Death by a thousand cuts

One thing you can always count on in this country is the fact that people are so enamored with their rights that the they choose not to anticipate events and act to prevent them, but wait to until after the fact—and then place a band aid on the problem before putting off actually dealing with it in a serious manner until it becomes a problem again. The self-imposed March First deadline for striking a debt deal before mandatory budget cuts kick-in is fast approaching, and a deal to even raise the debt ceiling—a usually “routine” procedure—continues to be used by Republicans as a means to conceal the party’s impotency.  Tea Partiers will jump for joy at the prospect of deep cuts, but then again they can’t be accused of being deep thinkers.  

Republican governors who are sober—especially in low-service, low-tax Southland—are unhappy about willy-nilly cuts that effect their states;  this isn’t necessarily because Republican governor care about the less rich—most of them oppose Medicaid expansion for the uninsured—but they can always use federal money for their tax-starved states. I heard one simpleminded reporter snidely asks if a measly one billion dollar cut is really going to hurt the U.S. Department of Transportation; well yes, if it means that a state that is depending on millions of dollars in  federal grant money to build a bridge doesn’t receive it. 

Currently there are no serious discussions on closing the gap between the Democratic and House Republican debt reduction schemes—mainly because Republicans only want deep cuts on social safety net programs, education and infrastructure, and no additional revenue increases; what is there for Democrats to “negotiate” on?  Tea Party favorite Rep. Paul Ryan’s updated “Path to Prosperity” proposal is little different in substance than his first one,  calling for scrapping the health care reform bill and giving people a “choice”—to trust their Social Security to the same Wall Street banksters who nearly bankrupted this country; this simply an unacceptable starting point in discussions.

I wonder if the Republicans intend to allow sequester after sequester to occur; I wouldn’t put it past them, having witnessed over the past four years their preference for dysfunctional behavior for the pettiest of reasons (their failed campaign to insure that Obama was a one-term president). Of course, it is not just on the federal level that we see Republican perfidy, and voters who elected them acting as if they never saw it coming. Take a look at what is happening in Wisconsin right now. Wisconsin voters who gave Gov. Scott Walker a pass by voting down his recall are probably ruing that now, given all of his continuing lies and deceptions. Walker’s entire term as governor—with the help of a Republican-controlled legislature—has been spent in efforts to strengthen Republican power by voter suppression and weakening any organizations that might act as a counterbalance the uneven power of corporate America. 

Republican reliance on deception to get votes in “swing” or otherwise “blue” states is nothing new, but that fact doesn’t seem to stop voters who seem to learn nothing from past experience. Walker never mentioned his plan to cripple public employee unions during his campaign in 2010. Voters were fooled once, but could they allow themselves to be fooled twice? That’s what the failure of the recall effort seems to have suggested. After he escaped the vote, Walker claimed that “he wouldn’t pursue any new bills on public or private unions in the coming legislative session.” No, he’s letting Republican legislators—who retook the state Senate after briefly losing when a few Republican senators lost their recall elections—are doing the “talking” for him now. Wisconsin—once known as the hub of progressive legislation—is now a hothouse of reaction. Republican legislators are  now “fast-tracking” a bill that will permit employers to cut hours of private industry union workers without their consent; although Republicans are claiming to have altruistic motives—preventing layoffs and using public funds to cover lost hours (an ironic use of tax payer money to support the private sector), many see this as an opening ploy to peck away at private unions’ negotiating rights, just has already been done to public unions. 

People need to open their eyes and see what is happening here. This isn’t just about unions. It is in keeping with Republican efforts to suppress voting, whether it is ID laws, voting apparatus controlled by companies that bankroll Republican campaign coffers, or concocting new “qualifications” for who can or can’t vote. They are using their power to suppress anyone and anything they view as a “threat.” This is not how a democracy is supposed to work. Along with Citizens United, the Republican aim is to create an oligarchy of corporatists, which right-wing politicians serving as their enablers. 

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina—whose state has the fifth highest unemployment rate at 9.2—decided to do something about his lackluster record and recently signed a law that cuts eligibility for unemployment compensation to 20 weeks, when the national  average number weeks a person is unemployed is 35. The law also cuts the maximum benefit from $535 to $350. It isn’t like the state was being “hurt”; the federal government would foot the bill. Republicans claim that the new law will “force” people to find jobs. Of course, those jobs might not exist at the moment, but if these people simply “drop out,” get a low-paying temp job, move in the parents, or join the homeless roles, then Voila!—problem “solved.” Just make ‘em disappear.  Or feed them The Constitution. McCrory is justifying the law by claiming that it allows the state to pay back federal funds it owes three years ahead of time. It's cheap political capital to make himself look “good” to voters who don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves. That pretty much sums-up what the right has always been about.

The "demise" of the Republican Party has always been overstated; during much of the Great Depression, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 3-1 in the U.S. Senate and House. Today they pick like crows and vultures over the carcass of democratic principles and simple human decency. It has been a slow, sometimes almost imperceptible process; but that it is occurring cannot simply be ignored without a price to paid for foolishly falling for the same tired propaganda of paranoia and fear.