Well, At Least The Path Forward Is Clear

The Speed In Which Trump’s Awful Legislation Passed Speaks Volumes

What the Public Thinks About All This

Some really interesting data points on all this. Reliable polls show that people who have any information at all on the legislation hate it, by 2 -1 margin. But it also shows that less than 10% of the population feel they know much about it and over one-third say they know nothing about it.

That is a stunning bit of information and a damning finding on the Democrats at all levels. It is a complete mystery to me why Democrats did not flood local media with very specific numbers as to what this bill meant to each local community and nationally. We know people vote on the basis of their values and/or their interests. Strikingly, they often choose values over interests. But this legislation was a frontal assault on damn near everyone’s values AND their interests.

This bill clearly was a huge windfall for the top 1%, offered minor benefits or none to the middle class (depending on a lot of variables), and screwed the working poor, most seniors, and those with chronic illness. Failure to communicate this clearly on a massive level is inexcusable.

Write Your Congressperson? Ha!

A lot of good people worked hard to flood Congressional offices with a ton of mail, calls, and email, making sure Republican members of Congress knew how many of their voters felt.

It made zero difference. Only 3 Senators and 2 Congressmen voted No.

How is that possible? The vote told us – three important lessons.

1. Why they voted yes – No small number of Republican members of Congress agree with the cruelty and moral failure of this legislation. They really don’t see any moral issues in how we care for each other. The remainder? Simple fear – of getting politically beat up or actually physical beat up.

   Funny thing about courage – it demands a willingness to risk or to sacrifice. Not exactly traits in evidence with this bunch.

2. They don’t care what voters think. Low turnouts and extreme jerrymandering (My state excels at this. Last year, NC Democratswon close to half of the total vote in contested congressional races but picked up barely a quarter of North Carolina’s seats in Washington. Its current House delegation has 10 Republicans and four Democrats.

   That’s gerrymandering at industrial strength) make them confident a lot of people just will not show up to vote, no matter what they think about any given issue. More worrisome, I suspect many of them are thinking fair elections are not much of a risk. There may not be some elections, others could be badly manipulated. I hope that is an excessive fear, but at this point, the risk is more than worrisome.

3. The old Republican Party is truly gone, forever. For a while there, the party was infected/infused/energized by those like the Freedom Caucus. Now they are fully owned by the Trump mafia, the behind the scenes extremist manipulators (such as the Plan 2025 gang), and the very extreme religious right. Senator Murkowski of Alaska gets the 30 Pieces of Silver Award for this round. She sold out the country for a few benefits to her state. We all hoped for better. Had she stood her ground, we would not be having this conversation.

   Any idea of recentering the Republican party is a waste of time and energy. What was before is gone forever. Would be great if someone (not Elon Musk, for sure) started a genuinely slightly right of center party. I do not see that on the horizon.

Fairness requires me to call out a few pretty good things in this awful legislation. Increased depreciation for business expenses strikes me as a good thing. Improved credits for childcare, while not available to many, seems useful. Allocating money for the Coast Guard to finally get some modern ice breakers was way overdue. All good things – not nearly good enough to justify this bill.

What To Do Now?

First, recognize that it is largely wasted time and effort to communicate with Republican officials and office holders, certainly at the national level and in most cases at state and local levels. They are not going to stand for principles, are not going to resist Trump and company.

Second, be clear on impacts of all this on your community and the nation. The data is out there, the stories are waiting to be told. It is clear what the two parties stand for – call it out, at every opportunity, in every outlet possible.

Ensure others understand that over 80% of the huge loss of revenue in tax cuts go to the wealthiest among us. Others get chump change, and even that is not assured.  Help people realize that Medicare is being gutted and dumped on the states, along with disaster management and other support programs.

People will die and will go hungry – nothing theoretical on this. Remind people that the pittance offered to help local hospitals losing billions with Medicare cuts only runs a few years. Lots of local hospitals, especially rural ones, will wind up closing, which will hurt everyone, not just the poor, but entire communities.

What now passes for the Republican party clearly has a cruelty streak baked in it. Cruelty is not a byproduct, it’s the point. They certainly no longer stand for any semblance of a balanced budget. The plan is to bankrupt the government so it can accomplish nothing, while saddling future generations with unimaginable debt.

They no longer stand for a strong economy that is the centerpiece of the global economy. Because of this legislation and more, we will see the continued decline in the international market for US bonds and further erosion of the dollar as the global currency – and that will cost us all, in more ways than most people consider.

They clearly do not believe in international security – look at how they treat NATO, Palestinians, Ukrainians, and others. Nor do they believe in health care, freedom of education and speech, shared burdens nationally, or science.

In other words, invest and fight for every election at every level. Leave no one unchallenged. Get us a Congress and state governments ready to reverse course and rest America on an enlightened path, back on course.

Surely, we are better than what we are today. Stay a little hopeful and a lot angry until we do.

Bill Clontz

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