More About Republicans

When Mitch McConnell was asked what Republicans were planning to counter the political victory of the passage of the American Relief Act his answer was to eliminate the estate tax.  While mind boggling in its lack of benefit for anyone impacted by the Corona Virus McConnell told America exactly what was wrong with Republicans in control of government.  To begin with contrast the difference between the Democratic and Republican ways to deal with the Coronavirus crisis.  Democrats enacted legislation aimed at helping a large number of people who were economically impacted by layoffs, business closures, and other economic fallout resulting from the crisis.  Republicans reacted by criticizing the level of spending (even though a Republican, Trump, proposed a $2000 per person stimulus check) and proposed (but did not enact!) legislation that would help only about 1800 Americans who didn’t need help and who have seen their wealth grow by billions during the course of the crisis.  This also points to the fundamental difference between the political philosophies of the two major parties.  Republicans want to turn back the clock to a time when the country was primarily governed and controlled by white males.  On the other hand, Democrats have been victorious winning majorities in the last eight Presidential elections, in part, by welcoming and courting minorities and women.  While Trump received a record number of votes in 2020 Biden received almost 10 million more.  And, Republican party membership is at a record low being outpaced by not only Democratic party registrations but also by registrations of independents.  One would think this would spur Republicans to re-think and abandon the Trump approach but fortunately for Democrats Republicans are resisting change.  And, this resistance to change defines the real basic difference between the two political philosophies.  Republicans hate change and want things to return to the past.  Democrats have identified the problems of the past and want to correct those problems and move the country forward.  Democrats have finally appeared to realize that trickle down is not only an economic myth but also a philosophical myth.  The top 10% are no better when it comes to either governing or solving society’s problems.  For too long America has looked at the most wealthy and most successful for guidance in governing and has finally discovered their flaws.  They cannot govern.  At best, all they can do is cut their own tax bills and in doing so cut the very services the vast majority of Americans are dependent upon.  Cuts to education have eliminated craft training in schools so there are no longer skilled graduates of technical institutions beig prepared to solve the manufacturing problems that have driven basic manufacturing away from the country.  Cuts to housing assistance, child health care, and health care for individuals have led to more desperation and loss of hope for millions making them susceptible to the unkept promises of the likes of a Donald Trump.  A country like the United States is always going to be faced with change and the Trump fiasco points out the problems of negative change that undoes everything needed to prevent future crisis like the Covid pandemic.  There will always be change but the goal should be change for the better not for the worst.  Republicans do not understand this.  In fact, the very premise of Conservatism is resistance to change.  In his farewell address, George Washington said, “However political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."  Today’s Republican party through efforts to overturn election results and make voting more difficult for minorities is proving Washington to have had the ability to foresee the future.  One has to wonder why Conservatives who so often refer to the words of our Founding Fathers manage to ignore the words of George Washington.