The subtitle on today’s column by Paul Krugman is this:
He begins with a question:
Why has the Republican Party become a systematic enabler of terrorism?
He does not claim that all Republicans are white supremacists; some find it repugnant — but not enough to reject using it for political expediency. He traces it to something that has been going on for a long time:
The central story of U.S. politics since the 1970s is the takeover of the Republican Party by economic radicals, determined to slash taxes for the wealthy while undermining the social safety net.
With the arguable exception of George H.W. Bush, every Republican president since 1980 has pushed through tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the 1 percent while trying to defund and/or privatize key social programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
The problem for the GOP is that you can’t slash popular programs without giving the masses something for a distraction. They chose racism. Unfortunately the dog-whistle, plausibly deniable appeals to racism they started with became less and less effective over time. Like a drug addict, they had to keep increasing the dose. So here they are today.
Krugman’s conclusion is chilling:
In effect, then, the Republican Party decided that a few massacres were an acceptable price to pay in return for tax cuts. I wish that were hyperbole, but the continuing refusal of G.O.P. figures to criticize Trump even after El Paso shows that it’s the literal truth.
So as I said at the beginning, the G.O.P. has become a systematic enabler of terrorism. Why? Follow the money.
emphasis added
READ THE WHOLE THING.
The reader comments are pretty much in agreement. One wonders how long it will take the rest of America to catch up. One wonders how anyone can still talk about reaching across the aisle. One wonders how anyone can still talk about both siderism with a straight face. One wonders when the NY Times and the rest of the media will put this on the front page. The rest of the world can see it.
One wonders why John Hickenlooper is still warning of the dangers of extreme leftist socialism. One wonders why Joe Biden still thinks the GOP will come to its senses if Trump is gone. One wonders when Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership will realize we have a bigger problem than just Trump.
If you are prepared to read more than one thing, read Kevin Drum, who spelled this out a year ago at Mother Jones.
Today, the Republican Party exists for one and only one purpose: to pass tax cuts for the rich and regulatory rollbacks for corporations. They accomplish this using one and only method: unapologetically racist and bigoted appeals to win the votes of the heartland riff-raff they otherwise treat as mere money machines for their endless mail-order cons.
Any questions?
