CRUELTY IS THE POINT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Governor DeSantis of Florida and other “red” state governors are pushing their state legislatures into acts of deliberate cruelty, passing laws that are designed to cause harm to residents of their states, appalling legislation that should be unconstitutional, but probably will not be judged so.  Why not?  These new rights-restricting laws fit perfectly into the current ultra-right-wing Republican agenda.

That Republican agenda seems to be to hurt as many non-white, non-“Christian,” non-straight, non-male people as possible and keep those folks in their place, far below the exalted place of rich, straight, “Christian” white men.  It is not enough to just work on removing constitutional rights, there must be pain to remind those folks they are pretty much worthless except for their votes, but only if those votes are for the “R” on the ballot, and, the “red” states’ voters are conditioned to vote for the “R” no matter who it is.   (Mommy and Daddy were “r’s” and I must be too.”

The cruelty is present in much of what Republican leaders do, all of it intentional.  Women’s bodily autonomy, for example, is challenged at every turn even to proposing the outlawing of birth control.  That would put all women of reproductive age at the mercy of male sperm and cause them to produce children they are not ready for or can’t afford to raise and who could have severe disabilities due to the poor quality of health care those targeted poor mostly women of color are able to obtain. 

There’s the “war” against trans children and youth.  Ignorant Republicans claim to believe everyone’s gender at birth is the one they MUST live through their entire lives.  They claim god told them so.  Jesus never condemned people living and dressing as a different gender from that of their birth and he clearly would have known about it.  (Oh wait, that’s the same with abortion, Jesus didn’t condemn that either.  Hmmmm!)

Bills being shoved through now to become law are forbidding medical care for helping trans children and youth.   One of the most common of the medical treatments involves use of puberty blockers to make the child’s transition a bit less traumatic.  Counseling and other hormone treatments are part of the process too.  Knowing that the suicide rate among trans youth is very high, the legislators commanded by the states’ governors pass the laws anyway.  In South Dakota, the families get a year to stop the transition process.  The ignorance of the Republican leadership is astounding!  They pass laws that can only hurt those children and families.  Some states want to stop treatment for adults in transition too.  Why do that?  Republicans these days need victims, suffering-human-meat for their warped base.  Cruelty is the point!

Asylum-seekers and refugees are lied to and put on buses to cities that are not even informed they (including children) are coming, giving them little time to prepare.  Why, to take a kind of revenge on those “woke” cities and to disorient the newcomers.  CRUELTY IS THE POINT and those Republicans are reveling in it, gleefully reporting what they have done.

Republican leadership perpetrates cruelty on white Republicans too! They questioned the value of COVID vaccines and hundreds of thousands died who would not have had their lying not kept them from being vaccinated or wearing masks from a manufactured fear of vaccines and claim of freedom to wear whatever they want.  Republicans also suffered when states refused Medicaid money to support struggling families.  I suspect waging cruelty has become part of who Republicans are now.

Then, there’s the police!  Administrations for decades have been militarizing police and that new weaponry and attitude of police invulnerability and insensitivity have led to many victims of police violence, a high percentage of whom are men of color.  Rape and abuse of women by police is common in some communities too and nearly none of this bad behavior on the part of police has even been prosecuted, so few have been held accountable and whole communities are intimidated by police presence.  Yep, more cruelty and it won’t stop without accountability.  Often, the people of targeted communities are blamed for the police violence, mostly implied; can’t say that out loud! 

Cruelty has been used for thousands of years to control people.  Leaders have employed unspeakable tortures and executions to terrorize people into behaving just as the dictators, those in charge, want them to (or at least that is what they claimed).  And, the more cruel, the better.  In reality, those doing the torture et al were sick people who reveled in the suffering of others (sadists and psychopaths).  Giving those people free rein kept them loyal and useful and terror alive and well among the people.

Here’s a little trip into history to visit a few popular cruelties:

• If you don’t like a woman (or man on occasion) and the person is a little odd, accuse them of  witchcraft or heresy, torture them,  and watch them burn.
• If you want to keep power over a diverse community as the rulers of Ancient Rome did, publicly crucify “criminals” so others can watch them die and gloat in their suffering.
• Get “ordinary people” participating in the cruelty as Germans in the 1930s did, letting them destroy Jewish property, beat Jews and other “enemies of the state,” turn in Jewish neighbors, and so much more.  They went along with their leaders running unspeakable death and slave labor camps all over occupied Europe.  Those ordinary people claimed, “We didn’t know what Hitler and his gang were doing.  It wasn’t our fault.”
• Enslaved persons in this country and throughout the Americas were beaten into submission so they would function as machine-like beings doing the work rich white people would benefit from, but couldn’t/wouldn’t' do.  And, the various governments heartily approved, and were active participants.  I guess they all thought Black people didn’t feel the pain of the whips, chains, and general abuse, cruelty perpetrated by their owners every day with death or escape the only way to stop the pain.  Cruelty was the point to keep the owned in line.

