
Instead, Woolf says the politics of red states is killing their residents. “Conservative governors increasingly use preemption, the authority to override local governments, to block liberal health policies (e.g., indoor smoking bans),” he notes. “States have preempted local regulations on nutrition (e.g., menu labeling, food deserts) and, as of 2013, 45 states had enacted statutes to limit local firearm regulations.”
This is also true of public health measures to address covid-19, making residents in red states more likely to die of the disease than others:
Some elected officials made a political issue out of challenging scientific evidence, embracing dubious theories, and labeling public health safeguards as infringements on personal freedom. Conservative governors used preemption to reverse efforts by mayors and school districts to control local transmission rates.
These policy choices may have been associated with increased COVID-19–related morbidity and mortality. States that rushed to curtail lockdowns in the spring of 2020 experienced more protracted surges in infections and disruptions to their economies. In 2021, excess deaths were disproportionately concentrated in states where resistance to COVID-19 vaccination was prevalent. For example, excess death rates in Florida and Georgia (more than 200 deaths per 100 000) were much higher than in states with largely vaccinated populations such as New York (112 per 100 000), New Jersey (73 deaths per 100 000), and Massachusetts (50 per 100 000). States that resisted public health protections experienced higher numbers of excess deaths during the Delta variant surge in the fall of 2021. Between August and December 2021, Florida experienced more than triple the number of excess deaths (29 252) as New York (8786), despite both states having similar population counts (21.7 million and 19.3 million, respectively).
Eight of the 10 states with the highest covid death rates adjusted for age have Republican governors: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana. (Nevada and Kentucky are the exceptions, coming in 6th and 10th, respectively.) Similarly, nine of the 10 states with the worst vaccination rates — Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, West Virginia and North Dakota — have GOP governors. Of these, only Louisiana is led by a Democrat, and all of them voted for defeated former president Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
The same divergence between red and blue states exists with respect to murder rates, as well. The center-left think tank Third Way reports: “In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.” Even more dramatically, “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”
The right-wing media racket would have you believe this is a problem of blue cities, but, as Third Way reports: “Beyond the top 10, we looked at the 2020 murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump and compared it with the murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden. The 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents rate in Trump states was 40% higher than the 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents in Biden states.”
Violent and threatening political rhetoric, normalized and encouraged by former president Donald Trump, is metastasizing in the Republican Party. As nearly a third of GOP voters tell pollsters that violence might be required to “save our country,” some officeholders and candidates who espouse menacing views are rewarded with fundraising and social media success. Too often, mainstream party leaders — the very voices who should be drawing the line at hate speech — are silent.
Silence is complicity. By not speaking out even in response to overt calls for lethal vengeance and death threats against political foes, Republican officials send a clear message that violence itself is a plausible alternative to debate, and even a palatable one.
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,384
Heather Cox Richardson posted this last night:
The third story that has flown under the radar is that the chair of
the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Florida senator Rick
Scott, has provided a blueprint for what the Republicans will do if they
get a majority in the next election. In “An 11-point plan to rescue
America,” produced by the group responsible for electing Republican
senators, Scott promised that the Republicans “will protect, defend, and
promote the American Family at all costs.” The plan continues: “The
nuclear family is crucial to civilization, it is God’s design for
humanity, and it must be protected and celebrated. To say otherwise is
to deny science. The fanatical left seeks to devalue and redefine the
traditional family, as they undermine parents and attempt to replace
them with government programs. We will not allow Socialism to place the
needs of the state ahead of the family.”
The plan promises that
children will say the Pledge of Allegiance and “learn that America is a
great country,” they will not learn critical race theory, and discussion
of race will be banned from American society. The country will build
former president Trump’s border wall and name it after him.
To
protect the family, the Republican plan calls for destroying the
business regulation, social safety net, federal promotion of
infrastructure, and protection of civil rights that Americans have
embraced since the 1930s and handing power over to the wealthy. It
promises to “grow America’s economy, starve Washington’s economy, and
stop socialism,” by which Republicans mean not international socialism
in which the government owns the means of production—factories—for that
is not on the table in the U.S. Instead, they mean a system in which
voters can create a government that regulates business and uses tax
dollars to provide services for all Americans.
