The GOP Is the Party of No Hope—and Endless Mass Murders
Category: News & Politics
Via: tessylo • 3 years ago • 12 commentsBy: Molly Jong-Fast, The Daily Beast
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The GOP Is the Party of No Hope—and Endless Mass Murders
After four years of Trumpism , we’ve learned that Trumpism has very few core tenets except lower taxes for the wealthy and that government is bad. Some people like Rand Paul have been running on “government is bad” their entire careers, but the problem with being a member of the government who wants to destroy the government is that when a problem arises that the government could theoretically fix, you can’t participate because you would be encouraging the use of government.
Yes, this Republican Party is filled with men of no action . Meet the Helpless Caucus—a group of laissez-faire nihilists who want you vote so they can crush the government you’d like them to run.
This was on full display on Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence, when Texas Senator and Cancun visitor and Ritz Carlton stayer Ted Cruz said, “Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater… Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens… It makes it worse .”
The GOP Is Now the Party of Thugs, Terrorists, Racists and Dopes
The irony of course is that the Boulder, Colorado, shooting happened just 10 days after a local ban on assault weapons had lapsed. The Washington Post points out, “Police have yet to say whether the ordinance would have prevented him from buying or possessing the weapon within city limits.” But as with so much legislation, it may not always work, but the point of our government should be at the very least to try, shouldn’t it?
Gun violence is not the only thing that Republicans have no interest in legislating. There’s also the pandemic, which has killed almost as many people as the population of Wyoming. Former President Trump and numerous members of his party seemed at best apathetic to COVID. Trump argued that “if the economic shutdown continues,” deaths by suicide “ definitely would be in far greater numbers than the numbers that we’re talking about for COVID-19 deaths.”
During the early months of the pandemic the White House could have use the Defense Production Act as they claimed to but they largely didn’t. The New York Times noted that the Trump administration “suggested that wielding that authority would have amounted to left-wing overreach.” Yes, the Trump administration thought using the Defense Production Act was some kind of hippy dippy voodoo.
But wait, there’s more! Trump, remember, refused to enact a mask mandate. “My administration has a different approach: We have urged Americans to wear masks, and I emphasized this is a patriotic thing to do. Maybe they’re great, and maybe they’re just good. Maybe they’re not so good .”
A national mask mandate would have been easy and cheap. And yet, legislating is kind of something the libs do since telling people to do things that might help them violates one of the tenets of Trumpism and Republicanism. Trump and the Republicans also refused to enact a national testing and tracing program, with Trump saying that testing “makes us look bad” and that he had his people “slow the testing down, please .”
Trump galvanized the Republican Party as “the party of no.” Trump had 10 laws that he promised to pass in his first 100 days. They were part of Steve Bannon’s “promises made promises kept,” and they included the hilarious American Energy and Infrastructure Act (not passed) and the equally unintentionally hilarious Clean Up Corruption in Washington Act (also not passed). Guess which act was the only one of those 10 that passed? Give up? The one that cut taxes for people making over a million dollars . Most of the Trump presidency was pretty light on legislation and pretty heavy on theatrics.
But the party of no started earlier than Trump with the self-proclaimed grim reaper. Since Barack Obama was elected to office, Mitch McConnell has been the king of obstruction, telling the National Review right before the 2010 midterms that, “ The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president .” That call to inaction created a kind of anti-government movement in the Republican Party. Mitch became the obstructionist in chief, making sure that Merrick Garland never got a Supreme Court nomination hearing and letting him languish for 293 days .
Republicans no longer control the House, the Senate, or the presidency. They are finally in the perfect position to live their truths and do nothing: no legislation, no anything but obstruction. And it seems clear that Republicans will run against Biden’s legislation in the midterms. The American Rescue Plan (giving people money they desperately need during a pandemic) is pretty popular, but who knows? Republicans have been historically extremely good at messaging, so perhaps they will once again be able to sell their do-nothingness.
It’s worth wondering why voters would support a party that wants to destroy the government when you could vote for the party that wants the government to succeed. But, again, who knows? Maybe people will embrace laissez-faire nihilism.
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"After four years of Trumpism , we’ve learned that Trumpism has very few core tenets except lower taxes for the wealthy and that government is bad. Some people like Rand Paul have been running on “government is bad” their entire careers, but the problem with being a member of the government who wants to destroy the government is that when a problem arises that the government could theoretically fix, you can’t participate because you would be encouraging the use of government.
Yes, this Republican Party is filled with men of no action . Meet the Helpless Caucus—a group of laissez-faire nihilists who want you vote so they can crush the government you’d like them to run.
This was on full display on Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence, when Texas Senator and Cancun visitor and Ritz Carlton stayer Ted Cruz said, “Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater… Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens… It makes it worse .”
The GOP Is Now the Party of Thugs, Terrorists, Racists and Dopes
Sad that some are so willing to tar all with the same brush just to suit their ideas of political expediency.
As we see, some people will automatically pooh pooh this article because it is critical of Republicans.
I actually read the article and I ask anyone who wants to criticize this article to please point out anything in it that is inaccurate.
Isn't this an opinion piece? It should be when we have sweeping statement like this bit-o-shit
Absofuckinglutely NO ONE wants to destroy the government number 1. Number 2, Dems want the GOVERNMENT to succeed. Succeed at just what? Therein lies the problem. All that "party" wants to succeed at is maintaining control at all costs. Look at the up and coming spending being projected. It has always been the Democrat way to throw money at a problem. And then tax the piss out of those involved.
Hmmmm.....
Dems working for the majority of Americans....
Pubs working for the wealthy....
The GOP has for the last 11 years, with the exception of tax cuts for the wealthy, have been the party of NO Jim. They couldn't give a shit about those in the six figure and lower income brackets. Don't even try to pass the idea that the pubs are for fiscal responsibility... cause that dog surely won't hunt.
The article really doesn't do that. It goes after the do-nothing Republicans like Cruz and McConnell, with a heaping dose of scorn piled on trmp
John, I did read the article and my statement speaks for itself. No matter what I point out will just be put down, denied, deflected, and ridiculed by certain posters so why bother? I have better things to do. I said my piece that is just my opinion and I am done. Have a good day.
Hey Ed. Have you seen Republicans for Integrity? Thoughts?
I am not a Republican but I do agree with some of their views.
Which ones?
Please see post #3.