 And now, the cruelty continues as ignorant conservative white people try their best to erase what their white ancestors did in this country to Black, Native American, Chinese, Japanese (World War II internment) people, and to anyone who crossed white men in power.  And this was all government-sanctioned.  The white descendants of the perpetrators want their fragile kiddies to learn only the great things white men did in our history while downplaying everything else.  They don’t even try to hide their intentions.  They cry in their fear and ignorance, “CRT (Critical Race Theory), ban books about Black Americans as well as LGBTQ stories, and deliberately plot to remove people’s rights.  The story of Rosa Parks is banned in Florida and some other spots, for example.  Why, because she was a hero for standing against white cruelty.

The thing is, we can’t change what happened in the past.  We can’t make the cruelties perpetrated back then any less cruel, but we can learn from our past so we don’t permit the continuation of the cult of cruelty.  Republicans need to be stopped from working to maintain and perfect their ability to cause suffering.  We the People all need to stand up and call it what it is, CRUELTY!  Evil! 

None of what these governors and legislators is doing is accidental, but a lot of it stems from deliberate ignorance.  Fact-checkers can’t keep up with the number of lies and the media often dismisses the harm their words and actions are causing.  That is just as these Republicans want it.  While We the People try to chase and counter their lies, they work even harder to take away people’s rights and our appalling Supreme Court conservatives are on board.  Cruelty is the point for them too.

So, Democrats and any Republicans who still believe in this nation and the value of diversity need to vote down any proposed laws at any governmental level designed to cause suffering or to make suffering more severe.  Banning books and blaming teachers and librarians for wanting students to know our full history is cruel and should be seen as criminal.  All, and I mean ALL educators and support staff in schools need to stand up against it.  It is also cruel to deny financial support to struggling families; to charge rent too high for minimum-wage workers  to afford; to deny asylum to people who have lost everything, even some family members’ lives to get here; to separate children from their parents for any but the most critical reasons as the Trump administration did at our southern border; to plot to cut or privatize Social Security and Medicare; to allow insurgents to hold important positions in our nation’s congress; and to allow people (white people) to carry concealed weapons without a permit.  There is a lot of cruelty going on in our society right now and a whole lot of people in power are causing it or like the ordinary people of 1930s and 1940s Germany, lie and pretend they don’t know about it. 

Some questions that should be asked of potential candidates for office at every level should include “Where to you stand on the issue of banning books?”  A follow-up should be “In your way of thinking, what should be included in American History classes?”  In short, candidates should be expected to outline their positions on the cruelties being perpetrated by a lot of white and white wannabee officials.  Cruelty is unacceptable done by anyone.  It is time We the People make that clear and start voting for candidates who agree and will note reports of instances of cruelty and act to stop it.

Remember, power can corrupt but so can cruelty.  Cruelty begets even more cruelty and with increasing levels of severity.  We the People can curb it and those who perpetrate it if we have the will.

A Grand Sabotage

by Ruth A. Sheets

Have you noticed that Donald Trump nominated the least competent people in nearly all high-level governmental positions?  He could not have found so many appalling candidates by himself.  That is a problem because it means a lot of personal private interests are acting against the public interests of the American people.  To me, an even greater problem is that the Republicans in the United States Senate went along with these picks, knowing the newly minted officials would be either incompetent or unqualified, totally unsuited for the job.  If they were simply figureheads in their departments, that would not be such a big problem, but these appointees actually are supposed to run the department or agency they are in charge of.  One would think to run a huge governmental department, the nominee should have some experience in that area, credentials, references, something, but the Senate Republicans approved a former doctor to run Housing and Urban Development (he is Black, you know), an Oil Magnate to run the Department of State (he’s been to Russia), and anti-public education activist for the Department of Education (anyone can teach, you know), Republican Party donors, corporate lobbyists to head numerous agencies including EPA (it costs a lot to drill for oil and pollution is just a side effect), a pointedly partisan hack as Attorney General (the president should be able to do whatever he wants), and so on through every cabinet post.