Republicans, the
plan says, will dramatically increase taxes on Americans earning less
than $100,000, raising $1 trillion over ten years, although since they
will also cut the Internal Revenue Service by 50%, the government might
be hard pressed to collect those taxes. Since “government should not be
doing anything that the private sector can do better and cheaper,” they
will make sure all laws expire after five years, ending them with the
idea that Congress will simply repass good laws. They would end Social
Security (which, by the way, protects children as well as the elderly
and disabled), Medicare, Medicaid, and so on. They will sell off all
“non-essential” government assets, buildings, and land (are national
parks essential?) and cut funding to states “other than disaster
relief.”
This plan is “easily the most radical document put
forward by a member of the leadership of a major political party in
modern times,” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote.
“Americans deserve to know what we will do,” Scott said in his introduction to the plan.
Indeed, we do.
So that brings up questions:
1. How likely are Republicans to get the majority?
2. What the hell does "God's design" have to do with science?
3. Do they really thing removing civil rights will lead to anything other than chaos and violence?
4. Do they really think everyone who makes less than $100K per year (most of us) having our taxed "dramatically increased" is goin to just sit around and take that shit? Same with removing Social Security and Medicare?
5. How likely is this 11 point plan will be implemented?
6. If it is implemented, any suggestions on how to get the hell out of here?
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
If anyone is paying attention to the SCOTUS nominee hearings, the new recycled narrative is that President Biden supports child pornography because of this nominee’s allegedly going light with her sentencing. It’s also the narrative that the war in Ukraine is happening so bus loads of children can be taken by human traffickers. It’s the new Comet Pizza, joe Biden flavor.
Does Pearl Jam really think that America looks like a black woman? Does Pearl Jam also think that there are no Asians in America?
Well Biden only had one nominee, so he had to make a decision.
But for the record, there are 21MM Black women in the US, so at some level, yeah she does. Does the pick offend you?
I've discussed this in depth here already so I'm not going down that road again but feel free to look through my past comments if you really care. (spoiler: I know you don't and that is ok)
Comments
-EV 8/14/93
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Opinion: Living in red America can be life-threatening
It should come as no surprise that the highest rates for covid-19 deaths and murders are found mainly in red states. A political mind-set that prioritizes racial resentment, anti-science zealotry and manufactured cultural wedge issues is not likely to be conducive to long, healthy lives. Indeed, antagonism toward “elites” (e.g., experts) often impedes common-sense measures that save lives.Steven H. Woolf, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, writes in the Journal of American Medicine: “Disparities in health across the 50 states are growing, a trend that began in the 1990s. For example, in 1990, life expectancy in New York was lower than in Oklahoma, but the trajectories separated sharply in the 1990s and, by 2016, New York ranked third in life expectancy, whereas Oklahoma ranked 45th.” Moreover, “the widening gap cannot be explained by changes in the racial and ethnic composition of states, because the same trend occurred within racial and ethnic groups.”
Instead, Woolf says the politics of red states is killing their residents. “Conservative governors increasingly use preemption, the authority to override local governments, to block liberal health policies (e.g., indoor smoking bans),” he notes. “States have preempted local regulations on nutrition (e.g., menu labeling, food deserts) and, as of 2013, 45 states had enacted statutes to limit local firearm regulations.”
This is also true of public health measures to address covid-19, making residents in red states more likely to die of the disease than others:
Eight of the 10 states with the highest covid death rates adjusted for age have Republican governors: Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Arkansas and Indiana. (Nevada and Kentucky are the exceptions, coming in 6th and 10th, respectively.) Similarly, nine of the 10 states with the worst vaccination rates — Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Idaho, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, West Virginia and North Dakota — have GOP governors. Of these, only Louisiana is led by a Democrat, and all of them voted for defeated former president Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
The same divergence between red and blue states exists with respect to murder rates, as well. The center-left think tank Third Way reports: “In 2020, per capita murder rates were 40% higher in states won by Donald Trump than those won by Joe Biden.” Even more dramatically, “8 of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2020 voted for the Republican presidential nominee in every election this century.”
