An e-mail this morning brought updated news of dozens of factions, all crying out for their embattled causes. These champions are now witnessing their causes being destroyed or sold to the highest bidder.
Just a few of the concerns from my inbox: civil rights, women’s rights, gun violence, net neutrality, the planet’s health, Russia investigation, peace, national monuments, voter registration, discrimination, Obamacare repeal.
For those who haven’t yet felt these levels of governmental betrayal and/or contempt toward our people, our country, our government and Constitution, and earth … well, I see a big, old, thick-skinned elephant camping out in their living rooms.
Could it be that many who still support the Grand Old Party haven’t yet realized that their old Republican Party is currently a handful of Republican lawmakers? Today, our Republican-led government has been reduced to something quite alarming.
We no longer have representative government, defined as “an electoral system where citizens vote to elect people to represent their interests and concerns.”
When were we last confident our government worked for us? There appears only one concern for our leaders today and it has nothing to do with Americans or ethics — and everything to do with pushing their political agendas to get richer and more powerful. Not just richer for themselves and for their own businesses, but their family, friends and billionaire political backers.
Grasp the reality of our nation’s government today. We’re led by a president who “holds basic American political values in contempt … [and] much of his party shares that contempt,” writes Paul Krugman of the New York Times. The GOP is a “monolithic structure — lavishly supported by a small number of very, very wealthy families” who demand strict loyalty to make their demands happen.
Identify these families and it will be quite interesting.
Political analysts Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein have found the Republican Party is now so “ideologically extreme” that they will never again join the Democrats in any fight, even if it means fighting against them and for the Russian hackers. Appears true so far.
“We are made schizophrenic by loving America.”
Peter Dale Scott, poet and author of books on “deep state,” came up with this gem. And he wrote it many years before our present government. (For more information on the very interesting “deep state,” I recommend http://billmoyers.com/story/the-deep-state- explained.)
Trump is having quite the effect on Americans, if not the world. “When many of those around you seem to be suffering from some sort of group mania — believing what isn’t true and defending what isn’t, it’s difficult to recall what ‘normal’ looks like,” the Washington Post’s Kathleen Parker writes.
OBAMACARE: While Mr. Trump’s Russia collusion investigation provides the shiny-bauble effect for our attention, a select few senators are behind closed doors, writing their secret Trumpcare bill. (If it was a good bill for Americans, it wouldn’t be hidden.)
Mitch McConnell’s mission is to kill off Obamacare. He is trying to redefining what’s “best for Americans” and it appears to be gutting Medicaid, obliterating Medicare and causing a massive increase of premiums.
McConnell’s unethical Trumpcare bill will end up stealing health care from more than 24 million American, in order to give billions to the richest of Americans and biggest of corporations. He’ll try to expedite the bill through the Senate before July 4 so that no opportunities exist to argue against this lethal bill. God help us should this bill pass.
MEDICARE-FOR-ALL: Here’s something even better than Obamacare that we should be actively talking about. It’s a single-payer system that, according to columnist Katrina vanden Heuvel, “brings down health care costs because Medicare has been proven to be more efficient than for-profit private insurance.
“It would be paid for with tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans, including a financial transaction tax that would curb risky high-frequency trading.”
ACTION EMAILS:
n Seattle Indivisible’s Impeach Trump March will take place on July 2 (perhaps in Kingston).
n Vote no on I-1552. I-1552 supporters are circulating a petition; don’t sign it. I-1552 would legalize discrimination against the LGBT community.
You’ll be seeing more activities in the Kingston area as life gets more and more difficult for Americans. We’ve got great activists here. This is just the beginning of the changes that our leaders have planned for us. So fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
— Marylin Olds is an opinion columnist who lives in Kingston. Contact her at marylin.olds@gmail.com.
