by Ruth A. Sheets
Mitch McConnell has declared himself, through his actions, Assistant dictator of the United States. That means anything the Senate, therefore Congress approves has to be cleared by himself. This fool was elected only by a tiny fraction of the American people and should have no right to decide what the American people will get from Congress, but he has jumped into the role with enthusiasm and abundant cruelty.
I keep waiting for the Senate to rise up as one and declare they will vote on the issues that matter to the American people no matter what Mr. McConnell wants, but it has not happened yet and probably won’t.
In case they should rise and Mr. McConnell is not willing to share the nearly 300 pending bills he has from the House with them, they can get those bills directly from the House where some have been waiting for months, but they won’t. Without McConnell, the risen Senate could put a next relief bill together with House members and pass it over any possible veto of Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnell’s partner in crime, but they won’t.
Senate and House Republicans are not only cowards, but they have given up their souls so they could be Republicans. That is sad because some Republicans in the past have had the needs of Americans at heart. However, since Nixon, and his racist sexist xenophobic “Southern Strategy,” those Republicans are as rare as hen's teeth (cliché but apt). And Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump have joined forces to do as much as they can to make the rich richer and ignore the poor or blame the poor for the rich not becoming as rich as they could be.
Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump are very much alike in many ways. They are both obsessed with money and are in constant competition to acquire more, never able to give up the quest. They are both nearly completely self-absorbed and have been, probably for their entire lives. They do what is expedient in support of the self no matter who is hurt. They have had minimal education and have not let that education get in the way of their self-promotion.
Their one political gift is the ability to identify those people who are easily manipulated by money and promises, then proceed to determine which promises and for how much. They both speak the language (albeit poorly) of caring and appreciation for the people they work with, but their affect is flat when those words are spoken.
Both Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump love power and the trappings of power, the fact that everyone around them says “Sir” and wants/needs to bask in their light is almost orgasmic for them. Neither believes he needs to be informed beyond some basic talking points that let him seem in charge to his followers and donors. Those followers sit panting for the drippings from the huge quantities of bacon the McConnell-Trump Team is amassing. The donors get some big chunks: cuts in regulations, big money contracts, government positions with authority, and more, while The Team makes sure that if some of those drippings just happen to fall to the unworthy, those unintended recipients will pay through: cutting SNAP, diminishing Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, ordering ICE to pick up and deport young people who are Americans in all but name, upon turning 18, bankrupting the post office and possibly the states, etc.
Someone looking at the COVID19 fiasco in the United States would see a president and Senate majority leader who are OK with the unnecessary deaths of American citizens, especially since most of the deaths now are among people who would not be voting for Trump/McConnell anyway. Even the media often find excuses for the Team’s bad behavior, their dismissal of the Constitution, the proposed destruction of our environment, the lack of equipment to properly protect first line workers of all kinds.
Since the Team members have not contracted the virus and are not at risk, they must be protected by God, thus deserving of laud from every American as well as re-election.
When the McConnell-Trump Team loses members, it is not their fault, not the fault of these two amazing leaders who just LOVE the American people and all the things the Constitution stands for. It must be the fault of, well, let’s see, China, the Democrats, President Obama, the Democratic governors, the “fact” that “no one could have imagined COVID19 would get this bad.” Blaming is what they do very well. They probably have a group whose only job it is to come up with excuses and people other than the Trump-McConnell Team to blame.
So, where do we go from here. The Trump-McConnell Team and Republicans in general claim to be channeling the founders, but there is no way the founders would have approved of Mr. McConnell, Mr. Trump, or the pathetic performance of Republicans across the country. One can’t help but be surprised that Republicans are seen as the patriotic folks. I guess that is because they wave the flag back and forth with more vigor. Or, it could be because Republicans can say “Thank you for your service” more quickly and loudly to every service person they meet than anyone else while yelling for more war. In reality, it is probably because Republicans as individuals and PACs (Political Action committees) have more money than anyone else and will do everything they can (lying, cheating, deception are not off the table), to keep what they have and get lots more. A recent example is the “hidden” gift in the CARES Act that will allow the 1% to get away with paying billions less in taxes, snuck in around page 200, by guess who.
The McConnell-Trump Team knows how to tap into an amazing money stream, truly a gift that keeps on giving, but only if the McConnell-Trump Team and their followers will keep working for the moneybags who periodically open the dam to let a little of the “water” to flow downstream. Of course, they will.
And the American people? We will need to get help elsewhere.
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