Voters, Tell Democrats in Congress: Don’t Negotiate with Terrorists.
Voters, tell Democrats in Congress: Don’t negotiate with terrorists. It would only encourage them to repeat the behavior.
The refusal of Republicans in Congress to increase the debt limit to honor commitments already made is economic terrorism that holds the future of America’s working people hostage to selfish demands for budget cuts to enable tax relief for the wealthy.
Republicans and their corporate supporters want to cut back the Medicare and Social Security income that most of us count on in retirement. They want to take away the hard-earned right to free, equitable public education for all our nation’s children. These economic terrorists don't care that we’ve already paid for it through taxes and payroll deductions. Long accepted and vastly popular legislation to ensure supports for working people are irrelevant to Republicans. Make no mistake: They've long opposed it all. Now, for a Republican-controlled House of Representatives in the thrall of free-market absolutists, religious zealots, and racists, it's, “Carpe Diem!”.
Current Republicans (the Party Personal Responsibility?) are so deeply committed to even more enrichment for the already wealthy that they are willing to renege on debt commitments to pay for things already promised. That strategy is blatantly irresponsible and, most likely, unconstitutional.
For decades, a conservative movement has employed the intentional subterfuge of individual choice in place of social responsibility and purported government ineffectiveness to reach into our wallets: All to transfer our tax dollars away from any government-supported programs that support everyone. Since the Reagan administration, they have been trying to defund government operations to ensure dysfunctionality and then blame the government for inefficiency. They hope to monetize every government service. Inevitably, we pay more. They profit.
Republicans and their corporate supporters want us all to be on our own with no protection, all the better to make us vulnerable to for-profit fleecing. All the better to get us to fight with one another for available scraps. All the better to reduce taxes on the wealthy to increase their already bloated pocketbooks. All the better to remove regulations on corporations, no matter the climate disruptions, or undermined the safety of our air, water, soil, food, or medicines–all to increase profits.
Anti-elite and wokeness rhetoric notwithstanding, the conservative mission is crystal clear: Shift the tax burden away from those with cash aplenty to those of us who struggle to stay housed, clothed, and fed.
That was behind the failed Bush-era effort to privatize Social Security. It was the goal of creating a privately managed alternative to Medicare, euphemistically named Medicare Advantage. That program abandons government-operated Medicare to for-profit insurance companies, whose goal is to maximize profit by restricting and denying coverage in the name of efficiency. Such is the driver behind the four-decade effort to undermine democratically governed public schools to fund privately controlled charter schools and vouchers for private schools. It was also what prompted the withdrawal of government investment in affordable housing after the post-WWII period. In each case, regulation, transparency, and public scrutiny were constrained, if not eliminated. In each case, the limited public oversight that accompanies private enterprise exacerbated inequity. Yet, they are not done. Republicans want more wealth disparity and will stop at nothing–our well-being and democracy be damned.
The party that accuses and excoriates Democrats on the phony charge of wanting to defund police protection while Republicans block bans on assault weapons, wants to defund the economic, health, and education protections that we all depend upon, taking us all hostage to enable their selfishness.
The tax cuts and anti-regulation for the wealthy mob–for all practical purposes a criminal enterprise– has an army of lobbyists with unnumbered bulging satchels of cash who are organized to bribe both Republican and Democratic elected local, state, and federal legislators to do their bidding. In such circumstances, bipartisan negotiation is not possible. The only compromises current Republicans abide are at the barrel of their economic fear-mongering gun. That is terrorism.
In opposition, we need a well-organized interracial army of working people willing to speak out at every opportunity, demonstrate, march, strike, disrupt, and vote to keep and enhance our ability–with government support–to a decent, secure life for all with no exceptions.
Arthur has taught and led science education projects in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Kentucky. He writes about education and social justice. He works part-time with curriculum developers at UC Berkeley as an assessment specialist.