The task of these appointees seems to be to undermine the work of the department, while getting everything they can out of it for themselves.  Oh, yes, they must not forget to donate to certain Republican candidates including Mr. Trump, and they must regularly, publicly,  express total loyalty to him.  Being fired has been a regular feature of heads of the most noticed, possibly most critical departments:  State, Justice, Defense, and smaller but also important agencies like the FBI.  

The target of the year is the U.S. post office.  Last month it was taken over by a sycophantic Republican donor with no experience with anything related to the Post Office.  He probably never even noticed the USPS before.  He is rich, though, and male and white and a Republican donor.  I guess that’s a sufficient resume these days.  To prove his Republican bona fides, millionaire or billionaire (one can't be sure with all the Republican cheating and lying these days) Director Louis DeJoy is working to sabotage the efficient functioning of the Post Office by slowing down the mail and trying to make the whole process less efficient.   Now why would he, a brand newbee in the position do that, to undermine the confidence of the American people in this amazingly effective institution, of course.  It is well-known we are in the midst of a pandemic and it is a national election year.  The purpose of this sabotage, then is to make vote-by-mail seem unsafe, unreliable, and unworkable, even though it is the safest way to hold the upcoming election (maybe all elections), particularly for people most susceptible to COVID-19.    

The new director, as with most members of the Trump administration, doesn’t seem to care much  for the American people and our governmental institutions.  The most recent poll I saw indicated that 90% of the American people approve of the Post Office and the way it has been working.  Some would like the Post Office to offer some more services like simple banking, but they clearly want the institution to remain its usual efficient self.  As has been said often, 90% of the American people rarely agree on anything, but we do on this one.  We the people definitely want the Post Office to continue to connect every household and business in America and want the service to remain dependable and timely.  Clearly, that’s not what Donald Trump and Mr. DeJoy want.  Too bad for us!    

Several members of the House of Representatives recently contacted Mr. DeJoy asking him to explain what he was doing to the Post Office and why.  His response essentially informed them he could make whatever changes he wanted and didn’t have to get permission from the Post Office’s oversight board or anyone else to do it.  Naturally, he didn’t actually answer the letter’s questions, but that seems to be the modus operandi for this administration.  Do whatever Donald Trump and his handlers want and dismiss all criticism of anything you do.  Laws, rules, and regulations have no impact on this gang.  They have adopted the old, “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission” practice  that has overtaken the corporate world in the past few decades.  This group even skips the forgiveness part.  Besides, in this current time, Republicans have gotten away with nearly everything they have tried.  They cut regulations on air and water pollution, started giving away our public lands to fossil fuel corporations, blackmailed Ukraine, made no challenge  when a journalist who worked for an American newspaper was murdered, “colluded” with Russia and so much more. 

This time I hope the results will be different, but DeJoy thinks He can get away with sabotaging the Post Office for his boss thinking, “who’s going to stop me?”  As of now, no one.   

Donald Trump wants the Post Office brought down and Congressional Republicans are on board with whatever the childish, scared Donald Trump wants.  He sees this as the way he can win the upcoming election, and if something isn’t done to stop him, he might be right.

The question is, can we stop DeJoy from ruining the critical agency he now operates?  How do We the People make sure we can vote by mail on time depending on the usually dependable Post Office?  How can we get out the message that our senators need to do the will of the people and properly fund the Post Office?  These are important questions that we need good answers too very soon.  3 months from today is Election Day.  We’re running out of time.  So, Democrats and others who care about our mail service, we need letters to the editor condemning DeJoy’s sabotage and Donald Trump for demanding it.  We need to call out senators who ignore the will of the people and go only with their self-interest.  Maybe we need a phrase like “Republicans want to destroy our Post Office!  STOP THEM!” plastered everywhere.  Maybe the media should help us out since they worked so hard to get Mr. Trump elected four years ago. 

Sabotaging an agency like USPS is unacceptable, but when that sabotage impacts the federal elections in November, it would be treason.

WHAT HAVE REPUBLICANS DONE FOR US? (revisited)

We all hear Republican candidates claiming they want to “Make America Great again,” and before that "Take America back again."  They seem to want to return our nation to some mythical time when things were better.  I can’t help but wonder, better for whom. 

If we look at what Republicans have done in the past few decades, it is not clear what that mythical time looks like to them.  It certainly is not a place most Americans would like to live in.

I have been trying to think of one thing the Republicans have done for America in, let's say, the past 40 years.  That should be long enough for a party to do something positive for the nation.  It is true they have made the rich richer, given tax breaks to the wealthiest, started a few wars, tortured a lot of prisoners, vastly increased the prison population of the country, ran a completely incompetent "war on drugs," but what was gained by  any but the top 1%?

I have only considered contributions by Republicans to American society since 1980 or so.  Going back further would have been too painful.  Check out these important categories that touch the lives of most Americans and Republican contributions.

Education:  Republican education reformers came up with vouchers which take tax payer money and give it to private and religious schools while neglecting the public schools as much as possible.  Charter schools were introduced, a vehicle for giving public money to private companies and individuals to provide educational services, whether or not those people or companies are competent.  The current Secretary of Education is totally behind these measures and contributes part of her fortune to promote them. 

Health care:  Republicans tore down every attempt to introduce programs that could assure each American of affordable medical services.  They convinced many Americans that “Obamacare/socialized medicine” would be terrible for Americans when what they meant was it would be terrible for the wealthy medical insurance companies who sponsor their campaigns. (It actually  did not.)    Even extending insurance to poor children involved a fight.  They are still working hard to get rid of the Affordable Care Act that provides many millions with coverage they can afford, through sneaky underhanded means, tucked in bills passed at midnight.

Jobs:  Republicans say they create jobs, but they are not too interested in the quality of those jobs and whether or not those jobs provide a living wage.  They work constantly to break unions and to fight raising the minimum wage.  Most Republicans barely blink when a presidential candidate tells poor people that their kids should be hired as janitors so they can learn to “show up on Monday,” as Mitt Romney did in 2012.  The unemployment rate is going down, but wages are barely rising. 

Family Values:  Republicans would have us believe they have a lock on what it means to be family while ignoring their own principles.  It is OK, though since they ask forgiveness after they are caught and are immediately assumed to be repentant.  Some of the most prominent among Republicans speak of the sacredness of marriage while not honoring it very well themselves.  Their hatred of immigrants allows them to break up well established stable families so one or some of the members can be deported.

Women's Rights:  I know this is not really a Republican issue, but since nearly 50% of Republicans are women, it automatically becomes one.  Many of not most Republicans want to prohibit use of all birth control as well as abortion but do not want to provide assistance after the baby is born. "That would foster dependence on social programs."  The Republican  position should accurately be called “Right to Birth,” not “Right to life.”  It is not sufficient that they choose not to use these family planning techniques themselves, they want to dictate what everyone else is allowed to do. Republican state legislatures work very hard to criminalize abortion and the women who choose to have one.  At midnight they pass laws that outlaw abortion before most women are even aware they are pregnant.  They would prefer that abortions never be granted, that is, of course unless their life or their wife's life is at risk.  

Government Programs:  Republicans don’t want to have Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Social Security or other Government programs, yet these are often the only safety nets that stand between citizens, even Republican citizens, and disaster.  Republicans do not create better programs, they just put barriers in front of people who need what currently exists.  Why, In their minds, of course there should be work requirements for those receiving Medicaid, the poorest, most struggling people among us.
  
Civil Rights:  Most bills that have come before Republican Congresses and presidents related to civil rights have been either ignored or watered down to mean essentially nothing.  Police are being militarized and that equipment is often used against people of color.  Segregation in our communities, schools, and other public places is nearly as strong as ever.

Size of Government:  Republicans claim Government is too large, and should be "drowned in a bathtub."  But under every Republican administration, our government grew significantly, particularly in the areas of the military, the war on drugs, homeland security.  Growth is good as long as the right people benefit.

Tax Reform:  Republicans HATE taxes.  They want all the benefits of having decent roads, police, fire, and deportation services, safe bridges, airports, sports stadiums but they don't want to have to pay for, and will work hard to avoid paying for them.  Companies are permitted to take profits off-shore, and for quite a while, companies were given tax breaks for moving abroad.  Any tax breaks go mostly to the wealthiest 1%.  Republicans think that's fair.

Environment:  President Nixon signed the Environmental Protection Agency into law in the early 1970's, but despite the amazing clean-up it has overseen, current Republicans are working very hard to dismantle the regulations that protect our air and water, so even the one really positive thing Republicans have done is being corrupted.  Make as much money as you can and to hell with the destruction caused.  Someone will clean it up later. 

So, what do Republicans have to offer America?  It is certainly not anything to benefit average Americans.  If the past is any indication, unless we can get some Republicans out of office, our nation will continue on this destructive course, and the rich will get richer and the rest of us poorer.

