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.

What’s with Men These Days?

by Ruth A. Sheets

Most of the legislatures throughout the country now are male dominated.  After the 2010 election when disgruntled Democrats and others sat home in some sort of protest that everything they had wanted did not come to pass, we women found ourselves under attack.

There has been a lot of talk of a “war on women,” and it appears to me that this talk has it right.  Male legislators push through bills that restrict nearly everything related to women and control of their bodies.  Sometimes, they do it as Virginia’s Governor has, when people’s attention is focused on something else (the fiscal cliff).  Now, in VA, not only do women who want to choose abortion have to go through an ultrasound first, the clinics where they can have the abortion safely performed are facing laws to modify facilities which have nothing to do with safety, provision of information, or quality of care.  The goal is to shut down the clinics, of course.

What are the jobs most under attack by Republicans as costing too much and not worth the cost? Teachers and other government workers (jobs where women predominate).   Most governors back down from cutting and limiting support for police and fire fighters and other higher-level workers, predominantly men.  Interesting!

There have been a few victories for women and their supporters.  At least three major anti-women candidates were defeated in November.  Women have again begun to pay attention.  More women than ever before are serving in the US Congress.  All these are positive, but certainly not enough.

It seems that men are getting more scared of women than ever.  Perhaps it is that they see women moving forward in most jobs.  Women have passed men in number at most colleges and universities, including programs for training ministers.  Women are proving competent and creative when it comes to business.  Do men in power fear they will have to share that power with the other half, the half they were brought up to see as inferior because their primary task is raising children, and we know how much our society values its children.

What do we women do?  Well. . .  

we stay alert to what is going on,  

we fight where we can,

we support each other, , 

we keep demanding reproductive rights no matter the obstacles, then we break the law if we have to, 

we work to help talented women keep abreast of the skills in their field while they take some time to get their/our kids off to a good start,

we try to get progressive and moderate men on our side to see that making life better for women benefits them too,

 

Let’s get radical in 2013.

What Liberals Want

Modern manufacturing. Not your grandpa's sweatshop.

by Ruth Sheets

I am always amazed, perhaps shocked, when I read something by Conservatives and Republicans these days.  I think it’s the audacity of their outrageous claims.  This time, it was an article called “Liberal Nostalgics Don’t Understand Jobs of the Future” by Michael Barone.  It appeared in the townhall.com blog on April 23, 2012.

Barone claims that the current administration’s desire to increase manufacturing jobs means that “liberals” want to bring back the old assembly line jobs of the post World War II era.  Because the “liberals” are nostalgic for these jobs they have no idea what the jobs of the future are going to demand.

What a bunch of bull!  Can anyone really believe that “liberals” or anyone else wants to bring back the mind numbing, brain frying repetition of those jobs?  What “liberals” really want are jobs that pay a living wage.  They want jobs working for companies that respect their workers.  They don’t want workers to be driven to put in mega hours under a threat of loss of their livelihood.  They want work that is meaningful.  They would prefer not to be pawns of employers who are addicted to money and power   

In his piece, Barone finds a way to blame past assembly line workers for the near destruction of Chrysler and General Motors.  Admittedly, the unions did make some unreasonable demands, but they were not the cause of the industry’s downfall.  That came as a result of short-sightedness on the part of the guys at the top of the auto companies.  They refused to believe that cheap, easy oil was coming to an end and that what was left would be controlled by countries/cultures that do not like us and our way of life very much.  

Detroit built gas-guzzlers when they should have been working to develop cool small cars that were safe, comfortable, and efficient.  The creative talent working in the auto industry could have managed that and more.  They also had the power of Madison Avenue on their team.  If handled well,  Americans could have been talked into buying almost anything if it was good enough.

Mr. Barone describes the jobs of the future as ones that people will create themselves, I suppose on the model of Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerbburg.  It is not the “liberals” who don’t get this, it is the Conservatives who put roadblocks in the way of nearly every attempt to make this a reality.  It was not the “liberals who made irrelevant testing the main indicator of student success in school.  It is not the “liberals” who cut research and development setting back efforts to find new directions for producing the jobs of the future.

The “liberals” didn’t cut assistance to help creative people get businesses started.  It’s not the “liberals” who think college is elitist and a waste of time.  It’s the Conservatives who want to take America back to some imagined golden time, (except for the tax rates which they would like to see as close to zero as possible, of course).

I worry that an argument like Mr. Barone’s is so simple that a lot of people will accept it without thinking critically about whether it is true.   

Oh wait, we don’t get to teach that critical thinking stuff or creativity in schools since it’s not on the test.  We “liberals” had better get busy.

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.

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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.

Want a Tax Cut? Create a Job

by muon

Here's a simple little plan that all of Washington ought to like.  They won't, though, because the plan doesn't make the other side of the aisle look bad.  That's pretty much all they'll consider these days.

They've now decided that marriage isn't just between one man and one woman, but is now between the truest love match you can find in nature--Congress and tax cuts for the wealthy.  No divorcing one from the other, no matter what the political affiliation.  The Tea Party, in particular, will defend their nests to the death. Tax cuts, they say, are needed to create jobs.

So let's create jobs with them.

Instead of across-the-board tax breaks for all folks who can already afford things like late-night cravings for imported lavender honey, I say let's make tax cuts contingent on whether taxpayers have created jobs in the past year. Create a new job for an American in 2011, get a tax cut in April 2012.  Create 2 new jobs, get 2 tax deductions. Eliminate American jobs, get penalized.  And no cheating: you can't downsize one year, then recreate those jobs the next and claim tax cuts for them.

That simple.  Give an American a job, get a tax cut.  Hoard your money, get squat.

Instead of giving handouts to our deadbeat millionaire brothers, I say, let's make them earn their keep by putting America back to work.