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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica has never seen a party less caring than 21st-century Republicans
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2017/mar/28/america-party-less-caring-21-century-republicans-gopAmerica has never seen a party less caring than 21st-century Republicans
Lindy West
We pay our elected officials to take care of our communities and our planet. Since Trump took office, the GOP has set out only to destroy
Tuesday 28 March 2017 10.06 EDT
Last modified on Tuesday 28 March 2017 17.00 EDT
snip//
Ive been thinking a lot about the notion of care lately. Care can be florid and romantic or bureaucratic and dry; it is maintenance and stewardship and only sometimes love. You can take care of something without personally caring about it, which is precisely what we pay our elected officials to do: take care of our communities and our planet, whether or not you share our priorities and fears and weaknesses and religions and sexual orientations and gender identities and skin colours. We put ourselves and our money in your hands. Take care.
I dont know that America has ever seen a political party so divested of care. Since Trump took office, Republicans have proposed legislation to destroy unions, the healthcare system, the education system and the Environmental Protection Agency; to defund the reproductive health charity Planned Parenthood and restrict abortion; to stifle public protest and decimate arts funding; to increase the risk of violence against trans people and roll back anti-discrimination laws; and to funnel more and more wealth from the poorest to the richest. Every executive order and piece of GOP legislation is destructive, aimed at dismantling something else, never creating anything new, never in the service of improving the care of the nation.
Contemporary American conservatism is not a political philosophy so much as the roiling negative space around Barack Obamas legacy. Can you imagine being that insecure? Can you imagine not wanting children to have healthcare because youre embarrassed a black guy was your boss? It would be sad if it wasnt so dangerous.
That void at the heart of the party, that loss of any tether to humanity, is breeding anxiety on both sides of the political divide. According to the Atlantic, Florida Republican Tom Rooney recently turned on his cohort with surprising lucidity: Ive been in this job eight years and Im racking my brain to think of one thing our party has done thats been something positive, thats been something other than stopping something else from happening. We need to start having victories as a party. And if we cant, then its hard to justify why we should be back here.
more...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2017/mar/28/america-party-less-caring-21-century-republicans-gop
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America has never seen a party less caring than 21st-century Republicans (Original Post)
babylonsister
Mar 2017
OP
Turbineguy
(37,331 posts)1. The republican party
is Hitler and Stalin having a posthumous last laugh.
RKP5637
(67,108 posts)2. The GOP sees America as a business opportunity to rip off for profiteering. The don't give a F about
the country, its future or the people. They are only interested in maximizing their profits. It's all about money, nothing else. FFS, when will the majority of Americans wake up to what is happening instead of being so damn stupid and gullible.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)3. What would qualify as a "victory" to a modern Republican . . .
. . . would mean "destitution" and "death" to someone who lacks cash, mobility and privilege.
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)4. Historians of the future will use this period of American politics
As a cautionary tale of the politics of the GOP and its use of hate and gaslighting. Hopefully in 2018, the history will be how the Democratic Party once again saved America.