Run it Like a Business??

by Ruth A. Sheets

It has been at least 25 years since I first heard the phrase “run it like a business.”  This was in reference to activities at my graduate school.  I assumed that the speaker meant that we should stay within our budget and be systematic about how things were done.

OK, I got that.  Than I heard it in relation to a church.  That seemed a bit odd because I don’t usually think of the two in the same  context.  I thought it meant the budget thing again, but then I learned it had something to do with contracts and investments too.    

OK, that makes sense.  Good investing makes it possible to do things you otherwise might not be able to do for your church and the community.

As the years have passed, I hear “run it like a business” in reference to so many aspects of life it has become a trivial phrase.  I am not so sure about the validity of “running” anything but a business “like a business.”

We have created a business myth in America that lets us think that the experience a person gains in running a company or working at high levels of commerce or finance qualifies them for almost any other position of power you can name. 

In the past couple of decades or so, businesses have not exactly covered themselves in glory.  Union busting, cutting wages, outsourcing jobs, overworking remaining employees, providing the cheapest medical benefits if any benefits at all, jeopardizing the livelihoods of American citizens by selling unaffordable mortgages, leverage buyouts, lowering quality of products and services.  Greed rules.  Particularly poor and working class folks have been duped into believing that someday if they work hard enough they will be among the wealthy.  You get the picture.

I am pretty sure that I don’t want anything I am directly associated with “run like a business.”  We Americans often find it pretty easy to swallow swill when it is clothed in phrases like “free market” and “opportunity.”

I am not saying that there is no value in the free market and of course, opportunity is essential, but lately, business has worked out that free market is only free to those who are rich enough to participate. The opportunity doesn’t reach to all citizens, especially those against whom the deck is always stacked.

Now, we are told that the best person to lead America is a businessman, Mitt Romney, just because of his business experience.  How does that qualify him for anything?  His brand of business is based on profiting on the misfortune of others. His brand of business involves avoiding the taxes that support everyone, setting himself apart from everyone else because they just didn’t work hard enough to get what Romney worked hard enough to get.

Besides being build on a lie, this approach to management is destructive, devisive and patronizing.  There is no respect or appreciation, only the smell of money and the shape of dollar signs.  I choose to believe we can do better.

So Much for Freedom

by Ruth A. Sheets

The Republican Party likes to get the word out that it is the party of “freedom.”  They also claim that we should be “free” of big government and that government should be out of our lives. 

The party publicists know that the word “freedom” triggers a lot of feelings about America and how special the country is.  It makes their faithful feel patriotic and important.

When one examines their idea of freedom, however, it may cause one to pause a moment to ask for their definition.  No one seems to do that these days, especially the media.  Republicans are delighted because they don’t want people to know what is really going on.

They cry “freedom” when they take away a woman’s right to choose, related to her body and family planning.

They cry “freedom” when they propose laws to eliminate EPA and other forms of regulations that would protect citizens from environmental destruction, pollution, and hostile takeovers.

They cry “freedom” when they pass laws to require photo IDs for a type of voter fraud that doesn’t actually exist in numbers high enough to matter, yet which will disenfranchise the most vulnerable of our voters.

They cry “freedom” when they pass laws that encourage citizens to treat immigrants with disrespect, which can lead to violence, in order to drive the immigrants out – “voluntarily,” of course.

They cry “freedom” when they refuse to consider gun control legislation which could protect citizens as well as law enforcement from folks who have no business having any gun let alone an assault weapon.

They cry “freedom” when they cut funds for education, malign teachers, and take over school districts, claiming they are protecting people from waste or poor teachers.  

This last false cry of “freedom” hits me particularly hard because my district, Chester Upland in Southeastern Pennsylvania has been a target of these education cuts and government takeover.  Our district was handed to our governor’s campaign supporters with no accountability requirements for what happens in the schools which are paid for by taxes yet run by for profit companies, and they do make a lot of profit off the backs of our citizens.

For ten years, Pennsylvania government officials ran our district and left us about 40 million dollars in debt.  They made several charter schools, all but two of which failed badly.  The larger one that still operates skims off the money it wants before the rest of the district gets any funding.  The money goes to them straight from the state capital, and into the pockets of the governor’s Republican friends. 

