While it's still early and we won't know the full extent of what Trump's policies look like in practice, the early signs are not good. There are some indications that Trump, combined with the Tea Party inspired congress, will enact just about the most right wing policies we've seen in a long long time. A few highlights:
1) Republicans are already floating a bill that will enact MASSIVE cuts to social security, raising the retirement age from 67 to 69, and decreasing benefits for everyone except for the lowest earners.
2) Trump picked a fast food CEO for labor secretary, who will likely declare war on labor rights, and who is hostile to many pro worker policies the left like the minimum wage, mandated healthcare for workers, and expanding overtime pay. It looks to me like Trump will likely "make America great again" not just by lowering companies' taxes like in the Carrier deal, but will also slash worker benefits to give the so called "job creators" more money.
3) He picked an Exxon Mobil CEO as secretary of state, completely eliminating the pretense that our foreign policy is about anything other than oil.
4) He picked Ben Carson as the head of housing and urban development. You know, the guy who thought the pyramids were actually grain silos.
And this isn't even going into what's happening to abortion on the state level yet. Honestly, I think the working class voters who supported Trump are going to be in for a rude awakening when Trump starts doing crap hostile to their interests. I expect a honeymoon period that will last about 6 months to a year before people become horrified at what's happening. That's about how long it took me before I gave up on the tea party in 2010. And I expect what will happen over the next year to be at least as bad as that.
Seriously, you guys got hosed if you thought Trump would save us. The dude was a charlatan from day 1. He was a trojan horse to get the republicans elected. And the modern republican party is horrifying. I mean, for all the crap I give the democrats for their problems, the republicans are the face of pure evil in this country. And I think people are going to realize just how insane they are. The modern republican party is more extreme than the party under Bush, or under the other Bush, or under Reagan. These guys want the working class under their boots. They want the people living in a fundamentalist theocracy. They're NUTS, absolutely NUTS.
I just hope that what happens becomes seared into our collective consciousness forever as an example of what we should never ever do again. Hoover, Carter, Bush Jr., Trump. Heck, Carter and Bush Jr. are probably gonna look good after Trump gets done with us.
For all the time of draining the swamp, he's sure picking a lot of CEOs with special interests to run his cabinet. A lot of rich people who don't give a crap about the little guy. A lot of people with vested interests in what they will be governing. Hearing him read off his cabinet picks is like Lex Luthor assembling his legion of doom. It's almost comical how bad and how scary this administration is shaping up to me.
My only solace in all of this is that I hope that this is the end of the republican party as it exists. Under Obama, the GOP was only enabled, and festered for 8 years from what they were under Bush to this radical monstrosity. If Clinton won, this trend would only continue, and we might be facing someone worse in 2020 or 2024. Our whole political paradigm is a freaking failure. Between radical republicans and lukewarm democrats. I sure as heck hope this leads to a party realignment more favorable to the people. If not, we're only going to descend further and further into a corporate oligarchy, where the people don't matter and the rich control everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment