I received, a letter in the mail, (not personal) from Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Minority leader in the US House.
He prefaced the letter with this: “The Democrats are trying to use the Chinese coronavirus as a pathetic excuse to force their socialist agenda on the American people.
Since seizing power (!) the Socialist Democrats have dragged the American people through the most partisan and least credible impeachment in American history.”
Enclosed was also a “survey” of presumably Republican voters, (I don’t know how he got my name and address, since I only voted for one Republican in my life, long ago: Jake Javits) and of course, at the end there was a suggestion for how much to donate—up to $1000.
His reason for the survey: “If we don’t act fast and unite behind President Trump’s plans to rebuild the economy and ensure for a fair election…in a fair fight against the Do-Nothing Democrats, the freedoms that you and I enjoy will be gone forever.”
What plans? might be a legitimate question. Trump has no platform, no published or stated agenda, aside for his strident Law and Order message.
As I read the letter and answered the survey (I don’t think I’ll send it), I kept on thinking: does Congressman McCarthy live on the same planet? Does he really, really believe these stories? He represents a district (Cal 23rd) that is predominantly agricultural, but is also a major oil producer, and a producer of renewable energy, but it also includes part of LA County with large military installations.
When I started to fill out his survey, I thought to myself, he must have made up those details all by himself (an example in a survey question).
“Do you think we should stop the Socialist “Green New Deal,” which will ban airline travel, forbid air conditioning and force people to walk to work?”
McCarthy has also renamed the opposition as the Socialist Democrats, which is kind of laughable.
Here’s one that’s even crazier: Do you oppose the Democrat-supported “Born Alive Abortions” legislation that would make infanticide legal in America?
I figured McCarthy made that one up with the help of an Irish priest. Actually, he twisted the meaning of the latest (Republican) bill, which mandated necessary care to insure the survival of a baby, but as Senator Kaine pointed out the bill was unnecessary, because a 2002 law passed by unanimous consent had already outlawed “infanticide” anywhere in the country.
When you see the importance Trump’s/GOP’s tax scam is believed to be by people like Congressman McCarthy, it is pathetic to read this question:
Do you support Republican efforts in the House to cut spending, balance the budget and reduce the national debt?
Didn’t the GOP tax cut increase the deficit? But that increased profits and wealth….
On the backs of everyone else. Billions, possibly trillions of dollars have been transferred through legislation like this: tax cuts, loopholes like the depletion allowance, financing services by regressive taxes like Sales and Excise, paid for disproportionately by the poorest of the poor.
Republicans aren’t racists, of course. It’s just that those “minorities” happen to be poor. And the R’s believe in “free” enterprise and hard work. Obviously if you’re underpaid, or under-protected from Covid, that’s your fault.
The reason for asking for donations: to “make sure we have the critical resources we need to fight against voter fraud and the Socialist Revolution led by the radical left.”
The Socialist Revolution includes?
“Bernie Sanders’ brainchild “Medicare for All,” which will cost $3.3 trillion per year and make private health insurance illegal.”
Note: none of these details are in anything but a draft bill that would obviously have to be negotiated.
“The Socialist “Green New Deal,” which will ban air conditioning in your home, make air travel illegal and impose a new 70% tax on hardworking Americans.”
Here, McCarthy adds a new wrinkle, the 70% tax, which he appears to have made up after he wrote the made up details that are in the preface to his letter—but he left out having to walk to work!
Free College for All, adding billions to our national debt for our children and grandchildren to pay.
There’s a simple solution to the putative debt noted above: repealing the Republicans’ tax cut scam that added billions to the national debt in order to enrich wealthy corporations and the very richest among us. And, by the way, only the stockholders’ wealth was increased, dramatically, since most of the resulting windfalls went to them, not investments, when corporations bought back stocks in response to the new law.
The last part of the “Socialist Revolution” McCarthy is warning against was proposed by some leftwing activists: “Abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), putting the security and safety of Americans in danger.”
But abolition per se is not part of the Democrat’s agenda. Reform certainly is: ICE is a rogue organization encouraged by right-wing extremists like Steve Miller, Trump’s longstanding White supremacist advisor. It is likely that most Americans do not approve of forced family separations, but despite the public outrage, ICE’s separations and other outrages continue.
To underscore the importance of McCarthy’s appeal, he concludes: “That’s not all. We are not only fighting against the radical socialists in the House, like Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but we are engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the media, who are their willing accomplices.”
In other words, everybody is against the poor, besieged Republicans, even though both the Presidency and the Senate are controlled by them—as well as Fox News, Sinclair news, and a whole panoply of rabid right-wing propaganda (“news”) organs.
After all, they have to go to battle against the “massive, well-funded Pelosi-Democrat political machine.”
I swear, these are direct quotes from the letter and survey, even though they read like a parody.
Republicans really do think this way!