The right-wing media racket would have you believe this is a problem of blue cities, but, as Third Way reports: “Beyond the top 10, we looked at the 2020 murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Donald Trump and compared it with the murder rates in the 25 states that voted for Joe Biden. The 8.20 murders per 100,000 residents rate in Trump states was 40% higher than the 5.78 murders per 100,000 residents in Biden states.”
Opinion | Living in red America can be life-threatening - The Washington Post
You know what’s funny? Commander and Chief Bone Spurs went to military school and the CIC went to college.
Mark Meadows' voter registration under investigation by state officials in North Carolina
Violent and threatening political rhetoric, normalized and encouraged by former president Donald Trump, is metastasizing in the Republican Party. As nearly a third of GOP voters tell pollsters that violence might be required to “save our country,” some officeholders and candidates who espouse menacing views are rewarded with fundraising and social media success. Too often, mainstream party leaders — the very voices who should be drawing the line at hate speech — are silent.
Silence is complicity. By not speaking out even in response to overt calls for lethal vengeance and death threats against political foes, Republican officials send a clear message that violence itself is a plausible alternative to debate, and even a palatable one.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/19/trumps-violent-political-rhetoric-is-metastasizing-republican-party/
The third story that has flown under the radar is that the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Florida senator Rick Scott, has provided a blueprint for what the Republicans will do if they get a majority in the next election. In “An 11-point plan to rescue America,” produced by the group responsible for electing Republican senators, Scott promised that the Republicans “will protect, defend, and promote the American Family at all costs.” The plan continues: “The nuclear family is crucial to civilization, it is God’s design for humanity, and it must be protected and celebrated. To say otherwise is to deny science. The fanatical left seeks to devalue and redefine the traditional family, as they undermine parents and attempt to replace them with government programs. We will not allow Socialism to place the needs of the state ahead of the family.”
The plan promises that children will say the Pledge of Allegiance and “learn that America is a great country,” they will not learn critical race theory, and discussion of race will be banned from American society. The country will build former president Trump’s border wall and name it after him.
To protect the family, the Republican plan calls for destroying the business regulation, social safety net, federal promotion of infrastructure, and protection of civil rights that Americans have embraced since the 1930s and handing power over to the wealthy. It promises to “grow America’s economy, starve Washington’s economy, and stop socialism,” by which Republicans mean not international socialism in which the government owns the means of production—factories—for that is not on the table in the U.S. Instead, they mean a system in which voters can create a government that regulates business and uses tax dollars to provide services for all Americans.
Republicans, the plan says, will dramatically increase taxes on Americans earning less than $100,000, raising $1 trillion over ten years, although since they will also cut the Internal Revenue Service by 50%, the government might be hard pressed to collect those taxes. Since “government should not be doing anything that the private sector can do better and cheaper,” they will make sure all laws expire after five years, ending them with the idea that Congress will simply repass good laws. They would end Social Security (which, by the way, protects children as well as the elderly and disabled), Medicare, Medicaid, and so on. They will sell off all “non-essential” government assets, buildings, and land (are national parks essential?) and cut funding to states “other than disaster relief.”
This plan is “easily the most radical document put forward by a member of the leadership of a major political party in modern times,” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote.
“Americans deserve to know what we will do,” Scott said in his introduction to the plan.
Indeed, we do.
So that brings up questions:
1. How likely are Republicans to get the majority?
2. What the hell does "God's design" have to do with science?
3. Do they really thing removing civil rights will lead to anything other than chaos and violence?
4. Do they really think everyone who makes less than $100K per year (most of us) having our taxed "dramatically increased" is goin to just sit around and take that shit? Same with removing Social Security and Medicare?
5. How likely is this 11 point plan will be implemented?
6. If it is implemented, any suggestions on how to get the hell out of here?
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Does Pearl Jam really think that America looks like a black woman? Does Pearl Jam also think that there are no Asians in America?
But maybe if Clarence doesn’t pull through, President Biden will announce he’ll appoint the first Asian American to SCOTUS?
But for the record, there are 21MM Black women in the US, so at some level, yeah she does. Does the pick offend you?