Again we are living under a takeover.  To make sure that the district cannot be successful, the state legislature has passed a bill essentially turning our district over to Joe Watkins, a powerful Republican, who is a voucher freak and a charter school aficianado.  He has 30 days to make a plan for what will happen to our district – charters, vouchers, or something else.  He knows nothing of our community and the poverty here, yet he will decide our fate in just 30 days.  Our teachers will lose their jobs, our union will be broken, because of course, a charter school can’t have a union.  And with this new “freedom” contracts, dedication, professionalism, and service mean nothing.   .

The deck has been stacked against a whole community in the name of “freedom.”  This reminds me of Orwell’s “1984” when words like freedom meant exactly the opposite.  I am guessing that most Republicans have not read that book and those who have, actually like the premise.   

It feels weird to be fighting against “freedom,” but that’s what we need to do, the Republican brand of freedom.  

Disturbing Phenomenon

by Ruth A. Sheets

I have noticed a troubling phenomenon among my students. Several of my best readers hate reading and tell me that they only read if they have to and then, they try to get away with reading the least possible.  Many of my good math students hate math and do just enough to get the grade they can live with.

What is going on here?  Why should highly intelligent young people dislike or even hate what they do well?  One would think that a person would be proud of what they do well and would want to do it often. 

I have not been able to find anything related to the psychology of this, but it doesn’t seem to be present just in young people in a disadvantaged community.  Our nation seems to be doing the same thing. 

Our government is really good at some things:  Social programs including medical care and research, protecting the environment, keeping food safe, regulating businesses that could get carried away with greed and speculation, moving mail.

Instead of allowing the government to do what it does well, we are trying to convince ourselves that we hate the social programs and want to end protective regulations.  We are being overwhelmed with advertising to convince us that what we are actually doing well doesn’t work and must be scrapped. 

What would these be replaced with?  Privatization, a totally free market, trickle down economics and other programs which have not proven successful are repeatedly proposed.  Why? What are we thinking?  

My students’ struggles will be much greater because they do not value what they do well.  I suspect that our nation’s struggles, too, will be more difficult because we choose not to value and fight for our government and give it the resources to do what it does well.   

WHAT HAVE REPUBLICANS DONE FOR US?

by Ruth A. Sheets

 Lately I hear Republican candidates claiming that they want to “take or win America back.”  They seem to want to return our nation to some mythical time when things were better.  I can’t help but wonder, better for whom.

I have been trying to think of one thing the Republicans have done for America and Americans that was positive and did not primarily serve the wealthiest few.  I considered contributions by Republicans to American society since 1980.  Here are some important categories that touch the lives of most Americans

Education:  Republican education reformers came up with vouchers which take tax payer money and give it to private and religious schools while neglecting the public schools as much as possible. Charter schools were introduced, a vehicle for giving public money to private companies and individuals to provide educational services, whether or not those people or companies are competent. 

Health care:  Republicans tore down every attempt to introduce programs that could assure each American of affordable medical services.  They convinced many Americans that “Obamacare/socialized medicine” would be terrible for Americans when what they meant was it would be terrible for the wealthy medical insurance companies who sponsor their campaigns.  Even extending insurance to poor children involved a fight.

Jobs:  Republicans say they create jobs, but they are not too interested in the quality of those jobs and whether or not those jobs provide a living wage.  They work constantly to break unions and to fight raising the minimum wage.  Most Republicans bearly blink when a presidential candidate tells poor people that their kids should be hired as janitors so they can learn to “show up on Monday.” 

Family Values:  Republicans would have us believe that they have a lock on what it means to be family while they ignore their own principles.  It is OK, though since they ask forgiveness after they are caught and are immediately assumed to be repentant.  They speak of the sacredness of marriage while not honoring it very well themselves.  Many Republicans want to prohibit use of all birth control as well as abortion but do not provide assistance after the baby is born.  Their position should be called “Right to Birth,” not “Right to life.”  It is not sufficient that they choose not to use these family planning techniques themselves, they need to dictate what everyone else is allowed to do.

Government Programs:  Republicans don’t want to have Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Social Security or other Government programs, yet these are often the only safety nets that stand between citizens and disaster.  They do not create better programs, they just put barriers in front of people who need them.

  

Size of Government:  Republicans claim Government is too large, but under every Republican administration, it grew significantly, particularly in the area of defense.  Growth is good as long as the right people benefit from it.

Environment:  I won’t even begin to address environmental issues. In Republican eyes, environmental regulations just get in the way of people making money, no matter the destruction that results.

.

So, what do Republicans have to offer America this year?  It is certainly not going to be anything that will benefit average Americans.  If the past is any indication, and Republicans gain any more power, we are all in for a rough time, except maybe the one percent.