GOPs political theater
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Time to lock up your pets. The dog whistle season is here again. The annual Lincoln Dinner is tonight.
I have attended both Democratic and Republican events. The most noticeable difference between the two parties these days is the preponderance of dog whistles from the Republican podium.
One speaker after another competes for applause by asking which minority they can disenfranchise, which minority they can vilify, and how they can take false umbrage and create fear to wind up the audience.
Old Abe is spinning in his grave at how his good name has been misappropriated. Since January, states dominated by Republicans, including Indiana, have introduced over 150 bills to restrict voting rights. Old Abe fought for enfranchising the voting population, not for making it harder for legal voters to vote. And certainly not for expelling legitimately elected representatives for the trumped-up charge of misbehavin.
The current version of Abes party has abandoned any pretense of governing in favor of theatricality. Distraction, gaslighting and the ever-dependable dog whistle fill the time, adumbrate the issues and rile the crowds. Good theater. Irresponsible politics.
Look for reports on actual policies that are not merely cultural and identity politics masquerading as policy. What recommendations will actually improve your finances, protect the quality of your air and water, lower your drug costs, invest in your neighborhood infrastructure, increase your safety, or respect your right to vote?
Or are your emotional buttons being pushed in the interest of the big money that already controls the lions share of the national economy?
As of last year, the top 10% own over two-thirds of the nations wealth. The bottom 50% own 2.5%. That huge discrepancy is geared to increase over time.
And the Trump Tax Relief Act, which concentrated more wealth by reducing the tax rate on the upper class, is slated to add $2 trillion to the national debt over 10 years.
According to the International Monetary Fund, when the income share of a nations top 20% increases, the economy declines. When the income share of the bottom 20% increases, the economy grows.
Institutionalized wealth imbalance has never worked out well for nations over the long term. Eventually, greed becomes so egregious that quality of life (U.S. is the 17th in the world), life span (U.S. is the lowest of any high-GDP country), education (U.S. has the highest cost of college in the world), public safety and voting rights suffer, along with a decline in the general economy.
But do pay attention to the dog whistles meant to distract you from the real issues of governance.
They will whistle about reducing Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Impact: burden the lower and middle classes and create more wealth concentration at the top.
They will whistle about tax rates for high earners. Impact: burden the lower and middle classes and further concentrate wealth at the top.
They will whistle about vouchers for private schools. Impact: burden the lower and middle classes and further concentrate wealth at the top.
They will whistle about abortion, criminalizing medically approved health care procedures, banning books, defunding libraries and gagging librarians, arresting teachers and medical practitioners, and further marginalizing minorities by implementing onerous voting regulations.
They will whistle the loudest about guns. So while were at it, lets call a shovel a shovel. The National Rifle Association is a trade group whose goal is to protect and increase the profits of gun manufacturers. More profits mean more money to lobby Congress, which means less regulation, which means more profits, which means I think you get the idea.
Since 2000, the NRA has spent over $150 million to influence the political process. (Sen. Todd Young, $2.6 million; Sen. Mike Braun, $1.3 million.)
Never mind that a consistent majority of voters (70%) is in favor of enacting common-sense gun laws including background checks, a federal database, firearm safety courses, licensing requirements analogous to how we regulate the operation of a motor vehicle.
But it was never about common sense. It is about power and control in order to maximize the profits of gun manufacturers. If it was about democracy, a national referendum would have settled this business long ago, and we would not be suffering more mass shootings than there are days in the calendar, and the No. 1 cause of death for our children would not be guns. (There have been 377 school shootings since Columbine. Common denominator: Guns.) How many guns is enough? How many deaths are too many?
According to the Hidden Tribes of America study, 77% of Americans believe our differences are not so great that we cannot move forward. But that requires the party of Lincoln to cut the rhetoric and work on real, rather than manufactured, issues. All year long. In public. Across the aisle. Give and take. For the common good. Not merely for the big money that buys votes in Congress to further consolidate its hold on policy that further entrenches its hold on wealth.
Wouldnt it be nice if instead of the distracting shrillness of dog whistles that tonight we heard a more harmonious refrain championing the common good?
Mark Rudolph is a Fort Wayne resident.
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Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 4:15 am