Sunday, May 13, 2018

The sadism of the modern Republican Party

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/5/13/1763274/-The-sadism-of-the-modern-Republican-Party
"Trump wants Congress to cut funding for a children's health program, and for years he and the Republicans have been trying to take health care from tens of millions of people. Trump's proposed budget slashes Medicaid spending, while the Centers for Disease Control under his administration is gutting spending on global disease prevention. Trump also wants to cut Food Stamps, because making American great again apparently means making more Americans hungry. And because educated Americans vote more Democratic and against Trump, he naturally wants to follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan and cut spending on education, while making it harder for people who need student loans. For his part, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's sole purpose in politics seems to be to cut Medicare and Social Security, and he's openly admits he’s been dreaming of cutting Medicaid since he was in college. Trump's cruel policies of racism, xenophobia, and exclusion are so consistent and comprehensive one would need to a daily tally to keep up. And House and Senate Republicans support all of it. Whether it’s punishing immigrants to the point of tearing their families apart, or cynically and hypocritically claiming to wage war to protect the same people Trump banned from entering the country as refugees, or rolling back all manner of civil rights protections in a blatant attempt to hurt the same minorities who have suffered historic bigotry and discrimination, Trump and the Republicans attempt to validate their sorry existences by imposing cruel policies that structurally and institutionally Other, not just dividing this nation along demographic lines but shredding it. This is who the Republicans are. This is what they do. Their agenda and values are not about helping people, or making the United States stronger from within. Their policies are designed to hurt people. Women and minorities first, but everyone else in due time."